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Cut flower seed suppliers on the continent

Finnish_FennelFinnish_Fennel Posts: 16
in Plants
Dear all,

I hope your year is off to a flying start, and you're all looking forward to getting your hands stuck in the soil again - I know I am. No bare soil left here close to the arctic circle, at least not until April.

For the last 3 years I have been a happy allotmenteer; fella-dearest gifted me an allotment on an island a stone's throw away from where we live. I tried my hands at vegetables, failed miserably many times (still make the yearly effort to get a crop of French beans in, cos I love them), and decided cut flowers are the thing for me.

Ever since I stumbled onto the superb British seed suppliers, I've never looked back and have loyally put yearly -no, scratch that actually- monthly orders in with Chiltern, Sarah Raven, Thompson and Morgan, and many others. In variety, quality and price I find British suppliers are hard to beat.

Unfortunately, for the time being, these suppliers are no longer able to take orders from outside the UK. This is a bummer - I put large orders in well before the year was over, but you never know what you still might need. There's one great Finnish shop I use happily, but still I'm looking for other channels where I could find weird, unusual, outright outlandish cut flowers (somewhat robust, cos Finland... our growing season lasts about a fortnight and then we're snowed in again for the next fourteen months) in all forms, shapes, and sizes.

Now here's my question:
What great seed suppliers are there to be found on the mainland? I know I could well Google this, but I'd love to hear some of your experiences with these.

To kick things off, I know of 'de Zaden', from the Netherlands (https://www.dezaden.nl/; site unfortunately only in Dutch but nothing Google Translate can't beat these days), 'Treppens' from Germany (https://www.treppens.de/; they appear to have a great assortiment, have not yet placed an order with them), and my trusty Finnish site 'Hyötykasvisyhdistys' (https://hyotykasviyhdistys.fi/; again - Google Translate is you friend. Have ordered from them many times, they have a great range of unusual herbs and vegetables)

By all means, please chime in!





Posts

  • pansyfacepansyface Posts: 21,891
    Can’t help with the seed suppliers, FF, but I’d just like to say that Finland has surprisingly good summers.

    We went there 41 years ago and had a wonderful time. Very friendly people, lovely fresh food and a different lake to swim in for every day of your life. 🙂
    Apophthegm -  a big word for a small thought.
    If you live in Derbyshire, as I do.
  • Finnish_FennelFinnish_Fennel Posts: 16
    edited January 2021
    @pansyface Glad to hear you had a great visit! Yes, the summers are glorious and I enjoy them as much as I can while they last. Still, can't help but feel a little sting every time I watch GW in the autumn (September, October), when my own garden has been put to bed already... ;)
  • LiriodendronLiriodendron Posts: 8,024
    edited January 2021
    @Obelixx might have some suggestions - she lives in France...

    I'm really hoping Chilterns will find a way to send seeds to Ireland.  I'll be stuck otherwise, though I've ordered and received enough for this year.

    Edited to add:  hubby and I love Finland in the summer too.  We've stayed in this off-grid summer cottage near Enonkoski a couple of times - just blissfully quiet, with cuckoos and booming bitterns for company.   :)


    Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
  • Finnish_FennelFinnish_Fennel Posts: 16
    @Liriodendron Yup we're in the same boat ... I put in a massive order with Chiltern which arrived just before Christmas, which should see me through the year. They have such an amazing and unique catalogue which I haven't been able to find elsewhere.

    I really hope they can come to some sort of an agreement, and we can start ordering from Chiltern again!
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 29,119
    edited January 2021
    Have a look at this thread - https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussion/1048376/uk-seeds-to-europe-and-northern-ireland-reminder#latest because we came up with some good EU alternatives for veg seeds and some do ornamentals too.

    https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussion/1048376/uk-seeds-to-europe-and-northern-ireland-reminder#latest

    We can also consider using the wonderful descriptive Chilterns catalogue or Sarah Raven's cut flower section of her website to identify plants we'd like and then google for EU based suppliers of the seeds.



    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
  • Finnish_FennelFinnish_Fennel Posts: 16
    Hei @Obelixx thank you so much for pointing my nose in that direction! I had a little gander and found many great suggestions. Sorry for putting a duplicate post over here :S

    I'll add my sites on there as well; even though they are in Gibberish (Finnish, Dutch, and German) I think Google Translate can be of help (and thankfully Latin names transcend most borders!)
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