Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Review of International Seeds suppliers - Chiltern Seeds UK

Buying seeds online is not a big deal in countries like United states and United kingdom but buying seeds online from international seeds vendors is not something common in pakistan. The seeds shops in pakistan which are quite a few in number sell only annual flower seeds. No perennial seeds available. The only reason which i get to know is lack of customers. Although i doubt that.

I had a few experiences of buying seeds online from those seeds vendor which ship internationally so i thought i should share my experience as well as to have a little bit review and comparison of these big seeds vendors. The first is Chiltern seeds UK. They were the first i ever ordered from. Here are some pros and cons of Chiltern seeds.

Pros: 
Variety: There is hardly any plant which they do not have seeds for. From tropical water lilies to alpine wild flowers and from vegetable seeds to cactus seeds, they have got everything.
Mixtures: I love their mixtures. they have got so many of them and the seeds are great in number per packet. The few i got interested in were fragrant flower mixture, tropical seeds mixtures, butterfly attracting mixtures etc. They also offer anonymous mixtures as well. And last but not least the species mixture. Can you find somewhere a mixture of all the varieties of annual poppies in a single packet or all the varieties of lilies seeds in a single packet?
Free seeds/Bonus: They do give free mixtures of perennials or annuals or tree/shrubs with your next order but that's all.
Delivery Time: Very good. The packet reaches my country Pakistan just in 5 days as compared to Thompson and Morgan whose packet reaches me in 13 days.

Cons: 
No discounts/Voucher Codes: Unlike Thompson and Morgan, they do not provide any occasional discounts like 50% off or 10% off. They also do not give any free vouchers with the printed catalog. They did, however, put a sale of 1/3rd off last autumn and this was the first time they offered that. I hope they will offer this year as well.
No bulbs: Although they do provide some plants bulbs including achimenes but otherwise they so not sell bulbs/tubers, only seeds.

Overall They are the best seed suppliers in my opinion. I even rate them better than Thompson and morgan and parkseeds. In next post i will review Thompson and morgan international.

4 comments:

Izhar said...

This is just what I have been looking for, can you compare their prices with local vendors? I have been consistently browsing many online seed websites and found most of the varieties quiet tempting... but I was some what reluctant... anyways I wanted to ask that each time when a package from international source is received at my place...its been already opened, have you encountered such situation? if yes have you lost any seeds due to this? and have you bought any bare-root, tuber or bulb online?

Muhammad khabbab said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Muhammad khabbab said...

izhar, the prices of local vendors are obviously cheaper but local vendors do not have any variety at all. ZERO variety. Only seasonal seeds.

My seeds packets are never opened, they contain the customs declaration that it contains sample seeds with no commercial value. Never lost a seed.

Buying bulbs and bare-root are difficult as shipping costs are much higher. Also, they might be held be customs. I am currently undergoing a trade with someone from USA sending me bulbs of ornithogalum. And the shipping cost he told me is 13.45$. Let's see how does it go.

Harangad Singh said...

hi khabab...harangad here. i saw the picture of the pink lotus on your blog. this pink lotus is a nymphaea species...probably rubra (pink form) or rosea... but definitely not nelumbo. a nelumbo has fully circular leaf whereas a nymphaea has a cut in the circle (like a piece removed from a pizza). also nelumbo leaves start rising above the water when the plant is ready to flower and look like shallow champagne glasses. also nelumbo flowers are much more fuller and larger.


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