I just picked up a bunch of the very same seeds from the grocery store-5/$1. As you've said, nothing exciting, but good basics. I've had good results with them-they're a good way to try something to fill in a spot. I used a lot of "cheap seeds" when I started winter sowing & wasn't sure what to expect. They aren't large quantities, but 10-20 cents? I think it's good value for small gardens, but don't overlook seed trades-the people here are awesome!

I've used them and loved them. Now I'm having a hard time finding them! Used to be at Walgreens and Wal Mart but no more!
-B

Dollar store seeds are awesome! Good tried and true varieites, no hybids, just succesful plants that have been grown in gardens for generations and generations. They're what your parents and gransparents grew ;-)

Yes they are great. I got a lot of the cheap ones at walgreens on clearance. I got alyssum, african daisy and even baby's breath. ALl of those are common but I like them.

They work for me. Also CHeapseeds.com has a good deal and lots of seeds if you are looking for some nice flowers but noting too fancy. I bought creeping thyme there...

Karen

Oh the DOLLAR STORE!!!
-smacking myself on the forehead several times
-B

lol, OK, So as soon as the roads are safe, I should go buy a bunch, huh?

Brandymulvaine - Try dollar type stores? I have seen them at Dollar Tree and Dollar General (not a $1 store, more like a five and dime). Walgreens is a good thought, too. . .

Trudi - that's what I was thinking. Good, honest flowers. It's nice to work hard on some fancy stuff, but everything can't be fussy.

Karendee - ooh - creeping thyme? I have a short path I am laying this year, connecting the new deck to the driveway. . . Thanks!

So it doesn't seem like I was missing some big inside secret about quality - I'm glad!

Brandymulvaine - you posted while I was typing, lol.

Yep - Dollar Store. I don't know where you live, but with regards to the fact that you used to find them at WalGreens - sometimes I will stop at a few stores in a chain before I find what I need - different demographics, etc. I am pretty rural, and I do remember seeing these seeds at our Walgreens last year, now that you mention it. But where I used to live was pretty urban, and I NEVER found seeds at a drugstore.

Also, you can send me an email... I have way more seeds than I need and I am sharing. Send me your address :)

The creeping thyme is nice and if you order 5 packs or more you get a free pack of glorosia daisy seeds. cheapseeds.com is a nice site to get the garden full quick!

Send me your address if you want some seeds...

Karen

They grow great for me. Walgreens, RiteAid, Dollar Tree, Dollar General, Family Dollar, and Walmart all had them last year around here. I paid $.08, $.10, $.20, $.25, and $.33 depending on the store and sale at the time. No problems with germination, just a limited selection of tried and true mostly open pollinated varieities. So far this year I've only seen them at Walmart ( $.20), but the other stores tell me they are expecting them any day.

Sometimes I feel the packet alone is worth 10 cents just for the photo and cultural info, especially when trying for a bit of educational signage in a public garden. And sometimes I black out the price before running the packet through the lamination machine....just because so many people think cheap seeds are no good. Hmm, maybe I better stop with the black outs and show them otherwise :)

For basic flowers and veggies, they might be better. I always want something different, and for that I have to pay. But some aren't worth it and so few in a packet. Am watching more closely now. Splurge on a few and try to be more economical on the others and save my own.

I guess if you're going to squander money, seeds are better than other ways of doing it.

I was always intrigued with those heirloom seed places, especially that one seed savers place in think it is Decorah, Iowa that started out to preserve vanishing varieties, had to agree to grow so many and do what then? Can't remember.

Found their website, looks interesting.

I always go for the pretty pictures on the packets or catalogs; for some reason like mail ordering better than buying off racks.

Here is a link that might be useful: Seed Savers Exchange

Oh, Karendee. . . you don't know what you've done. That cheap seeds site looks nice, and I'm thinking that with the quantities of some of those packs, I could get myself everything I need, and have plenty left to share!

Thanks!

I just got some today. 5/$1. This was the entire line of flowers (that the store had, and it didn't appear that they had been picked over...oh, except for Morning Glory, because I get annoyed with vines, so I am taking a break from them).

Alyssum Rosie O'Day
Aster Crego Mixed Colors
Bachelor Button Blue Boy
Bachelor Button Cyanus Double
Calendula Pacific Beauty
California Poppy
Canterbury Bells
Coleus
Columbine Mckana's Mixed Colors
Cosmos Single Sensation Mixed
Forget Me Not Annual Firmament
Gysophila Covent Garden
Moonflower
Nasturtium
Portulaca Moss Rose
Salvia Bonfire
Snapdragon, Tall Deluxe
Sweet William
Zinnia, Giants of California
Zinnia, Dwarf Pumilia Sprite Mixed
Zinnia, Lilliput
Zinnia, Giant Cactus Mixed Colors

Wow! There are some things on that list that I didn't expect to see - coleus and salvia would be really cool!

Thanks for sharing that list - now if they would just plow more than one lane in the road that goes into town, I would feel much better about driving out there just for seeds!

Cheapseeds is my favorite, cheap and some seeds I need. I just love creeping thyme, alyssum, black eyed susans and many others they have.

Karen

Sometimes you get the best surprises from 'cheap' seeds. A few years ago I picked up some packets. One of them was a low growing Sweet Williams, suppose to be double blooms. What a nice plant! Here it is. You can see the different colours it came in.

{{gwi:255805}}

Wow! I gotta find the seed pack that comes with THAT butterfly.

;>

seriously,

The goofy dollar stores here do NOT CARRY A SINGLE SEED. NOT ONE!!!! I got some cheapies at the Walgreens clearance and I missed the WalMart clearance.

Seeds is seeds. . . so to speak.

They are all good. They don't go bad.

Oh yeah-the pretty pictures on the packets! I hated throwing them away, so I started stapling them together along with the pictures from the bulb packages & other colorful pictures. I formed strips the width between the studs of my shed & tacked them up on the upper part of the walls/roof, so now the inside is "wallpapered" with flowers & veggies! It's a little silly, but it's a cheerful place to putter in the grey times of year!

aliska,ahhhhhhhhhhh,sweet memories,I was mixing up a batch of pancakes this morning, and it looked like the old flour and water paste,yes, I used it also,ha ha made me think of all the times I had mixed it up, now you post this,to funny.

I have used the cheep seeds from wal mart,they did great for me,hummmmmmmmmm,maybe I need to go to Wal Mart today.

Carol, yes I'm blessed to have some happy memories mixed along with some not-so-good as is the lot of us all. Some of these things I'd long forgotten or seldom think about, but we had some paste you'd apply with a brush attached to the screw cap lid and this "mucilage" (can't remember the brand) that was clear and amber colored, came in a small container you turned upside upside down and slid over what you were pasting, never really liked that stuff. It had a rubber top and slanted tip with a slit cut in it. Sticky business.

Pancakes. Ha. I switched several years ago to the store brand add water kind, no buttermilk, some not as good as others, mix it to the consistency I like, really like it. Often add a little corn meal (keep it all in the freezer so it doesn't get buggy) to it and let it sit for 5 minutes, a shortcut to my mother's laborious cornmeal pancake recipe. Never learned the art of making waffles right tho.

Those were some good times. Now I use Elmer's glue if I can find it in the house, often have to poke at it to get it flowing again. I swear there is an art to pasting neatly; at least Elmer's dries clear if you get some overrun. Haven't tried a glue gun yet.

oops..there were sunflowers too. I didn't get them either. :)

I love $ store seeds! I need to run up and see if they have any out yet near here. I need to restock my rudbeckias!

GGG

I got cheap seeds at the "True Value" hardware store in

my local town. They were all good seeds., also got them

at Wallgreens last few years.

caroline

If I'm out and find marked-down seeds from the previous year, I love that. They usually germinate anyway if they're going to. Got some for 25 cents a few years ago, can't beat that.

I wonder if some of the seed companies sell their dated seeds to the cheapie places. I'm sure some are bought in bulk fresh and their own packaging used, but a few small sellers I suspect and ebay sellers may buy seeds on sale, in bulk, or dated, break them down into smaller packets and sell that way. Some states a germination test is required regularly.

It's a gamble no matter how you cut it. I did buy some seeds on ebay one year. The poor girl's then 14-year-old daughter was having a relapse of leukemia so I was very forgiving. But I remember just two from her. The large cherry zinnia (grew well but mildewed later, TALL things). The large tomatoes I was hoping for and had babied about 27 plants turned out to be cherry tomatoes, so I was disappointed. I had wanted some to can, bought a lot of new cages, and a lot went to waste because we got tired of eating them right off the plant, to snack on and good in salads.

If I'd been more thrifty, I could have cooked them up (good flavor), and run them through my Foley food mill and frozen, then used in any of the many things I put tomatoes in.

I have bought a few things from Redrock Nursery. Free shipping, and only $1.49/pack. Just the basics tho.Dont know about quality yet, as I am w/s these. But they ship really fast. No problems. I have ordered twice so far.
Tammy

Here is a link that might be useful: Redrock

alskia,seems to be just the two of us oldies here.Yes,I remember the rubber glue, had forgotten that one,do they still make it I wonder?
You young ones can learn here what we used to use for things.
Now, back to seeds.(Thanks for indulging aliska and me)
I bought about 10 packs of alyssum last year,10. a pack, can't beat that now can you.I will be looking again this year,for more.
cAROL

Paper Dolls! Thanks for that brain twinge! Our TV had broken down (mid 50's). Mom suggested I "stage" my paper dolls in the oven, with the light on, so I could see them through the glass oven door.
Dad came home for supper, and she led him through to the kitchen where I was "watching TV". My cheapskate Dad called in the TV repairman the next day!.
Moms....gotta luv them!
Tiff..wish they would offer those dwarf Willies again! No matter how much you love them, they seem to leave the bed. (Not trying to be profound here..just miss those guys..only lasted three years).

You know what I love? My kids will spend hours and hours on paper dolls. It always makes me smile when they do, because I'm glad that with all of the media they have access to (and they do) that they will turn it off and make paper dolls.

My middle wants to be a fashion designer, and has moved up to using fabric and Barbies. She's pretty good.

And, to bring this back to seeds and winter sowing. . . They all want to plant holly hocks so they can make the dollies out of them. And they love snapdragons so they can make them "talk".

They want to plant corn *just* to make cornhusk dolls.

I'm OK with all of this. Really, really OK.

Carol, I remember that rubber cement. IIRC, it smelled bad, like chemicals.

wendy, enjoyed your cute story about the tv and see-thru oven. We kept our paper dolls in a shoe box. I was an avid collector and pestered the neighbors. Had a playing card collection, a post card collection, a napkin collection (beautiful paper ones then), and a stamp collection. Didn't pester the neighbors for stamps but people saved them for me, I'd soak them off in the bathroom sink and dry them on a towel. Sadly, I had a couple valuable stamps when my father divided up his collection between my sister and me, and mine disappeared after I got married and brought it with me, suspect what happened to it.

Carol, do you remember the pretty cloth handkerchiefs we used to get? Nobody used kleenex, and my mother always neatly ironed them, everything but sheets. She had a mangle, and I learned how to use it. Washing then was an agitating machine with two rinse tubs, my mother let me help, it was dangerous putting things through the ringer, and more than one child got their arms scarred or worse because of it. Then we'd dampen things with a sprinkler thing stuck in a bottle, roll them up, put in a bag, and then iron. Later spray bottles came out, and I could instantly dampen and iron! Then we'd hang our laundry on the clothesline outside in summer and in the basement in winter. No dryer sheets will ever make clothes smell like they do when you just take them off the line. Wow, I haven't plugged in my iron or gotten out my ironing board for a few years now.

We didn't get a tv until a couple years later than most people started getting them in the 1950's. Black and white. Was so excited! I used to enjoy listening to certain radio programs, only the shadow knows lol.

But I'm going to take a little time to air a gripe. My grandson likes youtube videos of, among others, "transformers" (ugly plastic creatures that articulate). Our kids are surrounded by plastic! Everything in the school room and playrooms is nothing but plastic, very colorful. Too colorful and seems like too much sensory input to me. The neighbor ran a day care, and their front porch was FILLED with colorful plastic toys. I'm so weary of them. Of course bought them for my children. And of course I use it, lots of it!

We had nice wooden desks and chairs at school, different styles. In kindergarten we had a fish pool with goldfish and built up sides we could sit on to have our milk they brought in. It was in a little glass bottle with paper cap. The pond in the floor was covered with pretty mosaic tiles. They have taken it all out now.

We had a milkman for years up until the early 70's, then one by one that all stopped. My grandmother had an icebox, and the iceman would cometh, fun to watch him score and cut the ice covered in sawdust. I hated margarine, they called it oleo, and it was in a sealed bag with a yellow blob which you kneaded until it was colored thru. We made popsicles with molds or ice cube trays out of kool aid, had the other kind, too.

Most of our toys were made of wood or metal. Maybe that doesn't sound fun to younger people, but the point I'm getting to is that we use so few natural materials any more in almost everything. It's a mixed blessing, synthetic clothes and carpeting, don't know what the siding is now, not clapboard that has to be painted. I think it is good for kids to play with wooden toys, the feel of them. I actually built a treehouse at my grandmother's. Kids love to get a hammer, wood and nails, maybe a saw.

We played outside summer and winter. Hardly see any kids outside any more. We walked to school and home for lunch and back again until junior high except the kids that rode the bus. Luckily some products are still the same or similar like cookware, and a lot of things are a lot better and totally new. Nobody could have imagined computers, internet and writing to people on the other side of the world. Cell phones, another mixed blessing.

Some of us learned to sew and made our own clothes. I didn't have to, just enjoyed it. We went through an awful phase with these wide gathered skirts under which we put three crinolines which we starched stiff. For a pool, it was a big round metal tub and the hose.

Somebody, maybe my daughter, was amazed to see old pictures where all the little girls wore dresses to school and church. We had pants, shorts and coveralls for play clothes.

Everybody had hollyhocks (most had alleys then, I still do). We used to love making dolls out of them, the big blooms for the skirts and the buds for the heads, can't remember what we used to secure them, maybe a toothpick?

Guess I'll stop for now.

We had an Icebox! I remember going with my Dad when I was 4 to buy our first refrigerator. (1955) It was a Crosley Shelvador. The mother from "Cheaper by the Dozen" (I'd have to google her name right now..get the irony) invented shelves in the doors of fridges.
I used to think my grandmother (born 1888 died 1982) had seen all there was to see in life. Mind you, it all happened for her... airplanes, cars, radio, tv, but this, the internet and instant communication, I think, is something no-one could have envisioned.

I only vaguely remember Cheaper by the Dozen, but we all loved "I Remember Mama" each week. Thank you for sharing that tidbit. I keep tabs on inventions by women. Shelves on the inside of fridges is the second. The first was Tampax invented by a nurse. Surely there must be more.

Your grandmother lived to see most of it. All mine were gone before the internet and grandparents only one lived to know about tv. You forgot digital cameras. I don't think they could have imagined those, think my parents might have liked them, my dad especially would have liked computers. My mom was smart but I don't know. She loved taking pictures, but she'd make my dad dl the photos maybe until she couldn't stand it any more and learn to herself. I cannot imagine my mother in front of a computer monitor. She died in 1968, Dad in 1984. Still miss them.

They would ALL have shaken their heads at winter sowing. NONE of them could EVER have imagined that.

Nice trip down memory lane! Nite all!

Just saw this thread this morning. How it brings back those childhood memories. The homemade glue/paste, the rubber cement, paste jar w/brush, neighbors ringer washer (we did lots of barbie clothes in that thing and the little undies always got stuck between the ringers), paperdolls, etc........... My girls and their cousins love hearing about what we did as kids and all have begun to do more of the simpler things we did and played with, with their small children too.

Oh to the seed part of the thread. I always pick up a few basic seeds at the dollar tree, walgreens, etc.... I like having them on hand for my grandduaghter (turned 4 yesterday). She loves having her own packets of seeds to sow. Shoot, she's sown 6 jugs of Hollyhocks, 6 other jugs of 6 varieties so far this winter with no help this year. Well I do put the holes in the jugs and labels, but she fills w/soil, waters, sows seeds, mists the seeds, twist ties shut, and takes them outside. She told me she was going to teach her 11 month old cousin/my grandson how to do it next winter.

Thanks everyone for sharing your memories, was a great thread to read this morning.

Sandy

My mind keeps going back to that darn ringer washer the neighbors had. We had a regular one and I was in awe of that ringer for some reason.

Well, you've all given me an idea. . .

Whoever mentioned the old-fashioned idea of scrapbooks above - Thank you. (I say old-fashioned as opposed to the newer idea of scrapbooking as the thing that entire aisles are devoted to in the craft stores)

Also - the lady that wallpapered her shed!

I'm going to get some blank sketchbooks, and I already have tons of colored pencils and fine tipped markers. I'm going to save the seed packets in a big box for my girls, as well as my seed catalogs, and a bunch of glue sticks.

My girls will love this - I promise. I don't know why it took me so long to make this leap from the paper dolls. . . I can totally picture it now. . .

We have a nice porch, a nice deck, and a pretty little copse of trees out back. They routinely take blankets and books and dolls to all of these locations and read for hours. I think that they will do the same with the art/scrapbook stuff!

to the ladies lamenting all of the plastic and media in our world now - I mostly agree. And I can tell you this - I was raised with anything old-fashioned being thought of as embarrassing and bad. And somehow, I always had a longing for it anyway.

Once my kids were born, I had high ideal about limiting plastic and media, but stuff would just pour in from hand me downs and the grandparents, and I felt that it would be wrong to make all of that stuff disappear as they got older and would start to notice, so I let them keep it.

Somehow - they fell in love with the stuff *I* valued more highly anyway. Funny how that happens. . .

Then something else happened. The older people in our family and community noticed and started reaching out to my kids. Mostly by sharing memories of their own childhoods, but sometimes actual gifts.

This gives my kids wonderful ideas, and the ideas are tinged with warm memories of people they hold in regard.

I never knew about hollyhock dolls, for instance. My mother never did either, so how could she teach me?. But a wonderful neighbor explained the idea to my girls last year, and they nag me for seeds in every store we go to.

My long-winded point? Please reach out to the children in your lives with these wonderful memories. If your own children and grandchildren are not receptive (yet - always hold out hope, lol), take a walk in the neighborhood with some seeds, or a few cuttings, and chat with the kids and their parents. When the kids have sidewalk chalk out, offer to show them a hopscotch board, for instance.

You know what- I am going to start a seperate thread in conversations to pick your brains for more ideas!

it's funny isn't it, that we all love to talk about what we did growing up.
I had a wringer washer, had to fill the darn thing with a bucket,rinse the clothes in the bath tub,put through the wringer again the other way, got water all over the floor,and it was back breaking to boot!Hung clothes out side spring summer fall,and winter.During the winter, brought the clothes in, laid them all over the house,to finish drying,then ironed them,Every Thing,and i was only 17-18.
Loved to iron,it was so relaxing.Really, it was.
Baked every thing from scratch, nothing from a box.
Oh I could go on and on.
Don't forget about canning our own home grown food, no chemicals,just good,yummy, food.100% Whole Food.

I goggled the rubber cement, it is still made by Elmer's, I am gonna have to buy some,just because.

Paper dolls,oatmeal boxes,made into doll cradles,old cookie tins,painted and decorated to look like a cake.
There was no limit to your imagination,recycle was the name of the the game.
cAROL

I'm so glad some of you remember a lot of the things I do.

Some of my most cherished memories are when my playmate two doors down (Ellen) and the girl our age (Mary) across the alley would play in a little lean-to playhouse built against the north side of Ellen's garage.

They had a huge wooden sandbox. People don't like the tracking and what it takes to fill and maintain sandboxes, but I've got to tell you it was heaven on earth.

The sandbox was under a slightly larger pergola. Over the pergola grew Concord grapes. How beautiful it was under the shade of the leaves and when the grapes hung down as we played in that sandbox. Sadly, Ellen whose parents had the sandbox died from cancer a few years back; we had been separated for years as she taught school and moved to Michigan.

The other girl, we parted ways after kindergarten, and she went to the Catholic school. We made new friends and lost touch with one another. A few years ago I found her how? The internet but somebody must have given me some clue, didn't even know what her current married name was. I met her when I was 3. She lives in NC and is such a lovely person. I cannot remember the last time I saw her, before I was 10. We correspond regularly and share these precious memories.

Right now I have heard that her husband is facing a terrible ordeal with cancer and his pacemaker; her health sounds good. Tears flowed from my eyes when I read that, and I need to answer soon.

I didn't have a video camera, but one beautiful fall day, I walked the old neighborhood with my wide angle lens, walked up the middle of my street and back (there were low hills on both ends of that two-block long street), walked back down then around and up the alley we shared, then around and down her street, clicking all the way. I put the photos on a cd and sent them to her. She was so grateful for them. I'd never met her sister who was older and away by the time I met her, but she sent those photos to her sister, too. I'm so glad I did that.

This is the same street from about the exact same spot and one of my photos from that day. The older one I took with my brownie Kodak when I was about 8. The second one was Oct 2005. My house was the one on the right that is yellow now (hard to tell the color) with a red roof and the white rails. Ellen's house was the first one on the right you can see, a grey house with red trim and grey roof. There was a small one in between that isn't visible. I presently live about 1/2 mile from there. The oddest thing is that apart from the cars, trees and a few cosmetic changes to the houses, it has changed very little. 55 years then and now.

{{gwi:360087}}

{{gwi:360088}}

That picture is so neat! It is nice that neighborhood is still so pretty and looks like a good place to grow up!

I also got cheap seeds yesterday. Painted Daisy! WOO HOO. I had wanted some and now I have 4 packs. I guess I now have more seeds to sow!

Karen

Karen, yes it was a wonderful place to spend one's first years and nice it's been kept up. There were clouds then, too, so not all was always happy, the way of things. Most of those trees were elm, and Dutch elm disease got them.

I'm so happy that you found some painted daisy seeds! Cheap makes it better! I'd read how badly you wanted them, and wonderful that you can derive such pleasure from what to others would seem a very small thing indeed. I so hope they will work for you; they are lovely, I have one plant out there, actually small HOS, and don't know if they will be back in spring. Somebody uploaded a photo on our local newspaper site user photos area, of some they'd bought as plants and put them in a planter, so I wondered if they'd be hardy here, but seeing that made me want some. 4 packs!!! Somebody must be looking over you!

Best of luck to you with those, so nice to have extras for added insurance.

My seeds came and are sitting next to me, now I'll open them and see what to do next.

You guys are making me laugh with what you think is old fashioned!!! I have a fridge from 1956. It still works just fine, my stove is from a year earlier and has built in storage and warmers. Smartest thing, ever.
I use rubber cement fairly regularly.
I still have paper dolls.
I'm looking for a ringer washer to put on the porch. They get the red clay out of clothes nicely. They also make an awesome fountain on a small patio :)

I was glad to find turnips, limas, scallions, table queen squash (looks like an acorn type) and Kohlrabi in the 20 cent packets - I was wanting to try new things this year, and at that price, what's there to loose?

I also picked up some Morning Glory and Moonflower for some trellising to give shade on my deck. I think I am reading that these actually grow taller if you direct sow them, though?

And, can't forget the marigolds and coleus!

aliska you are so sweet!! I saw more than 4 packs. I really had to resist not buying more! lol

Karen

Thanks, Karen. You're a happy camper to have around as are others.

GGG, I guess I got us going on two tracks here, a real disruptor, don't set out to do that. You are really with the program! I hope you can find a wringer washer, may not be too easy but one should turn up if you're patient.

I was soooooooo thankful to finally get my own washer and dryer. But a couple of those wash tubs on those stands with the hoses would sure come in handy for me now. I won't set out to look for any. I took my mother's Chamber's stove when we first had a place to have your own, then moved it here. It was really nice with that thermal well and broiler, but it was so heavy, finally got rid of it. Some of those older things bring pretty good prices now, especially oak ice boxes.

So fun. Back to the future. Just set out 8 2 liters of 4 Columbine and 4 Butterfly Bushes.