Seed buying comes at a point in the gardening year where you can plan your garden and think ahead to what is to come. It's a delight to pour over seed catalogues, dreaming of how the garden will look throughout the seasons.
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Thinking carefully about where you buy your seeds is also good in other ways - local, organic, ethical seed suppliers that produce seed sustainably are helping the environment.
There are many seed suppliers to choose from, many of which are specialists in their field, but we asked three experts where they buy their seeds and here's what they said.
Becky Crowley
Cut-flower specialist and assistant head gardener at Raby Castle
For the plantaholics among us, Derry Watkins’ Special Plants Nursery is hard to beat. Last spring, I had the pleasure of exploring Derry’s inspiring garden near Bath, and I now visit her online seed shop for garden staples including verbascum and nicotiana, and special lunarias such as L. annua ‘Chedglow’.
Inevitably, I’ll find myself drawn to the more intriguing, lesser- known offerings too, such as Michauxia campanuloides – how could I resist its description as a ‘stupendously beautiful biennial’, even when warned that it’s ‘hardy but hard to grow’? Derry’s online shop is infused with her contagious enthusiasm and deep knowledge of everything she grows. specialplants.net
The Alma Proust seed shop is a treasure trove for cut-flower enthusiasts. Browsing the online shop feels like stepping into the romantic, quintessentially British world of Paris Alma and Milli Proust.
Their curated selections of hardy and half-hardy annuals are stunningly photographed and paired with personal growing notes. The shop offers many sought-after, cut-flower annuals such as antirrhinums, cosmos, rudbeckias and Icelandic poppies, including the elusive Colibri poppy, much loved for its large, crinkled, tissue-paper blooms. milliproust.com
Roger Parsons holds the National Collection of sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus) and his website is my one-stop-shop for sweet peas and other Lathyrus species.
Whether you’re looking for Spencer, Old Fashioned or Grandiflora types, Roger offers them all, along with a selection of exquisite annual species such as the turquoise-blue L. sativus var. azureus and bronze L. annuus ‘Mrs R. Penney.’ Each type has a score for scent, so in the depths of winter we can enjoy planning a garden that is not only beautiful, but filled with incredible fragrance too. rpsweetpeas.com
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Benjamin Pope
Head gardener and writer
For something nostalgic and traditional I go to Thomas Etty Esq, a seed supplier of times gone by, specialising in heritage varieties of vegetable and flower seed. Listed within the pages of its catalogue are tried-and-tested plants that have been forgotten over newer varieties, though are often just as good. How can you resist the perfect broad bean ‘Mr Bunyard’s Exhibition’ or the aromatic squash ‘Musquée de Provence’, along with foreign classics such as black Tuscan kale and tomato ‘Cherokee Princess’?
Whether you look online or in the print catalogue (available on request), you will find a wealth of information regarding the history of different vegetables and flowers. If you want to grow something with historical reference and importance, look no further. thomasetty.co.uk
If growing for nature is a priority, I’d recommend Emorsgate Seeds. It’s a family run business that has grown and sold wildflower seeds in the UK since 1980. Its comprehensive website contains much information on wildflowers, from individual species and meadow mixes, through to case studies and practical information on how to establish and maintain these natural environments.
Its range includes all the classics such as cornflower (Centaurea cyanus) and fringes campion (Silene fimbriata), through to the more uncommon greater knapweed (Centaurea scabiosa) and the modern meadow essential, yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor). Both the catalogue and website are heavily illustrated with photographs, making it such a useful point of reference and education for anyone keen to learn. wildseed.co.uk
Plant World Seed travels the globe with its range of more than 3,500 species to choose from, containing everything from hardy annuals and classic vegetables to unusual perennials and rare exotics. How about growing your own loofah (Luffa aegyptiaca) or dragon fruit (Hylocereus undatus), or perhaps the attractive golden form of our common cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris ‘Golden Fleece’)?
Both the website and downloadable catalogue are full of images and information on how to grow each plant. If it’s escapism and excitement you’re after, this seed supplier has it in spades. plant-world-seeds.com
Coralie Thomas
Assistant head gardener at Great Dixter
Growild Nursery in Scotland lists a wide range of seed of unusual and rare plants – specialising in begonias, impatiens and plants in the Urticaceae family.
Looking through the website, it feels as if so much care has gone into ensuring that every plant is comprehensively featured – with beautiful photos, and descriptions of its native range, expected habit and potential garden use, as well as germination techniques that are specific to each plant. The hand-packed seeds have always had remarkably good viability for me. It’s good to keep an eye on the ‘Seeds just in’ section of the website, which is updated regularly with details of freshly collected seed. growildnursery.co.uk
The Scottish Rock Gardening Club hosts an annual seed exchange to which members contribute each year. As a member, you can submit a request for several seeds for a small fee. Browsing the list of unfamiliar plants from far-off places to whittle down your choice is a delight over the winter holidays, and each listing includes a hyperlink to help you research the plant. The deadline for submitting a request is 3 January each year, and seeds are mailed out later in the month. srgc.net
The Chiltern Seeds catalogue is my go-to source for classic varieties of annuals and biennials as well as interesting new selections. I can always depend on it for consistency, range of selection and quality of seed. The catalogue is particularly enjoyable to look through as it’s organised by colour rather than just alphabetically. chilternseeds.co.uk
Greek plantsperson Liberto Dario (whose real name is Eleftherios Dariotis) has recently launched his website listing a varied range of largely Mediterranean plants and bulbs. He’s amassed an amazing photo gallery with all the plants he has tried in his own garden over the years. His descriptions include helpful sowing advice and context about where the plants are found in the wild. If you’re in Europe, this will be a great source of seeds of plants that aren’t readily available elsewhere. mediterraneanseedsandbulbs.com
Johnny’s Seeds is an American seed company with a fantastic range of cut flowers and vegetables. I love discovering which new varieties it lists every year. The resources on its website are unparalleled, with sowing date calculators, planning tools and growing guides. It can organise the necessary phytosanitary certificates to ship to the UK for large quantities of seeds. johnnyseeds.com