Seed packaging laws are rather strict and that is not allowed. ...that said...enforcement is extremely lax and it happens too much...VERY rarely with bigger companies, though. The enforcement of laws in horticulture is pratically wide open...it takes consumer, patent holder (especially in the case of GMO or vegetably propagated plant material patents), or farmer/supplier/distributor complaints to get anything done these days. A lot of seed/plant selling on Ebay (for instance)...right in the eyes of everyone...well, a good chunk of it is actually quite illegal going by the law. There's illegally sold plant material under plant patents, seed that is neither stable nor clean, plants sent to areas where they're banned as invasive or a danger to local agriculture, purposely mislabeled stuff...etc. That said, almost every major seed supplier plays by the book and will not repackage old seed...that said, they may/usually do sell it to other seed brokers that may or may not change the age of the seed on their packages, though. This post was edited by nc-crn on Sat, Aug 10, 13 at 18:03

Unfortunately, the Laurifolia supersection never do too well for me for the most part. Are you a Passiflora collector? Do you ever do trades of cutting material or rooted plants? Eric

[From Jerry Parsons] In the 30 years which I have been in San Antonio as a horticulturist for Texas Cooperative Extension, this system of cooperative testing and local marketing has introduced productive hybrid tomatoes (Spring Giant, Big Set, Celebrity, Jack Pot, Bingo, Carnival, Whirlaway, Heatwave, SunMaster, Surefire and Merced Now, most of these tried-and-proven superior varieties are no longer available for home gardeners to enjoy. How and why could something like this happen? The short story is: There are only a few vegetable seed companies left in the world and they are eliminating the older, Texas-proven varieties in favor of new, "improved' hybrids. This elimination includes Merced, Heatwave , Surefire, SunMaster tomatoes and Green Comet broccoli. Remaining supplies will soon be depleted. Dr. Larry Stein and I, reworked the Extension Vegetable Recommendation list and sources after a long period of denial about the non-existence of Porter & Sons Seedmen in Stephenville, Texas, which used to be a major seed supplier for Texas gardeners. The Cooperative Extension Vegetable Recommendation list and sources can be found at: http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/PLANTanswers/vegvar.html It has been removed from the market but next year (2010) I will be selling second generation seed of Merced at: http://plantanswers.com/parsons_preferred_seed.htm PARSONS PREFERRED SEED The seed available for sale and use in this listing is available ONLY from PLANTanswers.com and have been selected by Jerry Parsons, Texas A&M University System Professor and Extension Horticulturist-retired, for uniqueness of disease resistance, dependable yields, and quality fruit with special characteristics only found in this listing. Complete growing instructions are Seed of the Texas SuperStar tomato varieties (Merced and Surefire) have been discontinued so those seed will soon be eliminated from the market. SunMaster and Heatwave have also met similar fates. However, the most recent SuperStar tomato named 'Tomato444' can be found in the list as BHN444 and a new tomato named SunLeaper (available from Stoke's Seeds Ltd. http://www.stokeseeds.com/cgi-bin/StokesSeeds.storefront) is showing promise as per our demonstrations at: http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/vegetables/2003falltomatotrials/index.html So, we recommend for tomatoes this spring that gardeners use Carnival, Celebrity, SunPride and/or Tomato444 for seed-you-can-find home garden tomatoes. If gardeners will look around the Internet, they may also be able to find seed of Amelia and SunLeaper which have also performed well for San Antonio gardeners. Here is a link that might be useful: Plant Answers

Hi defrost…another early bird. :-) I'm adding to my houseplant collection this winter, which is pretty depleted. Some winters, I just have no interest, but this year I do, probably because this summer my garden time was minimal. Right now, I have some succulents that need repotting and I'm looking for decorative, ceramic probably. I'm going to try to find some shallow pots in a small to medium size for now. I have larger ceramic pots, but they seem like the wrong shape and size. By the way, if anyone knows who sells the best houseplants, besides Logee's in CT, because I haven't got time to take a trip there. I usually end up at Russell's and I stay away from Mahoney's, so I'm looking for somewhere new to try.