Comments regarding Amishland Heirloom Seeds

Ordered several seeds from Amishland of Feb 18. A week goes by and no seeds had arrived considering that I only leave 5 hours away, I decided to sent an email to get some info on the seeds if they were shipped or not, but got no response back from the seller. After few days I decided to sent another email and again no response. Waited 2 weeks and no seeds. Decided to open a claim on Paypal and sure enough the seller responded within an hour stating that the shipment has been lost!!! What a bad experience, I needed to open a claim, for her to respond back.

Same time I had ordered seeds from Tomatofest, Marinas Heirloom Seeds and Urban Farmer and I receved the seeds in less then a week.

Shipment delayed. Did receive notice. Finally arrived about 3 weeks later. Neutral since I was noticified of the deplay. Note when she saids 5 or 10 seeds that is exactly what you get. Started germination. Germination rate is poor so far. About 20% so 1 out of 5 seeds are germinating. I compare these to the other OP heirlooms from other companies i am germinating and they are doing much better 75% -100% gr To be fair I have not contacted her on the germination yet since I want to see what all the different ones do I am giving a negative because of germination rates I am seeing.

I was part way through an order when I had a few questions and emailed Lisa at Amishland Heirloom Seeds, because the answers were not on her site. I almost instantly received a defensive, unprofessional and rude email back. She states she has no time for questions and went on to state how she is alone etc. etc. etc. and that she is currently 2 weeks behind in filling orders and then the medical problems of her family and back to saying she has no time for me. I have stopped my partial order, I am sure there are countless other companies willing to answer questions, act professionally and not be so rude and defensive. I mistakenly thought I would like to order from a single woman home-growing her own plants and seed collectings for sale.. Turns out she didn't even grow these seeds. A friend by the name of Cliff did. It sounds like HE collected the seeds as well on his property.Yet she is still behind in filling orders. I did suggest she hires a kid to help. It would be better than losing her customers old and new. I will NEVER order seeds from this place. Lisa is unappreciative of orders and customers. Rudeness rules her day. She does not grow her own plants nor collects her own seeds!

Eileen

"On Jan 15, 2010 9:28 PM, Amishland Heirloom Seeds responded with:

Amishland Heirloom Seeds prides itself in personal and polite service. I am a small seed company catering to the home gardener with small amounts of carefully sourced and grown seeds, primarily vegetables . I am not a huge megalithic company with computer generated shipping and emails. I answer each and every email I receive through my website. Most of the emails are just quick gardening questions. Sometimes a person is looking for some old time seed variety that they may remember from their past. I always answer these questions and if I don't have the seed someone is searching for I even send to them other reputable seed companies which might stock them . Eileen sent me 4 emails which arrived minutes apart. She asked appoximately 5 or more detailed questions in each of those 4 emails. Since most of her questions could be answered by reading my detailed growing tips , my seed descriptions or reading the gardening books I highly suggest, I answered her with this email which I quote word for word below. I certainly did not mean to sound unhelpful.
---------------
" hi,
I'm sorry, but this is the very busiest time of the year for me as I have
just updated my website to reflect my new selections from this year's
growing . I suggest you read my website desciptions carefully as I just
plain don't have the time at this time of year to make individual
recommendations or to answer gardening questions at this time. So I hope
you will understand my time contraints.I write everything I know about
every single thing I sell, so hopefully that will help in your
selections.I have very detailed growing instructions on the website as
well,please look at the seed growing link.

Also, My sister who had just survived a brave year with
breast cancer has brain cancer in 90% of her brain. As her days left are
few I am dealing with this . I have nearly finished updating my website
with the new items I grew out thisseason .
I am also trying to keep up with my packing and mailing for my seed
business.
I am selling all year round and I ship in the order it is received. I am
currently about 2 weeks behind in shipping due to my family issues.

happy gardening,
lisa
http://www.amishlandseeds.com "
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I would also like to correct the misapprehension she seems to have about how I grow, save and offer my seeds. I am currently offering for sale on my website 203 varieties in total . I have 124 kinds of tomatoes, 7 kinds of eggplants, 16 peppers, 15 assorted other rare vegetables not in these catagories and 7 flowers. Every single seed of these varieties in this list are collected by me. They are all from my own organically raised plants grown from my own original seed, in my own gardens. This past summer was the worst weather wise in all my years of gardening. The entire Northeast United States was hit by Late Blight, a devasting fungal disease, among other weather related diseases. I was able to control it totally for all my peppers and tomatoes but the melons and cucumbers (cucurbits) were hit hard and I lost those plants or did not have fruit of the quality I needed for good seed saving purposes. My friend, Cliff in Idaho offered me his seeds of those same plants I had grown to make up for my devastating lost. I clearly state on the website that the seeds being offered for those are his.

The difficult season also affected my bean growing as the pods never dried on the vine for proper seed saving. So again , this season, Cliff came to my rescue, on many of the beans I normally am able to grow by myself . So this year 13 of the 28 beans I am offering were grown by Cliff. So out of my entire inventory for 2010, of 203 varieties, I grew out totally by myself 186 varieties , with 17 grown by Cliff. I hope this clears up the confusion regarding my seed saving work.

Like nearly all the seed sellers this past year and going into 2010, I am swamped with orders from people wanting to grow their own food. This is partially due to the economy and food safety issues among many reasons. I sold 5 times the quantity of seeds in 2009 as in the previous year and this season appears to be increasing even more. Most seed houses were unprepared for these huge increases. I had planted extra to be ready for the surge but Mother Nature wasn't so helpful. I have just recently hired a very capable and caring employee to expedite orders and I believe that this will enable my seed business to keep up in a timely manner for this season.
I am delighted with the amazingly strong customer response to my offerings, but my business has grown so fast
that I must graciously accept some of Eileen's concerns. So my apologies for appearing to her as less than helpful.

I am in a process of adapting my customer service to reflect that sharply increasing demand. I want to continue to help all my valued seed customers to grow their very best garden ever, with Amishland Heirloom Seed's rare, organically grown offerings. Happy Gardening, Lisa
"

Shipping from this company is unfortunately slow. This is the second time I have placed an order with her only to receive an email telling me she is so far behind on orders and won't be able to ship for three weeks. I don't remember if it was three weeks last year or not, but it was some number of weeks. In addition to saying shipping will be delayed she follows it with a defensive anticipatory response saying that this is normal for the seed industry. It isn't. I have ordered seeds for many years and most seed companies have my order to me within the week or by the next week at the latest. i have never done business with anyone who takes three weeks to ship. I ordered something from china recently that came quicker than that. She says that she has so many orders that she is overwhelmed. I can appreciate that. Hire a kid to help you pack orders. Don't make your customers suffer for your good business. We are the reason you have that business.

I am neither an amateur, nor a first time gardener. I am a professional market gardener, who saves most of his seed. I live in Lancaster County, where this seed company is based, and I assume this companies seed is grown. Anyway, the germination sucked, period. Plus, she wouldnt let me come pick my seeds up, and I live not 10 miles from this person. Not very neighborly by Lancaster County standards. I mainly ordered from her because I was trying to buy local, and get some stock seed. I never contacted her because, I was too busy tending to my one measly Amazonian Chocolate that I did successfully nurse some fruits out of for seed. Tell Martha I said whats up lady.
Peace to the gods.................

I ordered from this company for the 2006 season and I was very disappointed. The service was fine: prompt and professional, with a very nice website. The product was less than stellar. I ordered multiple varieties of tomatoes, and had a very poor germination rate. (The company offers an elaborate set of germination instructions, including overnight soaking and what not, but I did what I always do with all other tomato seeds and got poor results...when I've always had good results from other seed suppliers, including heirloom tomatoes which is mostly what I grow). What's more, the variety I was most interested in ("Togo Trifle") did not turn out as pictured or described. I've described my results on Plant Files elsewhere on this website, and am still not sure if it was the cultivar or the company at fault.

To be fair, I made no effort to contact the company or seek a refund. Basically I am a backyard grower who orders very small quantities of seed each year. Even if I'd gotten my two dollars (or whatever) back for each packet of non germinating or poorly maturing seed the season was lost by that point. You can't put Humpty Dumpty back together again. I adopted a live and learn philosophy, and simply ordered from other suppliers this year and have been quite happy thus far. Perhaps my experience with Amishland was an exception, but I'll simply offer the warning: let the buyer beware.

Very poor germination rates. When presented with this information this person was defensive and un-professional. Poor customer service. Uses the term "organic" very loosley. Is not certified organic so how do we really know what her growing methods are? She should not be advertising that she is organic per USDA regulations. There are many other seed sources out there with great reviews. Stick with them.

Not a bad company... you will get what you ordered but pretty pricey for what you get not a ton of seeds and I got alot of chaff.... stuff was also packed adequately but not the most perfect I've seen..... On the other hand their selection is good and my order arrived very promptly.... so its safe to order from here but not my favorite company or list of top few.... favorites.....

"

What a shame this person did not contact me when she first suspected she was having problems, rather than leaving unpleasant, anonymous comments here. If she had contacted me I could have helped with the common problems that many new or inexperienced gardeners have when first planting. I send a link for my detailed seed starting instructions on my website to each and every customer and ask them to read them and ask any questions they might have. I give my own special tried and true tips, such as my own presprouting instructions for many seeds that saves precious days and weeks of growing time. I answer every single customer email and freely answer all questions that I receive.I clearly state the quantity of hand grown, hand packed, and hand selected seeds you will receive next to each and every seed description and always give a few extra seeds in each pack as well.

I have found that many new gardeners make the common mistakes of overwatering seeds, planting too deeply and not providing proper heat for the seed's germination needs. They often don't provide adequate lighting ( putting flats by a window is not enough, for instance). Or they don't use sterile soiless mixture as I suggest. Following my simple instructions will do a world of good for your germination.

I have been selling my own home grown, rare heirloom organic seeds from all of my own plants for about 5 years. I started first on ebay and also have been selling seeds for the past 2+ years on my new website. I have over 3,500 positive feedbacks given through the ebay system. Many of my customers come back year after year to puchase all their rare garden seeds from me . I have satisfied customers the world over. For example, one Finnish customer told me of all the seed companies she had bought from in England, Europe and the USA, mine are the best. This is her 3rd year puchasing $100+ in seeds for her yearly vegetable garden. I give specialized instructions for my customers according to their climate as well.

Please take into consideration all of the factors I have mentioned when considering the validity of comments left here. I am a small , one woman operation with no mechanical help and I try my best for all my customers to have the garden of their dreams.

Dear readers of Dave's Garden Web and Garden Watchdog: May I reiterate that the comments of this one customer certainly do not fully reflect the quality of my home grown, heirloom, organic seeds? Had this person contacted me in a timely manner, when she first suspected her growing problem, I would have replaced her seeds. I stand by my seeds and Amishland Heirloom Seed Company.

I am a small one person, one owner company. My company name, my real full name, address and phone number are clearly available on my website. Dave's Garden Web provides a link to my website as well as a link to email me at the top of this very page.

Regarding my "professionalism": One of my very first Amishland Heirloom Seed website customers was Martha Stewart, who purchased over $ 50.00 of my seeds, and was so pleased that she contacted me personally about appearing on her TV show. Unfortunately, her legal troubles came soon thereafter and the show appearance was postposted . Martha Stewart is also happily and sucessfully growing vegetable plants this season in her Bedford NY home garden from the rare colored vegetable seeds that she received from me this year.

Another recent customer is the manager of the production company planning a new 13 part PBS TV series to begin early next year called "Cultivating Life". She did not inform me of that when she ordered my seeds. She was so pleased with her rare seed selections from me and with my website, that she asked me if I might consider being featured on the Vegetable segment of their new PBS TV show, which is scheduled to air in another year.

I give free walking tours and lectures on historic gardening associated with two Pennsylvania German/Dutch Farming museums in my area. I have donated my own seeds ( amounting to over 15% of my annual profit) yearly to various museums,
schools and botanical gardens, with reports of great success from the recipients.

I am one of the last of a dying breed, a woman owned, one owner ( and also only employee) seed company battling it out with the "big boys" in the seed business world. I grow out each and every one of my own plants for my own seed stock. I never buy other company's seeds to sell as my own. This is a labor intensive business with little monetary profit. It is truly "a labor of love". In my own small way I help the dedicated home gardener find the old fashioned, open
pollinated seeds that are fast being dropped by the big commercial operations as being "unprofitable", ( therefore they stop selling them). I search the world over to find unusual and rare garden seeds for my customers, many of which have never been available to American gardeners before. Now, several years later, I grow out and offer garden seeds to my customers from 5 continents.

I work with a variety of dedicated seed savers worldwide, who are concentrating on keeping their own family's or country's heirlooms from being lost forever. I originally starting my little seed business by swapping seeds with my local Amish and Mennonite neighbors, and inquiring about their family's heirloom vegetable seeds before they are lost forever. Sadly, even these traditional conservative Old Order Amish and Mennonites (people who still farm with
horses/mules and drive buggies) are purchasing and growing hybrids and GM, (genetically modified) seeds. Heirloom seed saving is fast becoming a lost art even here in Lancaster County ,PA where I live.

I document as much history as I am able with each seed I acquire. I then grow these seeds out in my garden. It can take years to grow out enough plants to make seeds available to sell to my customers. I even grow out biennials like carrots, which few small seed growers even attempt to do anymore.

Please take into consideration that I also do germination tests on all of my varieties of seeds before I even consider selling them. Those with low germination, (and this can sometimes happen due to a poor growing season and bad weather) I will not sell to my customers. I grow all my seed stock plants organically. I srictly apply the specialized growing methods and time consuming, sometimes complicated seed saving instructions advised in the
"bible" of seed saving: " Seed to Seed" by Suzanne Ashworth.

For even better germination, I highly recommend my practice of presprouting nearly all seeds, (as detailed in my "garden tips" link on my website). This works splendidly even for stubborn germinators like carrots. I got 99-100% germination on my newly acquired foreign seed stock of rare colored carrot seeds this growing season, for example,even though some of these rare seeds were,by neccessity, years old

To all of Dave's Garden Web readers,I urge you to please visit my website and feel free to contact me with any concerns or questions or just to "talk gardening". I happily answer every single email, and phone query."