Hello everyone,
I always hear about amazing fruit varieties from around the world. Im personally having some interesting physalis species seeds imported from Germany over the next few weeks. In America we have hundreds of online seed stores but the one that stands out the most and seems to have the largest quantity of interesting varieties is bakers creek. Does anyone know the names of the various seed sites from around the world that are the equivalent to our bakers creek?
Thanks!
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These are awesome, thanks!
Many times it’s not legal to import. So I avoid out of country nurseries.
We have many good ones
A top 5 Garden Watchdog for herbs and herb seeds
https://companionplants.com/index.php
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I believe that’s for the importation of cuttings/plants and doesn’t really relate to seeds. Thank you for the resource!
That’s not true
Sometimes they go through, sometimes they are confiscated, and sometimes the USDA shows up at your door. The latter is quite common for EBay users. EBay reports all imported plant material sales to the USDA. You can read stories of this happening to people on the Ourfigs.com forum.
This one happened on Etsy. For fig cuttings. Though as you can see in the above links, many seeds are not allowed at all. So same thing.
https://www.ourfigs.com/forum/figs-home/985938-got-a-visit-today-from-the-usda
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Google rare seed catalogues
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As I posted in another thread a few days ago, I’d say these avocado seeds I (accidentally) ordered from Mexico aren’t ever gonna show up:
It wasn’t until after the shipping confirmation that I realized where the seller was located. I mean it’s true these are relatively large seeds, but I’d suspect any package that is clearly labeled as seeds (like it is supposed to be) will be confiscated. I just hope I don’t get a USDA visit like @Drew51 described!
Relevant to my specific situation, it looks like avocado seeds are specifically prohibited from Mexico based on the info he linked above:
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Well I would not worry about it. Chances are you will be fine. They just want the plant material. You will not be in trouble. Avoid any problems by not doing it again. I did it too, as I didn’t know any better. I do now.
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Wow, I didn’t know all of this. Thanks for sharing everyone!
You can get some interesting Italian varieties from growitalian.com (mostly vegetables, herbs, flowers, and a very few fruit, such as Fragaria vesca), from whom I’ve ordered with no issues. They’re the official U.S. distributor for Franchi Sementi. Gourmetseed.com used to be great—believe they were the official U.S. distributor for Bavicchi —but the company changed owners, moved from New Mexico to California, and apparently went downhill: the last seed I got from them was old stock and, what’s worse, had no-to-low germination, probably from having spent time in a hot warehouse. Maybe they’ve shaped up their act since then . . .
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Here are two that are not as large as Baker Creek, but that might be of interest. I like Franchi seeds for Italian varieties, been ordering from them for years (growitalian.com). Evergreen used to be great for Asian varieties, but they appear to be out of business. https://kitazawaseed.com may be a replacement, but I haven’t ordered from them recently.
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A general rule of thumb is that if the seeds are for woody plants like trees or shrubs there will be more restrictions on importing than for annuals and herbaceous perennials, but the country of origin factors in as well.
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I have made the mistake of ordering seeds without realizing I needed certification. I got lucky, but was advised that I might want to do a bit of research a la what was explained above. Two of the seeds I considered could not be sent and were recognized and deleted from my order with notice. And I was warned when they shipped that there was a chance the order would be checked and/or confiscated with links to what I probably should have already known for the next time.
That said, plant-world-seeds.com has a lot of interesting stuff I have not seen elsewhere. It is located within the UK, and is probably the closest comparison to Baker’s Creek I have stumbled across.
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Thank you again everyone for contributing to this list! I’d actually like to throw in one that I know of NIKITOVKA Seeds - Heirloom Seeds from Ukraine and Russia its based in Ukraine and stocks many old Ukranian and Russian varieties. Unfortunately given the political situation they cannot send out seeds at the moment but they’ve gotten some interesting varieties and are very cheap.
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Looks like the problem here might be that the seeds were not labeled. Any plant matter being shipped to just about any state in the US is supposed to be labeled with both botanical and common names.
No, they had notes elsewhere on the form that the seeds were marked as Persea and that genus is prohibited.
Probably for good reason. When you import an agriculturaly significant crop from where it is native you’re running the risk of also importing diseases specific to that species.
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Agreed! I didn’t realize the Etsy seller was in Mexico until after the shipping confirmation. I’m honestly pleasantly surprised that the inspection process was this effective.
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