For a beginner, is this a reliable supplier of good seed etc. If you
know of a better one let me know. Thanks.

yaputa wrote:
For a beginner, is this a reliable supplier of good seed etc. If you
know of a better one let me know. Thanks.


Marshall's is first class;I have ordered with them for many years
and never had a problem with germination or harvest quality.
I have cultivated my vegetable patch for 58 years and I can't
do much these days.but I still manage:the following:

broad bean Jubilee Hyssop
onion sets Marshall's New Fen Globe
runner bean Polestar
garlic double offer

Marshall's put quality first. If you want quantity go to the supermarket
for your veg and sow a lawn on your veggie patch.

Sam

"yaputa" wrote ...
For a beginner, is this a reliable supplier of good seed etc. If you know
of a better one let me know. Thanks.

I agree with Sam, Marshalls is OK.
Germination is good, they specialise in allotment (veg) gardeners, prices
are competitive, orders arrive as they should.

Other UK seed merchants I could recommend personally are Unwins and Tompson
& Morgan.
http://www.unwins.co.uk/
http://www.thompson-morgan.com/index.html

However I would suggest you also look at Seeds of Italy (Franchi are the
oldest seed merchants) as they seem to have a lot more seed in each packet
than most UK seed merchants which is good if it's something you want to
grow, lettuce for example.
http://www.seedsofitaly.com/

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
just W. of London

On Oct 1, 7:59*pm, yaputa wrote:
For a beginner, is this a reliable supplier of good seed etc. If you
know of a better one let me know. Thanks.

I don't hold with all this new fangled pre-packeted seeds with pretty
pictures on the front - I used to like it when I could go to Mr
McMullen's wonderful-smelling shop and the man in the long green apron
would weigh me out a quarter of an ounce of all the veggie seeds I
wanted at thruppence a time, put it in a plain brown envelope and
write the details on with a fountain pen. Dang progress.... mumble...
groan...whinge...!

On 2009-10-02 09:50:27 +0100, moghouse said:

On Oct 1, 7:59*pm, yaputa wrote:
For a beginner, is this a reliable supplier of good seed etc. If you
know of a better one let me know. Thanks.

I don't hold with all this new fangled pre-packeted seeds with pretty
pictures on the front - I used to like it when I could go to Mr
McMullen's wonderful-smelling shop and the man in the long green apron
would weigh me out a quarter of an ounce of all the veggie seeds I
wanted at thruppence a time, put it in a plain brown envelope and
write the details on with a fountain pen. Dang progress.... mumble...
groan...whinge...!

There was another of those 'successful germination tables' in today's
papers. I think Simpson's did best.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon

Sacha wrote:
There was another of those 'successful germination tables' in today's
papers. I think Simpson's did best.

Not according to todays Telegraph.

On 2009-10-02 20:46:11 +0100, yaputa said:

Sacha wrote:
There was another of those 'successful germination tables' in today's
papers. I think Simpson's did best.

Not according to todays Telegraph.

So who was it? Our Telegraph is downstairs, so is the sleeping dog and I'm not!
--
Sacha

On 2009-10-02 23:15:31 +0100, Sacha said:

On 2009-10-02 20:46:11 +0100, yaputa said:

Sacha wrote:
There was another of those 'successful germination tables' in today's
papers. I think Simpson's did best.

Not according to todays Telegraph.

So who was it? Our Telegraph is downstairs, so is the sleeping dog and I'm not!

Okay - irritable dog but found it: Worst were Unwin's Glory of Seville
geraniums with a 73% failure rate. Best was Nicky's Nurseries had an
average success rate of 94%. Unwin's, Plants of Distinction Begonina
Non Stop Mocha, , Simpson's Seeds Hestia runner beans, Unwin's White
Lisbon spring onions and Simpson's White Lisbon spring onions were all
in the worst category.
In the best was Nicky's Nurseries, Dobies, Suttons, Johnsons, Mr
Fothergills, all taken on an average success rate. The source was
Which? Gardening.
--
Sacha

"Sacha" wrote ...
, Sacha said:
yaputa said:
Sacha wrote:
There was another of those 'successful germination tables' in today's
papers. I think Simpson's did best.

Not according to todays Telegraph.

So who was it? Our Telegraph is downstairs, so is the sleeping dog and
I'm not!

Okay - irritable dog but found it: Worst were Unwin's Glory of Seville
geraniums with a 73% failure rate. Best was Nicky's Nurseries had an
average success rate of 94%. Unwin's, Plants of Distinction Begonina Non
Stop Mocha, , Simpson's Seeds Hestia runner beans, Unwin's White Lisbon
spring onions and Simpson's White Lisbon spring onions were all in the
worst category.
In the best was Nicky's Nurseries, Dobies, Suttons, Johnsons, Mr
Fothergills, all taken on an average success rate. The source was Which?
Gardening.

So who did they miss testing? Did they test Thomas Etty Esq, Marshalls and
Seeds of Italy?
Unwins seems to do badly from what you say yet I've had no noticeable
problems with their veg seed.
With all seed companies I've had the occasional "bad" packet of seed that
won't germinate well, I've never noticed it to be company specific.

Which! That gives me a problem.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
just W. of London

On 2009-10-03 08:06:40 +0100, "Bob Hobden" said:


"Sacha" wrote ...
, Sacha said:
yaputa said:
Sacha wrote:
There was another of those 'successful germination tables' in today's
papers. I think Simpson's did best.

Not according to todays Telegraph.

So who was it? Our Telegraph is downstairs, so is the sleeping dog and
I'm not!

Okay - irritable dog but found it: Worst were Unwin's Glory of Seville
geraniums with a 73% failure rate. Best was Nicky's Nurseries had an
average success rate of 94%. Unwin's, Plants of Distinction Begonina Non
Stop Mocha, , Simpson's Seeds Hestia runner beans, Unwin's White Lisbon
spring onions and Simpson's White Lisbon spring onions were all in the
worst category.
In the best was Nicky's Nurseries, Dobies, Suttons, Johnsons, Mr
Fothergills, all taken on an average success rate. The source was Which?
Gardening.

So who did they miss testing? Did they test Thomas Etty Esq, Marshalls and
Seeds of Italy?
Unwins seems to do badly from what you say yet I've had no noticeable
problems with their veg seed.
With all seed companies I've had the occasional "bad" packet of seed that
won't germinate well, I've never noticed it to be company specific.

Which! That gives me a problem.

Those were the only companies listed, Bob but Which may list more.
ISTR the same thing coming out last year and Tuckers and Thompson &
Morgan not doing very well. Perhaps this year they just tested a
different selection of seedsmen?
--
Sacha

Zhang Dawei writes
On 03/10/2009, 08:06:40, in uk.rec.gardening
), Bob Hobden wrote:

So who did they miss testing? Did they test Thomas Etty Esq,
Marshalls and Seeds of Italy? Unwins seems to do badly from what
you say yet I've had no noticeable problems with their veg seed.
With all seed companies I've had the occasional "bad" packet of
seed that won't germinate well, I've never noticed it to be company
specific.

Interesting that the information given earlier lists a number of
spring onions seeds from various people as being problematic: I have
always had problems with germination rates of spring onions seeds, no
matter what I try and what firm's seeds I try. I recall we had a
discussion about this a year or so ago on here as well.

That leads onto the point that, although the survey was merely a
general one, there may be seeds of plants which routinely have
germination problems, and if a firm offers more varieties of those
kinds of seeds than others, their overall results may well be biased
downwards because of this. It may not be feasible, but comparisons
across seed merchants for specific single kinds of seeds might help
give a clearer idea as a supplement to the more general overal
picture given so far.

I haven't read this year's Which survey but I've read previous ones, and
what they seem to do is take an indicator selection of about 10 seed
varieties which are available from all the firms tested. So there
shouldn't be the bias you suggest, because it'll be exactly the same
number of packets of seed from 'problem plants' from each supplier
tested, irrespective of how many different varieties that supplier
sells.
--
Kay

On Sun, 4 Oct 2009 12:19:14 +0100, K wrote:

I haven't read this year's Which survey but I've read previous ones, and
what they seem to do is take an indicator selection of about 10 seed
varieties which are available from all the firms tested. So there
shouldn't be the bias you suggest, because it'll be exactly the same
number of packets of seed from 'problem plants' from each supplier
tested, irrespective of how many different varieties that supplier
sells.

Does it matter what the germination rat0e of something like onion seed
is? Don't you get hundreds of them in a pinch??

--
®óñ© © ²°¹°-°¹

In article , Sacha
writes

In the best was Nicky's Nurseries,

I have ordered several times from Nicky's and they've always been very
reliable. No surprises and good germination for most seeds.

Janet

--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk