girlgroupgirl wrote... American Gardener, Are you running on Firefox with all the blocks up? Are you blocking the files you don't want downloaded into your computer?   Try setting it up that way. I'm anal after a crash by a bot a few years ago which cost me $600 to get a new computer (before I knew people I could buy rebuilt 2nd hand computers from in my community!!). I have no problems but still get a few Mother Earth pop-ups but mostly no pop ups and never thrown over into other domain sites.   I will 2nd Horizon Herbs, and give big HANDS UP to The Thyme Garden who are my favorite herb seed company because the owners are just so nice and genuine. I also buy some seeds on eBay. Especially hard to find native herb seeds that I can't find anyone else to sell them.     GGG..   Honestly i don't even know what firefox is.  Is it just another type of browser? or some kind of software i should be using to keep all the crap out?  Guess it dosen't matter i'd never figure out how to use it anyways.  What i use is a browser called Advanced Browser.. either that or i sometimes use Opera.  I like both of those far better than internet explorer.   And i think i have my security settings set on medium.. just cause i do do alot of surfing and i've had too many problems with viruses and spyware and all those worms or trojans or whatever they put on the harddrives.  And i do have the McAfee anti-virus.. but i think these people who design such things know how to get around that cause i still get all the crap on my computer anyways.  That's why i try to be a little bit carefull of what the websites put on here.   I'm already on my thrid computer since last year at this time.. and it's a real pain starting over from scratch especially when i had years worth of records and bookmarks etc on my first one that crashed.   I agree you can sometimes find some really great stuff on ebay.  Personally i couldn't stand being a seller on there.. too much work for them to take all the money.  The good sellers really have it tough on there.  And there are some good sellers on there and some bad.  I've had sellers who i bought seeds from just throw em in a regular envelope with no label.. no nothing.. and mail it to me.  By the time they'd gone thru the postal machines it was barely recognizable as seeds.  So, just be carefull when you deal with people on ebay.. you'll get all kinds.   Stacy.. thanks for completing that search.. i guess it's a fair sampling of some of the more common seed companies.  I see some good ones in there as well as a few bad.  I hate ragging on bad ones though.. so i usually won't comment about them.  Could be i just had bad experiences with em.   Besides, i guess i've been spoiled these last few years.  I've been doing most of my seed shoppin in other countries like China, Japan, Vietnam, England, Spain, France, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands.  I don't even know their languages.. but i do know how to use babelfish.  And most of em all have english translation sites anyways.  So, that's where i find most of the really rare stuff.  Surprisingly they keep our old hertitage varieties in circulation a lot longer than we do.  And since it's easier to find old heirlooms in other countries.. that's where i've been shopping.    You'll get around to looking for old varieties eventually if you do enough seed trading.  For now you have at least a list of the more well known seed companies in america.  If you ever want some of the harder to find companies.. i could probably help ya out there too.  I'm sure they're not going to show up on ME searches.. and probably not on Dave's Garden either.  Although Dave's plant files is quite extensive.

stacymckenna wrote... Dave -   Sorry about that! None of those issues pop up for me on my system, though I can see how it would drive one bonkers VERY quickly!   Frankly, I'm lucky to be able to name more than three companies, so a database pulling from over 500 companies is eye-opening for me. A simple search like "parsnip" pulled up Victory as well as many others I was unfamiliar with, so at least for this newbie it wasn't just the same old regulars getting pulled up. But it's good to know the top listings are so highly recommended, and so universally! Thanks for the endorsement/encouragement! Ah.. not your fault Stacy.. If i didn't have my security settings on my browser set to not accept pluggins and active x controls i'd never even notice it myself.  And i hope i made it clear.. i think you'll find some great info at both those sites.  Just too much hassle for me to keep refusing those.  And the Mother earth site even froze up my browser when i did go to use that search feature.  It worked as long as i allowed it to put the pluggins on my harddrive every time i refreshed the page.. but then it froze up when i refused em.  Normally sites like this one that try to put active x controls on my harddrive work just fine when i refuse those.  This site i only need to allow those controls to answer messages like this one.  But then this is cause it's java script.. and at least i know what it's putting on my hard drive.   But, enough bout by paranoid habits.      Did you actually see 500 companies on there?  Cause i only ran a couple searches with some rare varieties and then some more common names and i only saw a few companies come up over and over.  The rarer ones they didn't have anyways.  Then like i said it froze up my browser.   Jan wrote... HAs anyone ever heard of or ordered from heirloomveggieseeds.com? Looks promising just wondering if anyone has used them before? thanks Jan.. i checked out your site.  Don't know if you really want my 2 cents or not.. but you're getting it anyways.  Ok first off looks like it's a wanna be seed company.. just starting out.  Which i have no problem with.. one day i'll be just starting out myself. The prices look really reasonable.  And the quantitys stated for the smaller size seeds sound like more than you'd ever need for a normal size garden.  Which is quite possible cause alot of the more common varieties you could pick up at a wholesale seed company for cheap and then put 100 seeds in each packet and it'd be less than a penny or two for those.  The packets are good.. i use those myself when i trade seeds... i happen to like the ziplocs.  And again she's saving a ton of money there by not having legal seed packets.  By legal i mean by law they have to have the germination %, test date, and purity printed in permanent ink on the outside of the packets.  And she says she uses an insert with the details inside the ziploc.    Now, not that i think there's anything wrong with it.. or the seeds.. just that's where she's saving the money that other seed companys have to charge extra for. And if you don't mind having someone else pick your varieties for ya.. it's alot better prices than you'll find anywhere else.  Even Ebay they'd get ya for higher costs cause of postage even if you won for a penny.  So, it's a good value.. but as for reputation.. i know nothing of Katerina.  I wish her luck getting the business going though.  I can say her seed saving instructions are kinda lame, as are her storage instructions.. but hey.. it's just a simple site built to sell one product.    Ok.. so much for me staying away from commenting bout seed companies.  Cindel.. i see you like Jerres company.  He does have alot of hard to find heirlooms, does always send out bonus packets.. and he always seems to have germination problems with some of his seeds every year.  Course at least he tells you which are low on germinating and he makes it up with the free packets.. so he does rate high on the customer service.  And even though it's illegal for him to sell some of those that are below germination standards set by the USDA, i won't tell if you don't.  The way i look at it is i'd like to be able to take my chances with em rather than not being able to find them at all.  And he does give replacements of a different variety.  So technically i suppose he could always say he sold ya the replacement and gave ya the low germination ones.   He does have a great reputation other than that one problem with poor germination though.  And i love his forumn... i actually hang out there all day long.   Dave

ARRGGhhh. Someone remind me next time not to go to the mother earth news sites!  No offense to anyone who likes those kinda sites.. but i just can't stand it when websites keep trying to put that "robots.txt" file on my harddrive.  Then i had to allow it to navigate to a half dozen different domains just to get to that search page.   And then it was full of those where it has to put active X and pluggins on my compturer.. and then it wasn't worth it after all that anyways.  It's all the same old usual seed companies everyone already knows bout.   Sorry, but i just don't like sites that try to put spyware on my computer.. don't like being asked a dozen times to allow active X and pluggin controls either.  That's one reason i don't use Dave's garden much too.. too much of that stuff.  Not that either one of em are bad sites cause i'm sure there's lots of usefull info on those... just i don't like all the spying.   Now Stacy.. back to the victory seeds.  Again i don't order from any companies anymore... but if i did i'd give Mike my support.  I did have a discussion with him a few months ago about getting his Saveseeds.org project going again.  That's where you'll find those scans of old seed catalogs.  Anyways.. seems he just can't afford to keep that library updated even though he has a real extensive collection of old seed catalogs.   He is pretty good at finding some old varieties too!  And he spends alot of time searching them out and doing the research on them from those old seed catalogs of his to make sure they're true to type.  Only one time i know of where he had the red brandywine listed where it wasn't the correct one.  But, other than that he's got a really good reputation.   Anyways Stacy.. if you want some really rare varieties.. victory would be a good source.   Dave  

Howdy Bambi..

Ah.. I probably shouldn't comment bout seed companies.  It's been ages since i've ordered from any of em.  Last five years or so i've just been saving my own seed. Besides the ones i use would be bulk seed companies anyways.    Jack.. i think i know when your friend had their idenity hacked.  Was it about a year ago?  Cause they did have their records accessed and alot of people got their idenities stolen back then.  And Johnnys wasn't very cooperative with letting people know about it either.  Didn't respond to any customers concerns and was really slow to notify the people who had been hacked.   But, other than that they do have a good reputation as far as quality goes... and their customer service is supposed to be excellent too.  I beleive it was just that one incident that you may be talking about.   Anna,  Parks the second cheapest?  Wow, you don't get around much do ya?  They're a great company.. but cheap prices aren't usually mentioned in the same sentence with them.  Glad you like em though.  Again another one with a good reputation.  Jung's, totally tomatoes, R.H. Shumway and vermont bean are all owned by the same company.. just using different websites and names.  I think the biggest complaint bout them is their shipping charges.  But, Ruth and her husband do a great job of running the business.   I'd reccomend them.. and that one i'd agree does have low.. or at least really reasonable prices.   Dave