Comments regarding Stokes Seeds

Posted on February 13, 2012, updated November 16, 2014
Last year there was a discrepancy between the printed catalogue and the package about whether or not a Kong sunflower would produce seeds. At the end of the season the plants and flowers were magnificent but I didn't see any seed in the flower heads so complained to Stokes. Then when taking down the plants, there the seeds were under a sort of covering that had to be brushed off. I phoned Stokes to apologize and they told me they had already sent me a package of other sunflowers to try .(The package arrived the next day!)

The seeds I have got from them have always sprouted and grown with vigor, their customer service is superb in my experience, and they do NOT carry any GMO seed. Vilmorin announced that this year they will start to deal in GMO seeds and many smaller outfits may well get some of their seed there. You need to check if you want organic seed though, most of Stokes' stuff is geared to commercial growers, i.e grown with chemicals, although they do also carry organic seed. I definitely recommend checking them out.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw on their website that shipping and handling of $6.95 is charged on any orders under $200. This is ridiculous. That was the end of any plans I had for placing a seed order.

Stokes cares very little about the needs of organic growers. They carry NO organic seeds and are careless about indicating whether seeds have been treated with fungicide or not. We usually have to return a portion of our order when it turns out to be treated. In discussions with their representatives over the years they appear to feel their market is conventional growers and have little attention for organic growers. If you want to grow organic vegetables, I'd recommend Fedco or Johnnys Seeds. Harris and Seedway also do a much better job than Stokes.

After over 2 hours of time spent attempting to place an order on Stokes website, I was given a message that the site was busy and lost several pages of information that I had posted on their Quick Order option.

If you are placing a large order, I can tell you that the Quick Order option is far from quick, and possibly doomed. Moving back and forth in the site was excrutiatingly slow. This site was not user friendly for me at all, and ultimately I lost two hours of time without any results whatsoever.

For small nursery owners, Stokes offers many options. Colors and types are separated and information on germination and planting dates are offered. This seemed like my one stop shopping site, and now I am very disappointed. I'll try again by phone, but I can't invest any more time on the online store.

Seeds ordered in January not received until late April - NOT ACCEPTABLE!

I find Stokes frustrating to do business with. Their sales people do not know much about their varieties and will not volunteer to find out from somebody in-house who might. I recently tried to back-order some seed and was told that my credit card would be charged right away rather than in over a month when the seed is expected to come in. Unless you have an established commercial account with them they have no other back-order mechanism. Stokes often doesn't ship until the following week [rather than daily…]