I really don't know that much about the sites. I have heard about rarexoticseeds, but have not ordered from them. Also, if you want your seeds to germinate faster, really consider using a heating mat; they really help.

~palmsandsnow

Are you wanting 100s or 1000s of seeds of each kind, or are you just looking to end up getting a few individual plants of each species? If you only want a few of each, I'd skip the whole seed deal and buy seedlings from Jeff at Floribunda in Hawaii. He has around 300 species usually available at any given time, and most of his seedlings are less than $5 each. His 4 inch plants are usually huge. Back before the internet, the palm guys down in Miami would pay $5-$7 for his 4 inch plants and sell them the next month at the big palm sales for $15-$30 each. I have bought plants from him for at least 20 years and am always happy. He packs them very well too. Why wait a year for your Chamaedorea seeds to germinate, when you can buy them outright? Hea, if you had a grand to spend, you could have a 300 species collection at once!

For a large selection of nursery quantities of seeds, I go with Toby Spanner in Germany. The key with his seeds are, you don't buy whatever is on his list. You only by what it newly listed, which means they will be fresh. When I was growing 275 species of palms, I would look at his list every month and when I saw something new that I wanted, that is when I would buy them.

Hi

Over the years I've had the best luck with those seeds that I collected myself ,When I figured out how to tell when they are ripe lol I had bunches of seeds that I bought that failed to germinate at all.Depends on what you're looking for

Many types have a very short shelf life .and of couse you have no control over what they send you and it can take months to find out!!!

Tell me what you're looking for and if a type I can find locally I'll send you some seeds. Be reasonable don't ask for an orange form of a sealing wax palm .I'd keep those for myself anyway !! gary

I also like to order from smaller seed companies; there seems to be more room for quality assurance, but then again, some of those small companies are just scams.

~palmsandsnow

Both rarepalmseeds and seedrack, two of the larger well known companies, seem to have mixed reviews, about half and half, but I wouldn't recommend them, since it seems as if the majority of their seeds are pretty old.

But, as said above, they do have a pretty large selection of rare and interesting seeds. Sorry to say, but it is really up to you!

~palmsandsnow

I've only had bad experiences with rarepalmseeds and most reviews I've seen about them seem to be negative (except of course the ones on their own site). But there are some people who speak glowingly about them. I think it's as plantsman said above, buy only the new seeds. The bulk of their seeds seem to be too old and not viable. I notice they're not advertising on the palmtalk site any more. They did cop some flak there not too long back.

Thank you for commenting!

I have just ordered from www.rarexoticseeds.com because I saw a lot of positive reviews about them on other sites. I will see how good the palm seeds that I ordered, along with some tree seeds and yucca seeds do.

It may be to late for this purchase, but I have bought probably 200 batches of seeds from Toby, and not once, have I had poor germination. As I said though, I only buy the newest seeds and this is the key that the other people who have problems, just haven't figured out. You learn as a cycad collector not to rush into any purchase. When I was doing more palms, I would look at his list at least every week and jump on something I wanted when I saw it come up. Some people would even contact me and say, hea did you see what just came up on the list today? I must admit though, one time I bought some Sabal uresana seeds that came from extremely blue parent trees, and many of the seeds floated and found out the floaters had little worms in them eating out the insides. When you buy 1000 seeds from him, you usually get 1100-1300 seeds, so I still got my money's worth. Typically, the price of 100 seeds can be 5 times the price than you pay for 1000 seeds. So, I sold about 700 seeds, tripled my money, and planted out a couple hundred for free and got plenty of free plants.

Hi

Anyone know of any websites listing average germination times for various species Also trunking times would be very useful

I have found various palm societies with spotty info but mostly defined as "Average, slow or very slow lol

In my own personal experience and I curse myself constantly that I didn't keep records!!under a week to the grandaddy 27 months . I was so shocked that a seed could remain viable for that long!! The fastest was on the way home from the collection site sprouted in the sack lol

There are a few useful tests to guess if a seed is still viable but I found the best to be two fingers if the seed squashes together go to the compost heap lol Though I have had some that I gave up in disgust and they happily sprouted in the heap!! lol Is you really get into palm seeds start a notebook priceless info over the years!! gary

I

Please tell me how the order from rarexoticseeds goes; I have seen their website, as well as the Dave's garden watchdog article on them, and they seem like a good place to order from.

~palmsandsnow

Hi

Not even a no thanks or up your?? gary

@ garyfla_gw(10 Florida)

If you are talking about the seed offer you posted, it is a no thanks because I am running out of space for stuff and when these seeds come I won't have room for anymore seeds of any plant for awhile. But thanks for offering! :-)

Also thanks for the palm seed testing techniques!

Hi

Okay understand that. i was offering because I hate seeing all those seeds go to waste particularly when I see what they charge for them on the internet.

I usually bring some home plant them around and end up cutting them down!!! I used to move them to the neighbors yards but the new ones have big dogs and are members of the NRA lol Anyway good luck One of the worlds most fantastic families If only they wouldn't get so big?? gary

rarepalmseeds.com has pretty much every palm seed available, by far the best site for palm seeds. They have a lot of seeds that I couldn't find anywhere else.

spencerkingstephenson,

rarepalmseeds does indeed have a large selection of seeds, and I don't mean to disagree with you, but they keep many varieties sellable for much longer than they should. Palm seeds have a very short shelf life, and with some of those bigger companies, they keep the seeds up for sale much longer than they should. It was a thoughtful suggestion though!

~palmsandsnow

I wonder why RarePalmSeeds sends half seeds that are floating, which means they are clearly bad merchandise, so when one pays €30 to them, one only gets a chance to germinate for €15 or so. Also, they only respond their email to collect money and never confirm that the seeds were shipped out. My seeds were shipped out only after a good month after I placed my order and paid for it via bank wire transfer. So I expected those to be fresh seeds.... Not. And I received them too late into the summer eventhat I begged to rush. Once there is a problem, they don't respond at all. Yet seeds arrive, half of them usually clearly bad ones or trash (pieces) and germination is usually 1 to 5% only. Still, there are seeds that are hard to find, so that's why we have not sent guys to chop TS into pieces, but I believe they owe me money or extra seeds next time I order.

In the past when RPS updated their website (it is now nicer but much slower to browse) my account was deleted with all my past orders. They did not move any past orders or any customer accounts to their new site. The seeds that take about 2 months to arrive since they wait a month to charge a card and then another month to deliver arrive continuously partly or mostly not viable, shattered or they germinate in very low percentage such as 3% or none. I did have some very limited success with RPS seeds in the past, but a lot of misidentifying is going on, even now I realized the couple of palms that germinated from the batch are different species than I purchased. Take your chances. If you have no other source for specific seeds, take a chance and good luck. I am now ordering seeds, germinated seedlings and palms directly from suppliers even that I am just a collector and even if it is harder to achieve that.

I've had good luck ordering seeds off of eBay or off of other growers on the PalmTalk Palm Exchange. I prefer to collect seeds off of local specimens like @garyfla_gw, when possible. Never ordered off of RPS, but have ended up with seedlings that were no doubt from seeds ordered from RPS.

Avoid GRAINES.BE - they sent me completely different seeds now. Their other website is vente-de-graines.com . Stay away unless you want to receive surprise mystery seeds.