There are many places to buy seeds. The first ones I got where from online vendors, but after collecting my own seeds from the varieties I bought, I started trading them for new ones which is a lot less expensive.

You could probably find someone in the seed exchange forum who would be happy to send you lots of seeds for free if you pay for the shipping cost.

As for plants, I don't know, but growing from seeds is a lot for fun anyways! :P

I believe Laurel's site has the widest variety of heirloom plants for shipping.

I'd also like to recommend Tomato Heirlooms. They have a limited selection, but a good one, I think. The price is right. Under $2 dollars a plant with free shipping. You get a free plant, three types of basil seed also free and free shipping with every order. They air layer ellepots to large plants' suckers, so you get a mature rooted stem that takes off. All of my plants were healthy on delivery.

I grow from seed because 1) I enjoy it, and 2) it seems like the nurseries prune starts too much, like to let starts get to be too mature in their pots before selling them, and charge too much.

So the seed companies I have used are 1) Fedco, 2) Hume, 3) Territorial, 4) Evergreen seeds (sells Asian vegetable seeds)

Although I felt that some of the stuff I got from Hume was not very good (poor germination for eggplants in particular), the tomato seeds I bought from them have germinated OK for two years running. Also, Hume is cheap, with cheap shipping. The online store was kind of a mess, though, and packing for the seeds was bare-bones (yellow envelope, no padding?)

The Fedco seeds all germinated wonderfully; the shipping was cheap and the price for the seeds was great. They seem to be very generous with seed quantities, unlike a lot of fru-fru heirloom seed stores that sell you 20 tomato seeds for $3.00. Their selection of tomatoes isn't exactly huge, but the stuff they have has been tested and controlled for quality quite well it seems.

I bought some Japanese hybrid tomato seeds from Evergreen the first year I grew tomatoes, and the plants were great. Seems like a good company, though definitely not as cheap as Fedco and Hume.

Territorial seeds is a pretty well-known seller where I live in the Pacific NW (I did not buy tomato seeds from them, though). Their seeds were also very good quality, but I don't see myself buying a lot of seeds from them because I think their prices for sampler seed packs and shipping are too high to make it worthwhile.

I think that if I need to buy tomato seeds this year, I might order some from Tatiana Kouchnareva. :)

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Tatiana_Kouchnareva

I haven't tried any of these, but here are other sources of tomato plants (as opposed to seeds) that I've collected from recommendations here on GardenWeb. All got good reviews.

http://www.selectedplants.com
http://tomatobabycompany.com
http://www.tastefulgarden.com

Susan

I ordered mine from Tomatofest.com

The site is beautiful. I'm not able to report on the quality of the seeds yet as I have yet to produce any ripe fruit, but I'm right around the corner!

This year is my first year gardening and I bought my plants from naturalgardening.com.

They are based out of northern california.

For varieties I can't find at natural gardening I will order from laurel but her plants are twice as much.

Although I felt that some of the stuff I got from Hume was not very good (poor germination for eggplants in particular), the tomato seeds I bought from them have germinated OK for two years running. Also, Hume is cheap, with cheap shipping. The online store was kind of a mess, though, and packing for the seeds was bare-bones (yellow envelope, no padding?)

The unpadded envelope probably explains the poor germination -- the same problem everyone had with the Campbell's tomato seeds this spring, which were also shipped without padding. Apparently the USPS has new, advanced seed-killer machinery....

===
For seeds, I can recommend the following vendors; most will send you catalogs through the mail. I don't know how costs compare, but I make a chart of which varieties I want and which reputable vendors have them, then arrange who to buy what from so I'm not spending more on postage than I am on seeds.

Tomato Growers Supply
http://www.tomatogrowers.com/

Sand Hill Preservation Center
http://www.sandhillpreservation.com/catalog/seed_menu.html

Marianna's Heirloom Tomatoes
http://mariseeds.com/

Victory Seed Company
http://www.victoryseeds.com/catalog/main_vegies.html

and Baker Creek, among others.
http://rareseeds.com/

I agree completely with the places missing has posted above and roughly in the same order that they were posted.And I think I'd add the SSE Public catalog as well. There are quite a few places I simply cannot recommend but it's difficult for me to post about them and even if someone posts one of those sites and likes it, who am I to say that it doesn't have a good reputation based on what I know about it. And I've beenposting about tomatoes online since 1989 so have seen some companies go and lots of new ones appear.

Anyone can also check the rating of various companies by going to Dave's Garden online and checking that.

The greatest number of heirloom varieties available anywhere, as plants, are to be found at selectedplants.com run by Darrel Jones who posts here as Fusion.

A huge number of varieties to chose from, superb packing, take a look at how he packs, reasonable costs for plants, which many places don't have, and reasonable shipping costs and he spells out everything about costs and shipping at the link on the left hand side of his Home Page.

Carolyn

Don't overlook Burpee "veggie bargains" listed on the insert connected to the order form. As far as I know, it is the only place to buy Best Boy seed $2.95, an unusual determinate that keeps growing.

• "The greatest number of heirloom varieties available anywhere, as plants, are to be found at selectedplants.com run by Darrel Jones who posts here as Fusion."

I stand corrected. I'd seen Fusion's site before but had no idea how extensive it was. Unfortunately he doesn't ship to CA. He definitely lists a few varieties that piqued my interest, too.

I stand corrected. I'd seen Fusion's site before but had no idea how extensive it was. Unfortunately he doesn't ship to CA. He definitely lists a few varieties that piqued my interest, too.

*****

Apparently phytosanitary certificates are needed to ship plants to CA and Az and I know another place that won't ship them to other places in the West.

I can undertand that but phytos are terrifically expensive, lots of complicated paperwork and hard to find a place where they do the inspections and not practical when it comes to tomato plants.

Carolyn

For seeds I get many in trades. I have been buying seeds from Johnny's for 18 years without ever having a problem. I have bought many seeds from TGS with only two issues. I can recommend either of them.

I ordered pepper plants from Totally Tomatoes this year. HUGE mistake. I just didn't feel like starting my own peppers this year and their prices were good for a couple varieties I like. I got tall, leggy seedlings as if they were grown in the dark or something! Half of them in the box were snapped in two due to poor packaging and I threw them out. The ones I planted were doing OK but the rabbits wiped them out.

Adding two seed sources that I will probably use this fall because they send out 150-300 seeds for $3 or so.

Seeds From Italy

And

Gourmet Seeds

I got all my seeds from The Sample Seed Shop http://sampleseeds.com/; it's a small home-based company but it had the varieties I wanted in small, affordable ($1 each) packs of 10 seeds (most actually contained 15-20.)

The service was fast and friendly and at 3 weeks the seedlings are coming along nicely. I ordered 12 heirloom varieties and got a bonus pack as well; at $15 including shipping a great deal for a tomato lover on a budget!

WalMart, HD, Pikes, and my own seeds.

You can check out this website for some great heirloom tomato plants.
Price right
http://californiaheirloomtomatoplants.com/

Here is a link that might be useful: http://californiaheirloomtomatoplants.com/

Baker Creek for sure, for me. =) rareseeds.com link given above.

1) Baker Creek, aka rareseeds.com
2) Tomatogrowers.com
3) Ed Hume Seeds
4) Victory Seeds (though I may cancel an order - they are saying 2-3 weeks to ship)
5) neseeds.com (GH varieties and hybrids one cannot find anyplace else)

Mike

wordwiz: What kinda crazy hybrids does neseeds have? I like growing that kind of stuff! :)

I think Hazzard's Wholesale Seeds will be one of my main suppliers from now on. They have 100, 250, 500, and 1000 seed packs of tomato seeds. I ordered 250 seed packs of Cherokee Purple, Marianna's Peace, and Opalka. 58 of the 60 seeds I planted from these packs germinated, which was a better germination rate than even the seeds from Baker Creek. They also print the germination test data on the package, which I don't think many vendors do. The seed packets don't have any pretty pictures on them, but they are hermetically sealed which may account for the high germination rate. Seed prices end up being about 2 to 4 cents a seed for open pollinated varieties of tomato seeds, and as much as 18 cents apiece for hybrid seeds. For open pollinated varieties including most heirlooms the per seed cost ends up being much lower than most vendors prices, but not everyone wants 250 seeds. But I have sprouted tomato seeds eight or nine years old so the 250 seeds should last me many years.
They have a flat $5.95 shipping charge no matter how big the order, and ship in a padded envelope.

Well, I bought chocolate cherry seeds from Reimers and they sent me an empty envelope. They also haven't answered my email enquiries and since they don't post a phone number on their website, I'm left with cancelling the charge on the card. So, I guess I'd like to unrecommend them.

JoAnne

Does anyone have an opinion on quality/value at southern exposure seed exchange?

I bought mine from Lowes and Walmart. The first ones I bought (2 in a pot) were probably seedling size when I started and the second had one flower on it. So far all of them have really taken off and I've been really pleased with the Bonnie brand.

i had really good luck with the plants i got from ace hardware last year / they were chef jeff"s / the ones i got from lowes / bonnies / i was not impressed at all with / the ones i got from walmart were ok / cant remeber if they were bonnies or burpees / think im gonna buy all my plants at ace this yr / as far as seed i get it anywere there on sale / however the kid likes the sesame street seeds hehehe

tomatomanic, I ordered Paul Robeson tomato seeds (and Blacktail watermelon seeds)from Southern Exposure in February and the seeds had excellent germination. They shipped quickly, have the germination percentage listed on the package, had good seed count (50 seeds in my package), and have good reviews at Garden Watchdog. Assuming the tomatoes grow into the variety they're supposed to be I would buy from them again.

I also like Tomato Growers, Baker Creek, and Victory Seeds.

Sandhill Preservation I've been meaning to order from, but they don't have an online shopping cart. That's a major inconvenience for me.

I've ordered from Burpee directly, and they were fine, though a bit pricey on shipping. I've picked up a wide variety of seeds from discount places, supermarkets, hardware stores, etc... when places have something that strikes my fancy. Most of these have been pretty good, though some have lower than 100% germination. Since I typically buy a packet only wanting a couple of the plants for my limited space, this hasn't been a problem-I just plant extra.

I just placed my first order with Sandhill, and thus far I am not impressed. I know that on their website and their catalog they say that if you need your seeds immediately, they are not the company for you. However, I've been waiting almost a month now, and still have no seeds. I apparently was wrong in thinking that a month was not an unreasonable expectation. If they don't come soon, it will be too late to get them ready for this season. They only answer their phone 2 days a week, one of which is tomorrow, so I'm hoping to get some answers or at least an update.