Comstock Ferre because I can buy a heap of cherry rose nasturtiums or snow in summer etc to cover a ditch etc if I want to they have lrg cheap qtys of everything and seeds have done well for me. MainstreetSeedand Supply kind of for the same reason I do a sunflower circle every year with mixed colorsand i can buy them in bulk for decent prices as well as anything else I want to plant in mass qty like four o clocks etc. Holland Bulbs because I got a great deal on stargazer and like 1200 red appledorn tulips for el cheapo on clearance and they all came up! I like thompson and morgan for their bean varieties . And valueseeds.com for large amts of cheap flower seeds. I like south carolina seed foundation for heirloom veggie varieties. Wylie House Museum for heirloom seeds also. Aunt Martha's seeds (heirlooms) superseeds.com for cheaper prices on squash and pumpkins I like the georgia,louisiana,mississippi and fla market bulletins for home garden seeds you send an sase and cash for but the georgia market bulletin is my favorite. I like underwood gardens because they have a nice variety. I like wherehollyhocksbloom.net for their seed variety in colors of hollyhocks and also wuv n acres for the same reason. I like commercial catalogues too but rarely order from them I kind of like an off the path type places with old fashioned things.Without all the touched up graphics on the veggie pictures . There are a few places on ebay i usually like to look for seeds there like onalees .Usually too if you like to buy japanese morning glories or a group of something you can usually find someone on ebay who has gotten all the varieties they could find of the rare things and grown them out and you don't have to do all the work searching for seeds. And of course sharing and free are always great here on GW. Can't wait to hear everyone elses faves.

I love, love, love SeedsNow (seedsnow.com)! In addition to nearly 100% germination and frequent sales, they almost always include free sample "kits" (got some free Little Gem Lettuce seeds, Rainbow Heirloom tomato seeds, and "Ace 100" tomatoes with my last few orders). Furthermore, they offer $.99 "sample" packs of most varieties. I got some great varieties of peppers and tomatoes for $.99/each and they all came with about 10-15 seeds. Sample packs of tiny seeds like lettuce and arugula usually have a few hundred. I also got seed potatoes from them this year - they came in GREAT shape, some eyes even already sprouted! Totally organic and non-GMO, specializing in heirloom seeds. So much love for SeedsNow - highly recommend!!!

I enjoy ordering from a variety of seed companies for a variety of reasons. The biggest reason is that no once company has all the seeds I would like to purchase. Yesterday I ordered from Value Seeds. They have a great shipping rate, a few seeds that I have been wanting to try, and wonderful prices. I ordered Pineapple Ground Cherries, different variety of dianthus, and an unusual woodland poppy. At .49 to .99 cents a pack, it is a great sale! I am told this is a clearing house for T&M seeds. I JUST LOVE T&M! They have the half price sale and the .99 sale! I did well at both, although I wish I had waited a little longer before purchasing from the .99 sale. I think the pages on sale went from 14 to 49, or something ridiculous like that. Just recently, I ordered from Spring Hill. They sent my order with a nice, personal note AND EXTRA PACKS OF SEEDS! The seed picks were nice too! They obviously based the bonus seed packs on the ones I had purchased. It was a big surprise! I order from other companies as well. A few on EBay have extra large packs such as the butterfly orchid I plant. Also, I zoom around every seed rack in my town. Lately, I have hit Kmart for their Martha Stewart collection. I did not buy immediately, but then realized they discount the seeds from the price on the pack. Still I need some seeds. I don't have Icelandic poppies mixed colors for next year yet. Lol. :-D

Hi Bettina, I got an email from a Winter Sower who saw your post and wrote to me asking to offer you some advice. First let me say that I feel sorry that you were let down by this individual. It sounds like this person did not know exactly what the duties involved would be. Sadly, it's a hard lesson learned for both of you. If this person continues to harass you then definitely seek assistance from the authorities. If you do a team effort again get it all down on paper as to who does what and when, make lots of copies and everyone signs every copy. I do run an open-to-the-public tomato seedbank. I share OP toms. Many are donated to me, a good many I grow on my own, and I also purchase bulk seed stock. I do all the seed packing and labeling myself. 99% of my seeds are distributed to US Citizens. Once in a while I get a request for seeds from another country--it requires more postage and more time and honestly, it can be a hassle unless the person requesting is friendly and nice, then I don't mind much the extra work. If you start a seedbank I suggest that you limit it to Canadians because it will be simpler for you. You're doing the work, you are the boss of you. Make life simple for yourself and set limitations from the very beginning--otherwise you're a doormat. Being a doormat is never a good thing. I'm very careful about the seeds I accept. They have to be fermented or cleaned with a sani-scrub. Because I'm distributing some shared seeds I don't want to also be possibly distributing any pathogens that may be on the exterior of the seeds, I'm very serious about that responsibility. As as a matter of fact, when I do send anyone tomato seeds they come in a brochure that shows the sani-scrub method. I also have the method at WinterSown.Org How to Clean Tomato Seeds (Sani-Scrub) And, if you visit the GW Seed Saving Forum FAQs or google "How to save tomato seeds" you will find the tomato fermentation FAQ I wrote years back. So, I'm definitely serious on sharing seeds that have been cleaned well enough to reduce or eliminate exterior seed-borne pathogens. Fermentation and the sani-scrub will both do that for you. I prefer the sani-scrub because it takes 35 minutes--and you get a half-hour break in there too. Fermentation takes at least three days. Ick. Fermentation is an organic process and the sani-scrub uses bleach-based kitchen scrubbing powder (Ajax. Comet, et al) People who prefer organic methods can ferment. Either way, the risk of sharing exterior-borne tomato pathogens is hugely reduced. I'll paste in a link below to the "Your Choice Tomato SASE" so you can see how I list the seeds. I require a printout from my website. The requester fills it in and sends it with a two-stamp SASE. I send it back with the seeds and the sani-scrub brochure. No printout then no seeds. I had to do that because the list was showing up on freebie sites. I wasn't getting traffic to my website, people weren't learning about germinating tomato seeds with Winter Sowing, yada yada yada, printout is now required. I also like the printout because people write neatly--HOORAY! The printout also has a calendar date on it and I impose a week's time limit--mail it within a week of the printout or its void. Again, this helps prevent abuse from freebie sites--also, I update that list weekly, sometimes daily. I don't like to disappoint people because they've sent me a request for seeds from a stale list, then I have to make substitutes or complete replacements if I'm also out of a default choice. Freebie abuse makes me feel like a doormat. I'm a nice person, I'm not a doormat. I do not contract for seeds. I don't give seeds to people to grow out and then get back the seeds they save. I am the boss of myself and I am responsible for myself. Real life happens to everyone--crops fail, people go sour, something somewhere goes screwy. Anything can happen. So, my seedbank is based only on what I grow, what I buy, and what has been donated. The list changes as varieties are exhausted and/or I add new ones. Right now it fluctuates between 100 and 120 vareites. I do have some previous seed donators that I know are growing some of their tomatoes with the intention of saving those seeds to donate to WinterSown for inclusion on the list, but until those seeds are here they are pie in the sky. They happen when they happen. And only after they've been packed and labeled do they go on the list. I imagine that if you look around Canadian seed company websites you can find seeds in bulk amounts. Here, in the States, I order bulk from a few different companies. I like GourmetSeed International, Totally Tomatoes, Tomato Growers Supply, and NEseed. Gourmet and NE have great prices and they also ship very quickly. Unfortunately, I do not know if they ship across the border. If you're going to maintain a seedbank you can't do it on donations or your own stock alone, you need bulk stock that will be the backbone of your seedbank. Does it cost money? Yes, some, but not a hurtful amount. People that send a small monetary donation get extra seeds--they get their six first choices and the four defaults. Those donations add up and do pay for bulk seed stock and even some of the office supplies. I'll never make a nickel off of what I do (now that's pie in the sky) but those small donations have taken a lot of the "sting" out of running WinterSown.Org. Hope this helps. Kindly, Trudi Davidoff WinterSown.Org Here is a link that might be useful: Your Choice Tomato SASE