How to source the best seeds
Kick-start your new year garden with our lowdown on where to get a wide variety of exciting plants to grow from seed
One of the joys of chilly winter days used to be sitting by the fire pouring over the new seed catalogues, picking out far too many varieties for the coming season. These days, catalogues drop on the mat two or three times a year and more and more of us go online and choose from increasingly sophisticated websites. But which companies to go for? I quickly made a list of a couple of dozen seed companies that I’ve happily ordered from in recent years and there are plenty more. But now’s the time to get on with it as some are already selling out.
Large companies
■ Thompson & Morgan stand out, especially as it has exclusive varieties that it has developed, including its new tri-coloured sweet pea. Suttons and Dobies have recently been taken over by T&M and it remains to be seen what happens to them. In recent years its catalogues have often been increasingly similar so let’s hope that changes.
■ Mr Fothergill’s has a widespread presence in garden centres and its website and catalogues also offer a huge number of additional varieties, but its website is due an overhaul.
■ Moles Seeds deals mainly with trade customers but offers many varieties in small packets for home gardeners and are useful if you need varieties in single colours.
■ Kings has both a wholesale business that also offers small home gardener-size packets as well as a retail mail order business and carries an exceptional range of British-bred veg as well as almost a hundred sweet peas.
■ The two vegetable generalists are D.T. Brown and Marshalls, both with exceptional ranges – choose from a dozen different parsnips or from 20 beetroot!
SUPPLIER LIST
● Thompson & Morgan www.thompson-morgan.com
● Su ons www.su ons.co.uk
● Dobies www.dobies.co.uk
● Mr Fothergill’s www.mr-fothergills.co.uk
● Moles www.molesseeds.co.uk
● Kings www.kingsseedsdirect.com, www.kingsseeds.com
● D.T. Brown www.dtbrownseeds.co.uk
● Marshalls www.marshallsgarden.com
Specialists
■ Many individual crops have their own specialist suppliers and these are invaluable resources for new and uncommon varieties, historic heirloom varieties and, of course, by using these small suppliers you’re supporting small horticultural businesses around the country.
■ Simpsons has long been the go-to source for tomato seeds but it has branched out into chillies and other veg.
■ Real Seeds also has good tomato and chilli offerings as do Victoriana Nursery.
■ Chillies have attracted such an enthusiastic, even fanatical, following in recent years that there are now a number of specialists, including UK Chilli Seeds, World of Chillies and Sea Spring Seeds, who also list a huge range of other interesting vegetable varieties. Potatoes, too, are attracting devotees and Potato House lists 80 varieties. For seed of exhibition varieties your first stop should be Medwyn’s of Anglesey and, for herbs, Jekka’s.
■ Shelley Seeds are vegetable specialists with over 500 seed varieties from a diverse list.
■ And for larger varieties of vegetables make sure to visit Robinson’s Mammoth Vegetable Seeds.
■ For sweet peas I like Roger Parsons, Matthewman’s Sweetpeas and English Sweet Peas, and for primroses, including its legendary doubles, there’s nowhere better than Barnhaven; it also lists hellebore seed in separate colours.
SUPPLIER LIST
● Simpsons www.simpsonsseeds.co.uk
● Real Seeds www.realseeds.co.uk
● Victoriana Nursery www.victoriananursery.co.uk
● UK Chilli Seeds www.ukchilliseeds.co.uk
● World of Chillies www.worldofchillies.com
● Sea Spring Seeds www.seaspringseeds.co.uk
● Potato House www.potatohouse.co.uk
● Medwyn’s of Anglesey www.medwynsofanglesey.co.uk
● Jekka’s www.jekkas.com
● Shelley Seeds www. shelleyseeds.co.uk
● Robinson’s Mammoth Vegetable Seeds www.mammothonion.co.uk
● Roger Parsons www.rpsweetpeas.com
● Ma hewman’s Sweetpeas www.sweetpeasonline.co.uk
● English Sweet Peas www.englishsweetpeas.co.uk
● Barnhaven www.barnhaven.com
Small companies
■ Smaller companies often offer varieties unavailable from larger outfits, sometimes when varieties are new and only a limited amount of seed is available, sometimes when they spot the potential of a variety that others have missed.
■ I’ve been ordering from Chiltern Seeds for decades and although it now lists fewer botanical curiosities than it once did, its range of annuals and perennials is exceptional. I’d also pick out Plants of Distinction, which often has good varieties ahead of everyone else, and Nicky’s Nursery, which lists a huge range of flowers and veg.
■ Plant World selects a large number of new varieties itself and produces the seed on its own nursery. It offers seed of many plants of all kinds not offered elsewhere, but they’re not always 100 per cent true to type. Lots of gems, though.
■ Special Plants has a smaller range and relies on the exceptionally good eye of owner Derry Watkins to spot good plants in her garden and from around the world. Sarah Raven is a larger outfit, with more plants and bulbs and gifts on offer than seeds, but with an excellent choice of single colours in annuals, chosen with cutting in mind.
SUPPLIER LIST
● Chiltern Seeds www.chilternseeds.co.uk
● Plants of Distinction www.plantsofdistinction.co.uk
● Nicky’s Nursery www.nickys-nursery.co.uk
● Plant World Seeds www.plant-world-seeds.com
● Special Plants www.specialplants.net
● Sarah Raven www.sarahraven.com