One of the things that’s really changed since I started this blog is the number of people sending one another seeds has really boomed, and in general this is a great thing. Of course one of the things that’s exciting about trading seeds is getting some special seeds from a friendly gardener who lives far away and has access to something unusual you can’t get locally. I think this is a goal many of us have.
The Problems
One of the problems at the moment is a lot of people living in North America are very keen to get seeds from Europe, and this is putting a strain on the ability of European gardeners to send seeds out. I think in general, many and probably most Europeans are delighted to send seeds to people in NA, as long as these seeds are truly not available there.
In Europe most heirloom varieties are unavailable for purchase here, because seed laws make them illegal to sell. On top of this, a general lack of market competition and current exchange rates makes seeds considerably more expensive here. Honestly, many of us turn to US gardeners or US seed companies for our own seeds, so it’s a little silly for us to then turn around and send them back to a gardener there.
Given these and other reasons, it’s important right now for us to promote seed exchanges within Europe, rather than sending seeds to other countries.
If You Live in the US…
Please, look locally before asking someone in Europe to send you seeds. You have access to cheap seeds, and in many cases you can purchase seeds locally for less than what it costs someone in Europe to send them from their garden. If you want free or cheap seeds from someone’s garden, try asking someone on the Homegrown Goodness discussion forum.
By all means, if you think something is only available in Europe, please ask someone there to get them for you. In particular, I’ll be happy to help people out under these circumstances. If you get seeds in this way, please make an effort to grow the plants out for more seeds, and redistribute them locally.
Lets all work together to keep seeds from going back and forth over the Atlantic for no reason, and not waste the money and time of generous gardeners who are willing to send their seeds to others for free.
good point – however sometimes that might be the only way to get great seeds 🙂 and redistribute the great heirloom plants.
Excellent post Patrick! I’d like to add a bit here. I’ve noticed that a lot of gardeners are very modest in their requests for seeds in return. I’ve made a couple of trades with folks in Europe and I feel that I have received far more than I have given. That said, be willing to ask for things because if someone were to let me know “Hey, I’d like XYZ!” I would be happy to place an order and send it to you as part of a trade, or even just to help you out BECAUSE I can get it for a lower cost. Gardeners need to take care of each other.
Hi Jo and Ewa,
It sounds like the two of you should be trading seeds!
I didn’t mean to say that no one should trade seeds between the US and Europe, of course they should.
I only meant people in NA should think twice about asking for very ordinary seeds from Europe, especially if they aren’t giving anything in return.
Of course there are people in Europe who need/want seeds from the US, and trading is the natural way to do this. I don’t mean to discourage that.
A number of European bloggers have been talking about this recently, both in public and privately in email. I think there has always been some reluctance to send things far away for no reason, but increasingly these sorts of requests are interfering with trades within Europe, because many bloggers who offer their seeds to others have become very busy lately.
Like Jo said, we all have to help each other. It would just be appreciated by many if trades were made more efficiently and locally, especially if this can reduce unnecessary and unreciprocated trades going one way from Europe to the US.
I keep getting seeds from the US; I rarely send any there. But from what I’ve seen, many of the common European varieties are rarities over there. So I can see where the requests are coming from.
I am gardening in Flanders – belgium (Europe) and specialising in all kind of small fruit, mostly berries.
From Schumacher in MA I bought already a lot of seeds. For example beach plum, which does not exist here. Also doing some experiments with Diospyros lotus, virginiana and kaki.
Have also five years experience with Goji berries of different origin.
Here I want to warn everybody who send anything to belgium. Never use regular post, because terrible problems with custum duties aso. DHL and alike, always very smooth and correct.
Frienly greetings,
Leo