Dean

In general, Baker's Creek has a large selection, good pricing, and puts plenty of seeds in the packet. Sometimes their seeds don't come true to type (but I suspect this is probably true of everyone out there), but for the most part they do. If you file a complaint, they will honor it and give you a refund of some sort (I just asked for a discount code because I'm lucky if I spend LESS than $100 there each year - I simply grow too much because I'm addicted - I could probably feed my whole block if I tried).

Baker's Creek has a better website that most, but it's still VERY lacking. Not everything has a photo to go with it, their customer comments lack useful ranking information, have had information lost from them, can't be edited after the fact, etc. Their descriptions of the seeds are often missing very useful pieces of information about the varieties.

I've tried to help out on the website a few times by offering advice as to what needs improved, attempting to donate some photos to them, etc. but overall I just get the impression they don't have time to deal with it.

If I didn't have a full time job that very much needs doing, I'd start an heirloom seed website simply to get it right.

When you place an order, they do ship in a reasonable length of time, and they've always got my orders right. It is very difficult (for me anyway) to tell when they have new seeds coming available and when they don't - things seem to come and go almost at random.

Overall, I think they're the best there is - but there's plenty of room for improvement. If someone else thinks they know a better site, I'd very much like to hear about it.

I ordered a pack of brussells sprouts seeds from BC which were supposed to contain apprx 800 seeds. As soon as it was opened we knew there were way more, and decided to count them out of curiosity. We stopped counting at 12,000 seeds!

Sustainable Seed Co. Have a nice selection of heirloom seed, and beautiful seed pack designs as well. However, they are expensive and if the pack says 15-20 seeds, then you get 15 seeds!

To mountainman.wvu....heirloom acres is known to be the WORST seed company online. They have an F rating with the BBB and on Garden Watchdog they have over 100 negative ratings. They also have several complaints lodged against them with the attorney general. You can find stories all over the Internet about them. I however decided to give them a try and see for myself (after all they are very cheap and a nice selection). It took them 3 weeks to ship my order to me (and this was during the off season). Some people complain of shipping taking 3 months to which the company says they are a "small company and work as fast as they can". Sorry, but anything more than 3 days to ship seeds is just too long. When I received it there were 8 items Backordered. I emailed and asked for an ETA for them. After 2 weeks of no reply I began trying to call. It took me 3 weeks of calling everyday at various time to get them on the phone. When I asked about the shipping date for my Backordered items I was told that some would be coming in in about a month. However 3 of them had been out of stock all year and they were expecting them in stock within the next year....I was shocked and asked why they weren't listed as out of stock on the website...to which I was told "it's too much work to try to keep it up to date". I will say that they did very quickly issue a refund back to me. Please be warned this is one of the worst seed companies out there.

I ordered a pack of brussells sprouts seeds from BC which were supposed to contain apprx 800 seeds. As soon as it was opened we knew there were way more, and decided to count them out of curiosity. We stopped counting at 12,000 seeds!

Sustainable Seed Co. Have a nice selection of heirloom seed, and beautiful seed pack designs as well. However, they are expensive and if the pack says 15-20 seeds, then you get 15 seeds!

To mountainman.wvu....heirloom acres is known to be the WORST seed company online. They have an F rating with the BBB and on Garden Watchdog they have over 100 negative ratings. They also have several complaints lodged against them with the attorney general. You can find stories all over the Internet about them. I however decided to give them a try and see for myself (after all they are very cheap and a nice selection). It took them 3 weeks to ship my order to me (and this was during the off season). Some people complain of shipping taking 3 months to which the company says they are a "small company and work as fast as they can". Sorry, but anything more than 3 days to ship seeds is just too long. When I received it there were 8 items Backordered. I emailed and asked for an ETA for them. After 2 weeks of no reply I began trying to call. It took me 3 weeks of calling everyday at various time to get them on the phone. When I asked about the shipping date for my Backordered items I was told that some would be coming in in about a month. However 3 of them had been out of stock all year and they were expecting them in stock within the next year....I was shocked and asked why they weren't listed as out of stock on the website...to which I was told "it's too much work to try to keep it up to date". I will say that they did very quickly issue a refund back to me. Please be warned this is one of the worst seed companies out there.

I ordered over the phone and the person I talked to was extremely knowedgeable about the seeds and also about how their seed stock was grown. I got my seeds fast, in good packaging and the price is right!

Their catalog is gorgeous and qualifies as a coffee table book in my house.

BC easily has the most beautiful catalog going and it is wonderful to peruse, but seems to me to be a bit of a waste of resources and not the most environmentally friendly.

I have had instances of poor germination and incorrect seed type. Annoying but hasn't turned me off from them. Easily the biggest negative to me is their inconsistent or total lack of planting information for varieties in the catalog or on the seed packs. Being that I have to research every variety I order from them, I have leaned towards smaller orders or simply ordering elsewhere.

I don't have a favorite company but I find myself making my main orders from the five same companies every year that I know and trust, BC has been demoted to my second tier list of companies from where I make optional small orders for curiosities and unique stuff.