[Kristen]

I;m sure it happens to all of them at some time or another, but the Climbing French Been "Blue Lake" that Premier sold me this year was dwarf and yellow ... tasted good, but given that I have no idea what variety it wad I can't even buy some more next year!

[surbie100]

And one of my tomatillos from Premier was actually a beefsteak tomato. 

[Annen]

And one of my tomatillos from Premier was actually a beefsteak tomato. 

I just got a hot pepper plant from a packet of sweet pepper seeds from Suttons ( they are replacing the seeds for me)

[Snoop]

I buy seeds on the basis of what it is I want, not who supplies it. Except in the case of T&M. They do have the odd thing that I really like (squash and melons) that I can't buy anywhere else, so I buy from them when there's a special offer and I get enough to last me a couple of years so that I don't have to give them repeat business every year, as I have had pretty appalling customer service from them in the past.

As for Real Seeds, I don't buy from them as some of the things they claim are  rare are not, their minimum order is very high and their postage charges to Spain are ridiculously expensive.

My supplier disasters this year came from Nicky's Nursery, but they also provided one of my biggest successes. I bought three packets of seeds from them this year: one out of ten chilli pepper seeds germinated (all my sweet peppers and other chillies sown at the same time did OK); the Big Boy tomatoes were something else altogether and not very nice at all; but my Ogen melons from them have been outstanding.

Suppliers I have had good experiences with include Marshalls, DT Brown's, Thomas Etty, Just Seed, More Veg, Seeds of Italy and JBA Seed Potatoes (for seed potatoes and shallot sets).

[AnnieB]

I generally buy from two or three of the smaller ones, never used the large groups.
Suppose the internet makes it easy to track down a supplier of even the unusual ones.

[heygrow]

Used DT Brown for first time this year. Good germination and plants seemed more productive, but that could have been the weather. Cheaper than others.

[Kristen]

Used DT Brown for first time this year.... Cheaper than others.

Not used them, but heard good things.  Thought I would waste an idle moment! comparing prices.  I started with Cauliflower Clapton F1 (a widely available variety favoured by folk that suffer from clubroot )

Bit of a statistically small sample size!!

30 seeds from:

Kings Seeds £2.85 http://www.kingsseeds.com/vegetable_seeds/Cauliflower%20Clapton%20F1/P-11231
Suttons £3.69
DT Brown £2.99 http://www.dtbrownseeds.co.uk/Vegetable-Seeds-1/Cauliflower-Seed_2/Cauliflower-Clapton-F1-Seeds.html
Suttons £3.69  http://www.suttons.co.uk/Gardening/Vegetable+Seeds/Popular+Vegetable+Seeds/Cauliflower+Seeds/Cauliflower+Clapton+F1_158233.htm

20 seeds:

Marshalls £2.95 http://www.marshalls-seeds.co.uk/cauliflower-clapton-seeds-pid2305.html

Folk speak highly of Kings Seeds too (favoured by allotment associations I believe?).  I bought from them this Spring and they sent me the wrong product, which then turned out that they knew about as they had accidentally put two products on their website with the same code.  Given that they knew about it when I contacted them I was surprised that their customer service had not contacted me, before I contacted them. Ho!Hum! They were out of stock of what I actually wanted ...

I expect for many things, such as Lettuce seed, cheapest-will-do as someone selling fewer seeds per packet, cheaper, will be better value. I don't need 1,500 lettuce seeds!

Lettuce Webbs Wonderful

Kings 1,400 @ £0.90 http://www.kingsseeds.com/kolist45/1/True/0/12621.htm
DT Brown 1,250 @ 0.99 http://www.dtbrownseeds.co.uk/Vegetable-Seeds-1/Lettuce-Seed_2/Lettuce-Webbs-Wonderful_3.html
Suttons 900 @ £1.55 http://www.suttons.co.uk/Gardening/Vegetable+Seeds/When+to+Sow+Vegetables/Vegetables+to+Sow+in+March/Lettuce+Webbs+Wonderful+Seeds_168490.htm
Marshalls ?? @ £1.65 http://www.suttons.co.uk/Gardening/Vegetable+Seeds/When+to+Sow+Vegetables/Vegetables+to+Sow+in+March/Lettuce+Webbs+Wonderful+Seeds_168490.htm

[Snoop]

Webb's Wonderful from

MoreVeg.co.uk: 75 seeds for 50 p.
Thomas Etty: 500 seeds for one pound.

Only problem, neither of these suppliers sell Clapton. You might like the Etty 'aesthetic', Kristen, though the drawback (if you want them) is "We do not sell F1 hybrid varieties, nor genetically modified varieties".

[Kristen]

Webb's Wonderful from

MoreVeg.co.uk: 75 seeds for 50 p.

That's quite stingy for Lettuce Seed, eh?  Not that I want more than 75 lettuce a year though ...

I only picked Clapton at random ... Clubroot is thankfully <KnockOnWood> not something that I have a problem with.

I did also check Premier Seeds Direct, on eBay, and they had neither Clapton nor Webbs Wonderful (which was a bit of a surprise). However, their lettuce seeds are all (that I saw) £0.99 a packet, and looked to be 1,500 - 2,000 seed - so "plenty".

They have 11 varieties of Cauliflower - none that were obviously F1, all £1-ish and 500+ seeds.

They do sell some F1 seed - Sweetcorn for example (although no varieties that I have heard of) - £0.99 for 50 seeds - e.g. Early Extra Sweet F1

Kings also sell Early Extra Sweet F1 50 @ £1.65

Checking for Lark / Swift (which I think are similar):

MoreVeg 20 @ £0.75
Kings Swift 50 @ £1.95
Marshalls Lark 50 @ £1.95
DT Brown Lark 35 @ £1.99
Suttons Swift 35 @ £2.49

Quite a lot of price variation ... but buying in the 50p-a-packet Sale seems best

[devonbarmygardener]

I try to avoid the bigger seed companies as their customer service seems to be less than great. I bought awful plug plants from Marshalls, complained about their condition and have yet to receive a reply. Will not use them again.

Now I'm the opposite.
I get all my grafted veg from Marshalls and they have never failed. I have also had other plug plants from them (mint/tarragon) which looked a bit ropy may be, but have been vast successes

Now T&M - they have never been good for plug plants as far as I'm concerned. I ordered a perennial flower set for the allotment flower bed (for the pollinators) and not one of the did well, and not one of them survived the following year - as perennials SHOULD!

Seeds from T&M have been fine, though I buy from garden centres - I don't buy online from them at all.

Love Seeds of Italy (Franchi), realseeds, DT Browns and Suttons - all very good and have done well.
Had a bad year with Unwins back in 2010 or 2011 - nothing germinated  nothing done differently on my part - I do feel it was their seeds and I don't buy many from them now.

[Headgardener22]

Webb's Wonderful from

MoreVeg.co.uk: 75 seeds for 50 p.

That's quite stingy for Lettuce Seed, eh?  Not that I want more than 75 lettuce a year though ...

I only picked Clapton at random ... Clubroot is thankfully <KnockOnWood> not something that I have a problem with.

I did also check Premier Seeds Direct, on eBay, and they had neither Clapton nor Webbs Wonderful (which was a bit of a surprise). However, their lettuce seeds are all (that I saw) £0.99 a packet, and looked to be 1,500 - 2,000 seed - so "plenty".

They have 11 varieties of Cauliflower - none that were obviously F1, all £1-ish and 500+ seeds.

They do sell some F1 seed - Sweetcorn for example (although no varieties that I have heard of) - £0.99 for 50 seeds - e.g. Early Extra Sweet F1

Kings also sell Early Extra Sweet F1 50 @ £1.65

Checking for Lark / Swift (which I think are similar):

MoreVeg 20 @ £0.75
Kings Swift 50 @ £1.95
Marshalls Lark 50 @ £1.95
DT Brown Lark 35 @ £1.99
Suttons Swift 35 @ £2.49

Quite a lot of price variation ... but buying in the 50p-a-packet Sale seems best

Shows how much cheaper Moles are: Lark - 250 seeds for £3.00 . The seeds last more than one season (this year I used seeds that were 4 years old and got 90% plus germination).