Jan, There is no minimum that I know of, just a bigger discount if you buy more and also free shipping. Here is the link to order any of the catalogs. The ones your looking for are the professional growers. I have not grown Giant lime. It sounds great, but others have not had good sucess. Benary's Giant zinna is great though!

Bryan

Here is a link that might be useful: Catalogs

Professional catalogs are intended for use by commercial growers. Harris has a catalog for the backyard grower. Johnny's Seed also has a Home Gardener catalog. As a backyard grower with a cutting garden you should not expect the price breaks extended to the larger volume grower. Notice Bryan's link. It required a business name in order to qualify for a Professional Growers catalog.

Thanks to both Bryan and Irish Eyes. I don't expect a business grower's discount, as wonderful as that would be. However, I would like to have the same selection of seeds, at a hobby gardener's or home grower's price.

I'm disappointed by the really limited choices in the home grower's catalog version. For example, my version of the catalog sells ageratum 'Blue Danube,' which is 6-8" tall, certainly not suitable for cutting, even for my home. It is the only variety of ageratum listed. 'Blue Horizon,' which I'd like, is 30" high, according to another company's catalog. The 'Blue Horizon' is listed there at $3.20 for 100 seeds, certainly not growers' pricing. That competitor's catalog also lists 'Blue Danube' and 'Timeless Mixture.'

I've visited the Harris web site since Bryan's response. Just as I have no business name, I have no use for 450 seeds of one variety. I'm happy for those of you who find quality product, good prices, and good service from Harris, but I'm afraid I'll be buying from another company whose offerings more closely meet my needs.

Thanks for your suggestions and for letting me vent my disappointment.

Jan,
I also am not big enough to take advantage of huge quanities, but I like a larger amount on some things, even if I save the other half for next year. Sunflower seeds are a rip if you don't get a larger amount. So is the amazon neon seeds. I use about 3 or 4 companies, and the ones that offer free shipping with a min. order of 100.00 saves me money as well. As for the lime zinnia, I would like to know if the benary variety is better than the one I tried last year called, "Envy". That one wasn't worth the time, ugly color and only one or two flowers were actually double.
Cheryl

I grew the lime benary zins last year. The size was not the same as the other colors, but most had a nice lime color. Maybe one plant in 20 was a funky color. I just pulled the plant out and let the good ones take its space.

One florist I delivered to said they were the first of the zins to be bought by his customers. My farmers market customers would by them because they were not growing them in their gardens and wanted a something a little different.

I liked them and am going to grow them again this year.
Patty

I disagree that professional catalogs are intended only for commercial growers. They are intended for anyone who wants to buy in the quantities offered. My father, who grew only for home use, received and ordered from professional catalogs for decades. I am not currently in business, but I order from these catalogs, sometimes in fairly large amounts.

On the Harris page, if you want to call your business Jan's Blooms, go ahead. Note that there is no requirement to supply a business license number, etc. If you order less than a minimum, you may have to pay an extra fee, and pay shipping costs. If you store seeds properly, there is no reason not to buy 450 seeds and use them over several years. Or trade with friends, etc.

Well, huh. It's apparent Annebert was not taught by her father one very important lesson in life. It is called INTEGRITY.

Irish Eyes, how on earth did you come to that conclusion?

Jeanne

Pretty simple. You tell the truth. If you're not a business, you're not a business.
You can't understand that?
Erin

Yes, certainly, but if Harris were willing to do business only with businesses, they would require a resale license number, wouldn't you think? When I consider all the junk mail with my business name on it I've received, I know they have sold my name and address and are profiting from it, so I wouldn't feel bad about ordering from them even though I've closed my business. As long as you are willing to buy in the amounts offered for the price offered, they're willing to sell to you. Another option, if you're worried about the ethics of using a non-existent business name, would be to call them and simply ask them about it.

Jeanne

Busy forum as of late. Two companies come to my mind, Jan, that may be able to help you with seed for your cutting garden. The first is Fedco Seed. They are based in Maine. When I had a cottage garden, I purchased alot of seed from them. They had the best Benary's Giant zinnia seed. We still purchase some seed from them because we just happen to like them and their philosophy. They sell in grams; and, have several different packaging choices. They are geared toward the small grower. You can download their catalog online at www.fedcoseed.com.

The second recommendation is Johnny's Seed. They are also located in Maine. You can go to their website which I have linked below. From there you can go into the home gardener site and order any seed supplied to both the home gardener and the market gardener. Also, many different size packages available. The prices for the home gardener and the market gardener are the same. The only break extended to the grower would, of course, be based on volume purchases. We also continue to purchase some from this company because we like the sales representative for our area. My husband wears the Johnny's Seed cap even though the bulk of our seed order comes from another source that supplies larger commercial growers. I'm guessing this other seed house doesn't have baseball caps!!

Another thing that may be worth mentioning is both Fedco and Johnny's print growing instructions on their envelopes. The last time we ordered anything from Harris, their packaging was pretty generic and no instructions. This may or may not be important to you.

Regarding the newer lime green zinnia in Benary's collection: the color does fade to a rather pukey green in the heat of the summer. It's one we would grow later in the season when the nights are cooler. The color is much better then. Some of the flowers aren't as large and fully double like the other Benary's Giant. It is a must have for bright bouquets. Our customers prefer this one in a mixed bouquet. A customer such as "Martha" might purchase it in a straight bunch. But, as a general rule customers don't.

Here is a link that might be useful: Seed Source

PS. I just happened to think of another source. Seed Savers Exchange in Iowa. Purchases of seed from these people helps to maintain a vast seed collection at Heritage Farm. The same philosphy as Fedco Seed. This is also an excellent source for Sweet Pea seeds.

Here is a link that might be useful: Seed Savers Exchange

I always bought from Johnny's as a market gardener and will still buy from Johnny's as a home gardener. That's a truly great company. They don't have the selection of say, Germania, but they do have a lot, and as Trish mentioned, their customer service is fantastic.

Trish, thank you for the links to Fedco and Seed Savers Exchange. I need both for the veggie varieties that do well here, just hadn't Googled them yet.

Jeanne

Howdy all,

I can't wait to get in on this one.

First off I have to agree with Jeanne. Great points.

Second I ALWAYS ASK FOR DISSCOUNTS of any kind. I own a cherry orchard and I could buy a tree from a nursery for 20 bucks or I can get the same tree for 5. It is up to me to find the connection. I'm upfront with my discounts always, I ask, ask, and ask somemore.

I get about 20 plus catalogs a year. How many of those compaines GROW the seed???? Alot of them buy in bulk and package it and boom sell it to you. I don't have to buy it at that high price now do I.

Now that being said I will pay top dollar for quality. To me its way worth it in the end. I've spend too much time on bargain junk plants.

Also whose to say whats a business or not. Is it if you sell 5 cents or million dollars. I say if they are willing to sell it to you at the cheaper price or you can get it cheap go for it. Cuz we all know they sell it for the higher to us.

Point is I play by the rules but on most web site or business I give em the name of my business and then pay with my regular visa and I never get question ever. Hey if they were so worried they could always ask for a minimum for a discount.

Take care and God bless all,
Tim

Tim, Nowhere in either of Jan's posts did she mention she wanted to purchase seed at wholesale prices. Her inquiry was that she would like a source for cutflower seeds -- some of the same varieties we grow as market farmers. I think I provided some pretty good choices. The seed houses I gave grow or have regionally grown much of their own seed. They would outsource when demand exceeded supply.

If you are purchasing your seed via a website, you are not buying wholesale. I'm not aware of any wholesale seed vendors who post their prices on the internet. Many of the larger commercial vendors do have minimums, and, require a copy of your business license or tax ID number.

Ooops, I guess I should of read the post better. As for finding the seeds or more to the point feed access for the commerical catalog I would just ask for it, I have always gotten one.

As for my point I was just trying to make the point of always ask for a discount or wholesale price. I had one nursery one time sell me trees for about 25 bucks. I didn't know about it till I got the bill. I knew I could get the same tree for 5.

Take care all,
Tim

Thanks to all for your comments and suggestions. I'm not at the point of comparing costs, including shipping, and trying to use as few sources as possible for all the seeds I want, which, of course, are not all available in one spot.

"I'm not at the point of comparing costs, including shipping, and trying to use as few sources as possible for all the seeds I want, which, of course, are not all available in one spot."

Growers don't put all their eggs in one basket. Because we grow a diverse spectrum of flower crops, we need to make use of a variety of sources. Our seed stock comes from a dozen different seed companies.

Trish

I just have to throw in this tidbit about Seed Savers Exchange. My sister tried some watermelon seed from them last year. She knew it was bred somewhere near here. It worked better in this climate than any other watermelon she'd ever tried. This year, I looked for it in their online catalog and found more information. The variety name is Blacktail Mountain. Our road comes off of Blacktail Road, and we live on the slopes of that very same Blacktail Mountain the seed was bred on, "where summer night low temperatures average 43 degrees" (inexact quote from catalog, but I know the 43 degrees is correct, by personal experience). I have high hopes for this watermelon!

Jeanne

Ouch! Integrity is not yelling at GardenWebbers without getting all the facts. I wrote to Harris Seeds and they would be happy to have your order in either catalog. Check out Stokes Seeds too for bulk orders and a big choice, or Fedco Seeds in Maine for another company with integrity.

Here is their reply: "Thank you for emailing us. Any customer may order from the commercial catalog and website; there are no minimum order requirements.

The reason why we require a business name on the catalog request page of the website is that catalogs are expensive to produce and mail, and therefore we try to steer home gardeners to our home garden catalog since they only require smaller package sizes (packets). The commercial catalogs are geared more towards professional growers who need larger amounts of seed to grow, produce and sell.
However because some home gardeners evolve into a commercial grower business, we do not want to discourage them by prohibiting them from using our professional catalogs.
We are not trying to limit what home gardeners can order, but only trying to gear the catalogs to the customers' needs.

So please feel free to order any products you are interested in (whether it be from the home garden or professional growers' catalog or website)!
I hope this answers your question, and please don't hesitate to contact us if we can be of further assistance.
Sincerely,
Cristina Mech
Internet Marketing"
of Harris Seeds

Here is a link that might be useful: Harris Seeds Link

What a nice letter from Harris Seeds. :)
I wouldn't be surprised to find other companies feel the same way.