When do garden seeds come in stock for you?

[Artichoke Lover]

Basically when do your local stores start stocking vegetable and flower seeds? They usually start coming in the first week of January here in zone 7 USA

 

[Kusanar]

I'm Zone 7B myself... Not sure when they are in stores but I just ordered all of my seeds for next year online.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

I’m ordering most of mine this year too! I’m just waiting for Southern exposure to get their southern peas back in stock. All I plan on getting from the store is maybe some generic better boy kind of tomatoes. I’m not waiting on the local stores after last year, most places sold out or couldn’t get a shipment in the first place because of COVID

 

[Kusanar]

I’m ordering most of mine this year too! I’m just waiting for Southern exposure to get their southern peas back in stock. All I plan on getting from the store is maybe some generic better boy kind of tomatoes. I’m not waiting on the local stores after last year, most places sold out or couldn’t get a shipment in the first place because of COVID

I ordered mine from Gurneys.com

 

[21hens-incharge]

Thanks for the seed ordering reminder. Last spring was NUTZ.

Totally different zone here (5) but ours is February for most local stores.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I also order online - if you have a popular site you like ordering from, I would do it now rather than wait a couple of months. Baker Creek is still out of stock on a lot of items (like 90% of radishes, many tomatoes) and no telling when they'll get more in stock.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

I’m waiting for southern peas to come back in stock supposedly they will have them by December. But if they don’t or they start running out of my other seeds I’ll just have to pay to have 2 separate orders shipped

 

[rosemarythyme]

As far as the question about stores putting out their seed displays, I'd say beginning of year is when most stores around me start making their push to sell seeds - holidays are over, and people who like starting seed indoors are ready to get going.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm in a totally different zone from you so even if I had an answer it wouldn't mean much. For me down here my answer is "not when I want them". Also I can't count on finding the varieties I want if they even have any seeds. So I order online.

I also suggest you don't wait too long. A lot of places are sold out of many seeds. Many sell by "growing year" so they may renew there stock over the next month or two. With the pandemic they can be hard to find. If you store them at room temperature seeds usually last pretty well. They store really well in the fridge and even better in the freezer.

I did things a little different this year for my fall seeds. I decided what I wanted to grow and then decided on preferred varieties. Then I did an online search for those varieties to see who had them. Three names kept popping up, Baker Creek, Burpee, and Territorial.

So I went to each site and looked through their varieties and for everything I wanted I wrote down what my variety would be if I ordered from them, cost, and how many seeds per packet. Baker Creek was sold out of a lot of stuff and I was surprised that their cost comparison wasn't very good on what they had. Burpee seed packets are a lot bigger than I normally need so their costs weren't great but they were also sold out of a lot. Territorial came out the clear winner for my criteria so they got my order.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

I just put my order in this for the last of my seeds. This post was more of curiosity of the time difference around the country. At least for my area I’ve had very good luck with Southern Exposure they don’t as big a variety as Baker creek or burpee but they’re seed is high quality and there’s a lot for the price. It’s around the same price as burpee but I get twice as much!