A Seed Saver's Garden

[ducks4you]

i recall a particular orange rose i grew for a short time as a kid. it was a grafted plant of course, but the most striking feature was that the stem was absolutely covered in very long thorns. i did fertilize it with my own blood from time to time. that was just the price of admission for those. the plant lived only a few years, it was in a rather exposed corner of the garden. not many roses survived long in that location.

 

[heirloomgal]

Well, it's beginning. The first seed company here has closed down temporarily due to an overload of orders. It's moments like these that I'm glad I'm an eager beaver when it comes to seed shopping, because I've already placed my order with them. Heritage Harvest Seed is probably one of our biggest OP seed vendors too.

 

[ducks4you]

We all Don't want you neebies to give up. I found onion seeds in December at Lowe's. Had to search but they had about 10 different vegetable seed packets, packaged in plastic.
Look E V E R Y W H E R E, if you can't find any seeds for 2022.
Even grocery and small hardware stores might have seeds.

 

[flowerbug]

if anyone needs bean seeds give me a holler...

 

[heirloomgal]

I guess I'm surprised by how early this has started to happen, in a lot of Canada the last frost date is end of May, beginning of June. I know many online seed companies have shut down before, I just don't remember it being this early? Maybe I've forgotten. Tomato seeds won't go into starter pots until April in most places, so there is still 3 months yet. I wondered if maybe that 'food security' motivated seed buying might start to plateau over time, but it appears that is not happening. I wonder if any real studies have been done, or even surveys, to start to really crack open why there is such a seed frenzy. Is it all concerns about food availability, or is it the now significant amount of time spent home during the summer instead of travelling? I'd be really curious to see some data on the motives at work.

 

[meadow]

I guess I'm surprised by how early this has started to happen, in a lot of Canada the last frost date is end of May, beginning of June. I know many online seed companies have shut down before, I just don't remember it being this early? Maybe I've forgotten. Tomato seeds won't go into starter pots until April in most places, so there is still 3 months yet. I wondered if maybe that 'food security' motivated seed buying might start to plateau over time, but it appears that is not happening. I wonder if any real studies have been done, or even surveys, to start to really crack open why there is such a seed frenzy. Is it all concerns about food availability, or is it the now significant amount of time spent home during the summer instead of travelling? I'd be really curious to see some data on the motives at work.

I suspect the increased demand is due to 'food insecurity' coupled with the knowledge that some suppliers ran out of seed last year.

Wild Garden Seed (Oregon) has shut down twice. They did that last year too, but were kind enough to state that there was no shortage of seed, they were just having a hard time keeping up with orders.

 

[digitS']

now significant amount of time spent home during the summer instead of travelling? I'd be really curious to see some data on the motives at work.

Here is an Ontario perennial plant company that was swamped with orders in 2021 and has cut back on potential 2022 orders. Cannot keep up with demand.

Popular Ontario mail-order nursery pivots - Winnipeg Free Press Homes

Unprecedented demand for perennials forces a reset - New Homes on Winnipeg Free Press Homes

homes.winnipegfreepress.com

 

[AMKuska]

Well, it's beginning. The first seed company here has closed down temporarily due to an overload of orders. It's moments like these that I'm glad I'm an eager beaver when it comes to seed shopping, because I've already placed my order with them. Heritage Harvest Seed is probably one of our biggest OP seed vendors too.

I learned my lesson this year. All my seeds for this year were purchased in November.

 

[Zeedman]

Some seed companies are closed because they are just now re-opening for 2022. Two smaller seed companies - that I've been waiting to order from - only opened this month. Seed listings are still being updated in some cases, so anyone still looking for seeds should check websites frequently for changes.

In related news... a strange thing happened today. I drove to a local garden store to buy more seed starter, in case it might sell out early. Never made it into the store though. Two police cars were just outside, with officers surrounding a shirtless man (it's 10 degrees F.) who was jumping around & waving his arms wildly. At a garden store??? Are we that far gone??? Didn't want to get in the middle of that, so I'll put off that purchase until tomorrow.

 

[meadow]

I came across this blog post which explains the situation.

Four local-to-me seed suppliers have said essentially the same thing (there is no seed shortage, but there are difficulties in filling/shipping so many orders and to keep checking back for updates). All four companies were late in updating their websites, by the way, and one completely closed their site until well after the first of the year.