10 Tips for Successful Seed Shopping

10 tips for successful seed shopping – help with getting the most from one of the delights of dark and dismal late autumn and winter!

Sitting down to choose what you want to grow next year in your vegetable garden and which flowers you want to grow in your ornamental flower borders may feel indulgent, especially if you have a long list of Christmas preparation tasks. But growing from seed is an economical way of filling your garden with colour and edible crops, and getting your seed order in early will give you a wide range of varieties and cultivars of plants to choose from.

10 Tips for Successful Seed Shopping – Planning!

Before you start your seed shopping, and get carried away with all the exciting plants you could grow next year, it is a good idea to be organised: –

Make a list or find your list of the plants that you would like to grow next year. Work out which of these need to be grown from seed, or are better grown from seed.
Then check your existing seed packets and home collected seeds to see if you have already have some of them.
And whilst you’re checking packets, look at the ‘sow by’ date. It’s usually best to throw away or compost any seed packets that are seriously out of date.
If you have open packets the seeds may still be viable, ie will germinate. Check out our ‘Seeds & Seed Sowing in Your Garden blog’ (link below) for how to do this.
Sort the remaining unopened, in-date seed packets into edible crops and flowers / ornamental plants. If you have lots of seed packets, you may wish to sub divide these piles.

Now you know what you have and what you need to go seed shopping for. You may like to download Plews free gardening printable ‘Seeds I Need’ for your online or in person shopping list.

Successful Seed Shopping Tip 2

Now, from where should you buy your seeds?

These days we have a choice of: –

online seed catalogues
paper, or hard copy seed catalogues
visiting a nursery or garden centre
taking advantage of membership of an allotment society to benefit from group purchase

Remember too that many plant organisations, garden and allotment societies have the opportunity for members to share and swop seeds too.

You could also add your selection of desirable seeds to your Christmas present list. Packets of interesting seeds make good stocking fillers for example. Or ask for a Seed Advent Calendar (fewer calories then chocolate and can be even more fun!).

Successful Seed shopping Tip 3

Armed with your list of desired seeds, compare the selection and prices from your different sources.

Personally, I like to use a mix of online and paper seed catalogues first, before making a trip to the nursery or garden centre. Many of the specialist nurseries have online lists of available seeds, and these days most also have online shopping facilities, or at least mail order.

10 Tips for Successful Seed Shopping – Comparing Prices

Different companies may have different amounts of seeds in a packet, so check the amount of seeds as well as the price.

Also consider whether you would like to pay more for seeds that have been pre-treated, making germination guaranteed. However, be aware that some pre-treatments include pesticides that may harm pollinating insects.

Successful Seed shopping Tip 5

Is growing organic produce important to you? To be truly organic, your seeds should be organic too. Organic seeds are available from an increasing number of suppliers. Finding vegan seeds is trickier but there are a few online retailers who offer them.

Successful Seed shopping Tip 6

Do you want to collect seed from the plants you grow? F1 hybrid seeds are generally sterile.

Successful Seed shopping Tip 7

The number of days from sowing to maturity quoted in seed catalogues and on seed packets is an estimate. The actual number of days may be slightly different for your area.

10 Tips for Successful Seed Shopping – be adventurous

Why not try something new? Heritage seed varieties of flowers, fruit and vegetables are fun to try and you’ll be doing your ’bit’ to improve biodiversity. For the widest selection of plants, you’ll need to be a member of a plant society or seed swopping scheme. Nevertheless, there are an goodly number of heritage seed varieties available through more mainstream seed shopping outlets.

Successful seed shopping Tip 9

Only buy as many seeds as you have room to sow and grow. You can always go seed shopping next year to buy more! (And of course I never get carried away and buy too many…)

10 Tips for Successful Seed Shopping

Check your seed trays, plant pots, dibbers and general propagation needs – you may need more now you’ve been seed shopping. You could add those seed sowing items to your Birthday or Christmas present list. Or of course re-use other items for this new purpose. Do check out ‘Sowing Seeds Indoors – what you need and what you don’t’ (blog link is below) for ways to save.

and finally

For further gardening advice and inspiration, check out Plews Potting Shed blogs, including the selection below which, funnily enough, focusses on seeds. But there are over 500 blogs on a wide range of gardening topics for you to choose from.

You may find our monthly Tipsheet Plews News, helpful too.

And of course, finding and following us on Instagram Pinterest and Facebook will give you lots of ideas and advice.

And for individual help in seed sowing and becoming a more confident gardener, why not have a Plews Gardening Lesson?