Jo, for common seed for your area, you can just try Walmart, Home Depot, and Lowes. The carry "name brands" but with a discount price.

Then when you get to the stage where you want specialized seed that these stores don't carry, you can check individual companies. Burpee, Thompson and Morgan, Johnny Seed, Jung, etc. etc.

But if you are starting, I think the big stores have enough or too many choices already. :-)

Among the mass merchandisers of the common garden seeds I have found Walmart to be cheaper for the same seed. For the best selection and larger quantities I use Hazzard's Wholesale Seeds. They sell retail also, just larger quantities per package. Al

I checked Walmart, Home Depot, and Lowe's in our area and found all of the "annual" seed I was looking for in a mix called "wild flower" seed. Now I cannot sort them out but the price was too good to resist. BTW Lowe's had a much better selection of packaged brand name seed than the other two last weekend.

* Stokes Seeds. Great company to deal with, been ordering from them for a long time. Huge selection, and can get individual colors, which are often very hard to find on the local seed racks let alone the color you want (around here, a lot of stuff is in color mixes or just not the colors I want).

* Swallowtail Seeds. This was my second year ordering from this company and am very pleased so far. Not even close to the selection that Stokes has, but still a decent selection and prompt service.

Albert, I think it might be store/location specific. Overhere (SE Michigan), Home Depot goes with Burpee and has a lot of seeds. Lowes goes with Ferri Moss and Burpee too has has smaller racks and less choice. Walmart does have A LOT of racks and selections.

Jo,

Since you are a Texan, and since I think you get a better selection from a seed catalog or an online seed catalog, I would recommend The Willhite Seed Company which is located in Texas.

When we used to live in Fort Worth a good many years ago, I purchased some of my seed from them.

MM

Since I live outside the US I buy all my seeds online. I usually order from this companies:

Summer Hill Seeds, Swallowtail garden seeds and 2BSeeds.

You can also find great deals on ebay. My favorite sellers are Mary's Great Seeds, La vie en rose garden, Pase Seeds and Eco Seeds.

While I've found a terrific selection locally at Lowe's, HD, Target, and my local Agway, my local WM still has yet to show any signs of seed. They'll be SOL on my seed $$ this year, since I've done 99% of my seed shopping already from everywhere else.

No one has mentioned Crosman Seeds yet- decent little selection, very inexpensive...good qty for price

I'll second Swallowtail Gardens

Another one to plug is TGN's pumpkin Nook- Ferry Morse @ discount with good shipping cost

And Value Seeds (dot com), which is the discount house for Thompson & Morgan. Inventory changes often there.

Oh, and Pinetree Garden Seeds I've had good luck with, too.

Have fun shopping!

It's not so important WHERE you buy your seed, as it is WHICH seeds you buy. From your question, I see that you have figured out that there are an enormous number of plants that simply will not survive our hot, sultry days and nights down here in the deep south. I lived in New Orleans for eight years before I moved here, 200 miles inland, so I can tell you that my climate is very close to yours. Here is a list of annuals that I have found to be very reliable in our area.

Ageratum
Begonias (guard again slugs)

Coleus (shade)

Zinnias: (in order of my preference, though they're all great)

1. Angustifolias: There are only 2 colors to my knowledge: orange and white, but these are the best zinnias for my money. The flowers don't fade, they are self-cleaning, the plants are low growing, mounding, and the foliage looks great all the time. Nothing eats them. They don't fall prey to disease. They are well nigh onto the perfect annual for our area.
2. Profusion. These are similar to the Angustifolias, and they are ALMOST as good. The blooms are a little bigger, and there are more colors, but watch the pink and apricot ones. They fade pretty badly. Get the red-orange Fire. They fade to a beautiful orange. Late in the season, the seeds seem to stop falling off the profusions and the foliage can look a bit ratty, but they still get an A for our area. Park Seed sells these seeds in packets of single colors. I agree with the poster who said they don't care for mixes.
3. Haageana: again, similar to the other two. They come in multi-colored blooms, so aren't to everyone's liking, but they are good doers. (By the way, bright hot colors, in general, seem to show better in our strong summer light.)

Scaevola (Fan Flower): the blue ones are great. The white ones are so-so. They are especially good in pots as "spillers". Beautiful color, non-stop bloom. Easy care. (I have never seen seed for them.)

Gomphrena: They're not much to look at in the garden center, but these little plants are non-stop flower making machines. They are easy to start from seed with bottom heat. Purple buddy is especially nice for edging.(Yes, they're magenta, but see my note above about bright colors.)

Vinca: If you know flowers at all, you're bound to know Vinca. There's a good reason they're so common! And there are lots of new colors in recents years. There's a fungus that attacks them some years, but other than that, they're a no brainer. (If you are struck with the fungus, don't plant Vinca in that area again.)

Pentas: I have never started these from seed (can't recall ever seeing seed), but these plants are positively spectacular all summer: great foliage, non stop color. (I am referring to the full sized ones. I have not been impressed with the dwarf ones at all.)

Salvia farinacea, Victoria: Splendid in every single way. Non-stop blue color, great size to work with, good looking foliage, and they should be perennial in your area. (Don't cut them back in the fall. Wait till spring.)

Torenia (shade): gorgeous! Self seeding too.

There are, of course, other plants which are grown in our area: cosmos, sunflowers, nicotinana, four o'clocks, portulaca, etc. I list the ones above, because they measure up in bloom time, foliage quality, ease of culture, easy-to-work-with sizes, and overall reliability.
Hope this gives you a good start!

donnabaskets I agree with your list, good choices. I am growing Pentas from seed,but have not figured out the secret to high percentage germination and survival. In the past I have started from plugs with easy growth and transplanting, but hope to conquer the seed starting. Al

Hi, Al. I will be interested to hear about your results with Penta seed. (Where did you get the seed?)
Do you have any Positive experience starting Salvia farinacea from seed? I am trying it for the first time this year, and am only getting about 30percent germination. I saw someone post that they didn't have good luck with Thompson and Morgan seed. That's where these came from, but am going to try a heat mat (or anything you may suggest) before I rush to judgement. If all else fails, I can purchase plants, but this is my big year for seed, and I am not one to accept failure easily. :)

Seed such as penta that are slow and want good light for germination have a problem with algae growth on the surface of the seed starting mix. Grit on the surface helps but is not always available in the right size. I am using vermiculite run through a food processor to get the size reduced small enough to sprinkle over the surface sowed seed. Because my seed is started in an unheated greenhouse(the cost of fuel prevents my heating it)my containers are on a 70 degree heat mat. Penta and almost any other seed is available from Hazzards seeds on line. I have not tried Salvia farinacea seed but I do grow other Salvia occasionally. Al

Al, what is the purpose of grit? I keep reading about it in seed starting, but I don't understand what it's purpose is. Is it to stop the algae, or does it have something to do with the germination process?

I believe grit helps prevent algae growth as well as the extra oxygen provided by the space between the grit helps in controlling damping off fungus. For the smaller seeds I think the use of small vermiculite sprinkled on the surface serves the same purpose. Al

mmqchdygg, Thanks for the links. They included a few new-to me low cost seed sources. And some had very reasonable shipping charges, also.

Hi Jo,

Here's a link to ValueSeeds. I've ordered from them for the past couple of years and have been very pleased.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.valueseeds.com/index.html

For those who live in Canada and got the Vesey's catalogue they are offering free shipping until March 12. I believe you need the catalogue to get the code for the free shipping.

I like Pinetree Gardens at http://www.superseeds.com and the Maine grower co-op, Fedco Seeds, http://www.fedcoseeds.com. Geez, I don't think I want you all to know about ValueSeeds, I want them all to myself with those low prices. A very friendly website is Diane's Seeds, http://www.dianeseeds.com with good selections and extras to boot.

Has anybody ordered from JL Hudson Seeds? http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net

Here is a link that might be useful: Fedco Seeds

I have had great success from seeds from a small nursery, Comstock Ferre & Co., Wethersfield, Ct. This nursery is on line but their bulk seed inventory is small and that division is not online : call or fax them per site instructions. They can send out small or large seed amounts.Quality-wise, let me put it this way: I am ordering new arabis seeds after 20 years because the plants from their seed are just now starting to punk out. Can't think of a higher compliment than that. Longtime excellent reputation. Also, thanks to those who discussed penta seed starting; Burpee's has them on sale and after reading your posts I'm just going to go ahead and buy plants and try seeds next year. Thx, marcial, Z5