Has anyone bought from "Plant World Seeds"?

Though expensive and overseas, I'm tempted to order from "Plant World Seeds", as they have seeds I can't find elsewhere. I'm just wondering if they give a reasonable quantity, as seeds per pack aren't listed. There are 4 positive reviews in garden watchdog (no negatives), but no one mentions quantity of seed. Does anyone have experience with them?

This message was edited Aug 21, 2011 7:36 PM

Where did you find their reviews in Garden Watchdog? Can you post a link, please? Thanks!

Ooops, I'm so embarassed. It's called "Plant World Seeds", not seeds of the world. I don't know where my mind went when I wrote that. I don't guess I can change the heading on my post. Here's the link to their Garden Watchdog reviews:

http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/c/7027/

You can't change it, but if you dmail admin. (link at bottom of page), they will change it for you.

Edited to add: I see it's not in the USA, so I can't order from them.

This message was edited Aug 21, 2011 7:31 PM

Sharon

I have ordered from them. They are a wonderful company. It has been several years, but each spring, they still send me their catalog.

Carolyn

They have some different stuff. Have to give them a try! Thanks for sharing them!

Thanks, Kay, for the suggestion, and Carolyn, for your input. So I guess they sent what you considered to be a reasonable amount of seeds?

A couple of other things that gave me pause: On several seeds, the photo didn't match the description. The flower color was completely different in the description from the photo. Also, germination instructions were vague and several seeds that I thought needed cold treatment were listed as germinate warm, which made me wonder about them.

I have used them a few times. The number of seeds is adequate, but I would not characterize it as generous.

The biggest issue that I had was that I wondered if some of the seeds would not be hardy in my zone. I know the UK is quite a bit warmer than I am.

Thanks, pdfrog.

Carolyn, the lack of zones listed or temperature hardiness is another problem with their website. I found myself doing several searches of plants for more info and generally found that the plants I wasn't familiar with that were listed as hardy perennial were not hardy in my zone.

Most of the UK is in hardiness zone 8, some parts even 9. Only a very small part is in zone 7, so if they say a plant is hardy, it means it's hardy to zone 8.

Jonna

Thanks for the info, Jonna. Makes me want to move there.

I sent an email last night to Ray Brown at Plant World Seeds, inquiring about seeds per pack and making suggestions for other info it would be nice to see included on the website. I couldn't believe it that I had a reply already when I checked my email in the morning. I believe that he actually appreciated my suggestions, and he gave me approximations for the seeds I inquired about, though said they could be off, because they use little spoons to measure out seeds to fill the packs, not counts. His estimates went from approx 10 of geranium "pink lace" to 50 or 100 of several others, though said it could possibly be a lot more on some of them. Anyway, I'm going to go ahead and order some seeds from them and hope that anyone looking for unusual seeds will check them out.

http://www.plant-world-seeds.com/

Yes, I have bought seeds from this company. Generally, I have been pleased with the seeds, but this past spring I grew some seeds from them that were obviously not right, which I noticed when they began growing. I wrote them about this and they admitted that there was probably a lot of cross-germination going on in their garden and the seeds were not true. They promised that the next batch would be, but what good did that do me? They did not apologize or offer a replacement. I haven't bought seeds from them since, and I probably will not. Since I have a small nursery and was growing this to sell, I had to remove the plant from my web site. The seeds are inexpensive and shipment is free, but since it is a company in England, there is a bank charge for converting money. I didn't realize this until I looked at my bank statement closer. It's something to keep in mind.

Thanks for the info, Emma. I'm surprised that they didn't offer to replace them or send you a refund. I'm at least glad that you were generally pleased with their seeds. Do you mind if I ask what kind of seeds didn't come true?

I've already gone ahead and placed an order, after finding 2 other DGers to join me in the same order, so we could get 3 packs of each seed type for the price of 2. I'll try to remember to report on germination results later, but it will probably be spring before I know.

I apologize for not answering your question. This is the first time I've seen it, and it's so late now, the answer won't do you any good, but here it is anyway. The seeds were alcea ficifolia. When they were growing, I noticed that the leaves looked nothing like fig leaves and more like regular hollyhocks, and that's what prompted me to write to them. They said that the new crop would be more true, but it was too late by then. They do give you a free pack of seeds when you buy two of the same variety, which seems generous, but if you put the three packs together, you're getting about what you would get from another company in one pack. All that being said, I still buy from them but only when I can't find what I want anywhere else. One other thing that really bugs me is that the growing directions are the same for all the seeds, which just isn't the way it is, so I end up having to look up germination directions before sowing.

Thanks for the info, Emma. I agree entirely on the growing directions. You really do have to look elsewhere for germinating instructions, which is okay if you know that, but not so good for people who follow the instructions given. You'd think they'd want to put proper instructions to avoid complaints. Anyway, if I don't know how to germinate something, I usually try to find at least 2 or 3 sets of instructions, as they often vary from place to place.

Placed an order a few months ago that got confiscated ,replacement came a few days ago.That they will talk with you through e-mail I found to be a really good thing. Haven't tried growing the seeds yet,will shortly.

That's a drag, Juhur. I haven't heard of commercial seeds being confiscated before, but glad they replaced them.

Why is only this thread show a different font? Is anyone else experiencing this?

Yes and I've always wondered why it happens!

Inquiring minds want to know!!! Anyone brave enough to ask admin???

Baker Creek also has variable numbers of seeds per pkt. Each pkt advertises "at least X seeds", and they always do have at least "X" seeds.

But sometimes they give 5, 10 or 20 times as much as promised. Sometimes just a few extra. This is based on one order where I got around 5 pkts: three very generous, one a little over, and one pkt that promised 10 and gave 12 - that pkt was 30 cents per seed.

Perenniallyme, are you, by chance, using a MAC computer? That would be my guess on why the font is different.

It's the same very tiny font for me and this is an HP computer.

Yeah, me too...HP, that is... and very different font, but only on this thread...???

Standard PC, Internet explorer, pure vanilla - but small Courer font for me, too!

Even the font at the bottom of the page (Home - About - Advertise, etc.) is italicized and small.

What I mean is, the font may be dictated by what system starts the thread, not by who views it after. Just a guess...

MAY....BEEE it was a MAC! ^_^

No MAC here. I have a Dell PC.

Evelyn, yes I did order, but split the packs with 2 other DGers, and had I known the small quantity, maybe would have just split it with one other person,but I have very little room in my garden and like to try lots of different seeds, so I really don't need many of each.
I'll find my list of what I ordered and report on what's germinated so far. I know that some are warm germinators.

OK, here's what I bought:

Angelica “Ebony” (started warm, then wintersown)
Geranium albanum “Pink Lace” - only 1 sprout, a week or 2 ago.
Corydalis taliensis - no sprouts so far
Gentiana “Pink Cascade” - started warm, then wintersown)
Heuchera “Emperor’s Cloak” - good germination
Oenothera “Blood Orange” - good germination
Linaria aruginia “Neon Lights” (perennial snapdragon mixed colors)- good germination
Primula (drumstick) best blend - good germination

Only 1 of the Raspberry Ripple and Linaria have sprouted - I planted 10 of each .. nothing else so far from them. The Corydalis is still in the fridge.

Xeramtheum, when did you plant them? And what's raspberry ripple?
The linaria, heuchera, oenothera and primula are all teeny seeds, so I surface sowed them. I also had most on heat mat under lights, so if you didn't do the same, yours might take longer. I think I'm going to put my 6 packs of the corydalis taliensis in the fridge for at least a few weeks and see if that helps. It seems they weren't supposed to need cold stratification, but who knows? I do hope your germination improves, and please keep me posted.

I grew pink dandelions from them and they were very hardy, i'm going to order from them again!

Pink dandelions, wow! I think that I will have to read the online catalog line by line. Sounds like they have some interesting plants there, and to grow by seed, how exciting!

Pink dandelions sound really cool but didn't the yellow ones come here from Europe? Do we really need another plague? They are really tempting though!

I haven't had the chance to go through it all yet as I have been busy. So far, I have found some very beautiful anemones.

Another catalog I like is Chilterns Seeds. http://www.chilternseeds.co.uk