Seeds from eBay - Know What to Expect!
I decided to come back to this subject. As a garden lover, I love to experiment with new plants and cultivars. I'm not one of those highly organised people who make a garden plan (even though I did make a plan as that was required) , buy a fixed amount of plants of certain sizes, plant them and then stick to that.
Nope. What I do is that even if I have a plan, I don't necessarily do everything I planned and in stead I leave blanks to fill them later with anything I find interesting. And believe me, I can find plenty of interesting!
Last winter I did a lot of seed shopping. I bought seeds from local stores, from different web shops (which sell very good quality) and then I also decided to give it a try and buy some from eBay as well.
The variety of sellers is vast on eBay. Some are professionals selling quality seeds and some are hobby gardeners selling their own production, which usually are open pollinated seeds resulting anything but the original cultivar. And then there are some selling what ever they can get their hands on even without knowing what it is and then claiming it to be something else.
Here's one case of the latter:
"Southern Seeds" changed the name of the eBay store as soon as I sent reclamation, as I noticed what they were doing as soon as I received the seeds. Because I have been growing pants for years now and I really like to collect the seeds too if I can, I'm already familiar with variety of seeds and I usually know what to expect when I'm buying something.
Papaver somniferum seeds definitely were not what they were called. And that was not the only "mistake".
California poppy seeds I ordered didn't resemble California poppy seeds at all. Actually all the seeds they sent looked like corn poppy seeds. Or some premature poppy seeds that wouldn't be able to sprout at all.
When sending my reclamation, I received a pitiful explanation saying that the seller herself hadn't been able to pack the seeds due to an illness and the family members had done it. And that they didn't know the seeds too well and of course they would send new seeds. Which they didn't do, of course, so I was left with the original purchase.
Well, since I had expected something like this to happen when buying from eBay, I didn't get too bothered. I will continue to buy seeds from those sellers that actually sent what they promised, and not buy anything from those sellers that are selling ambiguous seeds.
"Ambiguous" doesn't mean those people who actually are honest and tell you they are selling seeds from their own garden and there's no guarantee the result will resemble the mother plant, as that is to be expected with openly pollinated seeds. That's just exciting! You never know what kind of a new plant you will get, but at least you will know what species it will be.
I actually scattered the seeds sent by "Southern seeds" to a new flower bed I made last summer, and they turned out to be exactly what I had guessed - simple reddish corn poppies. None of the seeds I ordered were what they had promised.
Nope. What I do is that even if I have a plan, I don't necessarily do everything I planned and in stead I leave blanks to fill them later with anything I find interesting. And believe me, I can find plenty of interesting!
Last winter I did a lot of seed shopping. I bought seeds from local stores, from different web shops (which sell very good quality) and then I also decided to give it a try and buy some from eBay as well.
The variety of sellers is vast on eBay. Some are professionals selling quality seeds and some are hobby gardeners selling their own production, which usually are open pollinated seeds resulting anything but the original cultivar. And then there are some selling what ever they can get their hands on even without knowing what it is and then claiming it to be something else.
Here's one case of the latter:
Just compare the seeds on the left to those on the right.
"Southern Seeds" changed the name of the eBay store as soon as I sent reclamation, as I noticed what they were doing as soon as I received the seeds. Because I have been growing pants for years now and I really like to collect the seeds too if I can, I'm already familiar with variety of seeds and I usually know what to expect when I'm buying something.
Papaver somniferum seeds definitely were not what they were called. And that was not the only "mistake".
California poppy seeds I ordered didn't resemble California poppy seeds at all. Actually all the seeds they sent looked like corn poppy seeds. Or some premature poppy seeds that wouldn't be able to sprout at all.
When sending my reclamation, I received a pitiful explanation saying that the seller herself hadn't been able to pack the seeds due to an illness and the family members had done it. And that they didn't know the seeds too well and of course they would send new seeds. Which they didn't do, of course, so I was left with the original purchase.
Well, since I had expected something like this to happen when buying from eBay, I didn't get too bothered. I will continue to buy seeds from those sellers that actually sent what they promised, and not buy anything from those sellers that are selling ambiguous seeds.
"Ambiguous" doesn't mean those people who actually are honest and tell you they are selling seeds from their own garden and there's no guarantee the result will resemble the mother plant, as that is to be expected with openly pollinated seeds. That's just exciting! You never know what kind of a new plant you will get, but at least you will know what species it will be.
I actually scattered the seeds sent by "Southern seeds" to a new flower bed I made last summer, and they turned out to be exactly what I had guessed - simple reddish corn poppies. None of the seeds I ordered were what they had promised.
Posts
0 comments: