Solana Seeds

[annik]

http://solanaseeds.netfirms.com/welcome.html

[Mischka]

Has anyone here ever ordered from them?

[salix]

There is a previous thread on this company (about half way down on page 2), most responders were positive. Ordered from them (?him) last year with no problems and prompt service.

[beefyboy]

Just went through there catalog and liked all the unique variety's.

[travis]

I ordered seeds from them in 2007 and got very good germination and true to type plants grown in 2008. Mostly I used them for hard to find or newer types or varieties that were not available from other commercial vendors. Some of the varieties may come to you with French language labels and even French spelling of the variety. Porc Chop for example. So I would make sure and write the known variety name on each envelope in English when you first receive the seeds.

[gardenfrog]

My experience with them is they are professional and expeditious. : )

[kd3]

I have ordered from them twice, in 2008 & 2009. They have a fabulous selection, and seeds were shipped promptly even though I ordered during peak season. kd

[kygreg]

Nothing against Solana, but it is a pet peeve of mine when I see seeds of some varieties labeled as "rare" when the seeds are readily availabe at SSE, Sandhill, Baker's or from members of various gardening forums. Makes me a little leary of buying from places that label seeds as rare. But that's just me.

[Wi-sunflower]

Then you better not look at tomato or pepper seeds on eBay. For some sellers, everything they list is "rare".

But I know what you mean and it bugs me too.

I think some use the word RARE to justify the prices they are asking for the seeds.

Carol

[kygreg]

Carol, e-bay is what I was mostly referring to; also on there is the guy who advertises the world's record for tomato as his Big Zac seeds; I emailed him and asked him for his documentation of this since I had heard no news of anyone beating the Delicious; he returned my message he knew it was true because he grew it and weighed it. Not exactly verification to me.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by kygreg

Nothing against Solana, but it is a pet peeve of mine when I see seeds of some varieties labeled as "rare" when the seeds are readily availabe at SSE, Sandhill, Baker's or from members of various gardening forums. Makes me a little leary of buying from places that label seeds as rare. But that's just me.

Saying something is rare or endangered or the like, when it's not, is also something that bothers me as well. And when I look at seed sites I canpretty much tell where they got their seeds from and so they should know that I know that they should know what's rare or not. ( I love that you know I know bit from the Lion in Winter)

So I know that many varieties that Solana lists were initially from the SSE Yearbook, Fair enough b'c so are varieties that many other companies list. I do wish that Solana had said a bit more on the background on the variety Dr. Carolyn though. And I can also tell that they've read my book. Fair enough on that as well.

I could list the companies I know that do say rare, endangered, almost extinct, whatever, but it is Thanksgiving, so I'm in a mellow mood.

And I can't understand why anyone in this day and age would buy any varieties off e-bay unless they were totally unaware of the many deserving commercial places that sell, oh a few thousand different varieties.

[icelord]

I ordered from them, I think they are a good company with great service nice selection and the seeds got to hand pretty quick! I havent grown there stuff all out yet but what I did germinated very well.

Darth

[kd3]

Just to echo Icelord's comments I also had excellent germination, and all the varieties I grew were true to type to the best of my knowledge. kd

[travis]

I think three of the varieties I grew from Solana seeds in 2008 are not available anywhere else including not the SSE Yearbook. I'll check that again when I get a chance to make sure before naming them and drawing fire. I mean blue moons are rare even though they occur from time to time.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by travis

I think three of the varieties I grew from Solana seeds in 2008 are not available anywhere else including not the SSE Yearbook. I'll check that again when I get a chance to make sure before naming them and drawing fire. I mean blue moons are rare even though they occur from time to time.

I wouldn't be surprised one bit if they had varieties that weren't in the SSE YEarbook at one point in time. It's a great collectiob of now about 4700 tomato varieties but there are other sources as well. You might want to check Tomodori and Ventmarin as well and also Tania's site.

But I'd be curious to know what they are anyway.

How about Bulakowski? That's a variety that was sent to me and I totally forgot to list it or offer it in a seed offer or whatever. I thought I might offer it in my next seed offer even though the seeds are about 5 yo now.

Travis, I don't know which SSE YEarbook you might be looking at or even the online version, but there are varieties that I know, some of them mine, that folks stopped listing for one reason or another, it happens to everyone at some point, and then SSE itself comes back sometimes and relists some of those varieties and sometimes not.