Good selection and everything I purchased was type to type. I was able to stop last year during their spring festival, which is a good time.

Dean

I'm not a fan of theirs. Didn't like the politics mixed in with seed selling. Just my opinion.

Seeds of Change is political too. I also noticed that Organic Gardening Magazine has become political. At least it was the last time I looked through one. That was a while ago and I have refrained from looking at more for that reason.

Politics aside, they are a good company to
order from. I just placed and order. Another
good one is Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.
There are others too.

I ordered 80 $ worth of seeds last year yo try and start a garden for my children's school. I sent them an email explaining everything and asked if they could help with information or anything. They never once contacted me back. Also the beefsteak seeds I got were not beefsteak. They were small round globe tomatoes. I will not order from them ever again. I found Heirloom acres where you can get a LOT of seeds for a great price. I am going to try them this year.

I really like Baker's Creek, but there is room for improvement as well (I have yet to find one I'm completely satisfied with).

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.

GBlack,
That they are missing photos does not bother me as it is better than the photo theft of some companies that do have a photo with every item. It is difficult to acquire a proper photo for every variety. It is nice though that you offered photos. It would be interesting to know why they didn't accept them.
What do you think they are missing in variety descriptions that you find useful?
Remy

I have ordered from probably 10-15 different seed companies and Baker Creek and Seed Savers Exchange are the BEST. I once got a pack of tomato seeds from BC with only 25% germination. I called and told them about it, and that it was too late to plant a replacement pack this late in the year. They asked me if there was anything else i would like that i could plant now, I asked for some rare squash seeds. I received them and 2 packs of similiar seeds for my "trouble". Best customer service you can get.

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 have ordered from probably 10-15 different seed companies and Baker Creek and Seed Savers Exchange are the BEST. I once got a pack of tomato seeds from BC with only 25% germination. I called and told them about it, and that it was too late to plant a replacement pack this late in the year. They asked me if there was anything else i would like that i could plant now, I asked for some rare squash seeds. I received them and 2 packs of similiar seeds for my "trouble". Best customer service you can get.

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 have ordered twice and I will order again. They seem to be very dedicated. Their interest in seeds and saving heirlooms has made me interested.

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.

LOVE them. great selection, good descriptions, great website, fast/cheap shipping, generous amounts, good germination, great customer service. can't imagine ordering from anyone else.

Not a fan - have purchased from them over 5 years & last year quit. Too many poor germinations on different basils (when same varieties but different sources in same 96 cell trays (different cells) did fine - they were densely seeded but poor germination. Too many instances of wrong tomato types popping up (worse than Tomatofest OMG - Tomatofest folks are overwhelmingly kind which offsets occasional foul ups - not so in Idig forum nonsense). The simple minded political hand wringing righteousness did them in for my $. I much prefer Seeds from Italy for herbs (HUGE packets for GREAT prices), The Sample Seed shop for specialty basil in small quantities, Hazzard's seeds for specialty basils & almost all other vegies including tomatoes but I love Tomato Grower's Supply, Gleckler Seedmen, Heritage Seeds in CA, Marianna's Seeds out of TN - all much more reliable & preferable to me.
oh left off Victory Seed Company & Sandhill Preservation & SESE & Knapps Fresh Vegies Seeds are all greatly preferred IMAO.

I went from initially being "wowed" by BC to them simply being another catalog on the stack. IMO they are good, not great - good enough for me to make a small order from them most years, and I urge anyone to go ahead and give them a try to develop their own opinions. I keep an open mind and love trying new things but they have way too much funky stuff I would never have an interest in trying.

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.

I generally don't order from anyone else! They are amazing - only $3 shipping, free seed packet (not a junkie seed packet) and so many varieties!!! Every year they have something new! only once did something not germinate, and I think its because of something I did wrong. :)

Will not waste my money with them again. Very poor germination from their seeds. For the second year in a row I have gotten about a 5 to 10% germination rate from all of the seeds purchased form Baker Creek.

Last year I gave them a pass because of our extremes in weather, a very wet cold spring followed by a long hot drought. This year our garden is doing very well. All seeds went in the same day. For example, I planted three kinds of cucumbers. The seed from Home Depot (Seeds of Change brand Sumpter cukes) germinated at about 90% and are now large and healthy. These seeds germinated in about a week. The Baker Creek seeds are lousy. Took 3 weeks to germinate. 2 plants from the West Indian Burr Gherkins pack, and 6 from the Mexican Sour Gherkins. I will have to replant. Same for the spinach, squashes and melons purchase from Baker Creek. All the other varieties of these seeds, bulk from our local feed store came up wonderfully. The Baker Creek seeds, only a 1 or two plants from a package. Something is wrong with the care and handling of their seed, and I will not purchase from them again.

I was also wowed by their catalog. I planted 4 8 foot rows of corn and only 12 came up. I thought I got shorted on two different packs of seeds and they replaced them within in 2 weeks. So sorry to hear they are not a good place to shop.

I never did buy any seeds from this company (or any mail-order company) so sorry if it feels like I didn't follow up. My follow up is that there's nothing to report but I have enjoyed the responses and longevity of this discussion.

I'm done w BC. They've screwed up 2 of my orders this year. I ordered purple striped eggplant and ended up with tomato seeds. So I dont have any eggplants to sell at market. I also ordered beefsteak tomato seeds and ended up with a yellow globe tomato similar to yellow queen. Not cool!

Looks like Everwilde will be getting the bulk of my seed purchase for now on. I've ordered about as much from them as BC and have had great germination results and all the seed are exactly what I ordered.

I have had extremely good germination from their seeds. I also enjoy their quarterly magazine.

I have ordered from them the last 3 or 4 years, almost always ordered over the phone using my credit card. When I tried ordering the other day using this method I was told that there would be a $7 charge extra for ordering over the phone. I did not understand this and still dont, they dont even have a toll free number - which is ok, I am just saying. If they dont want people ordering this way then maybe they should just say so up front instead of trying to charge extra. Does anyone out there think this makes good business sense? If so please put me in the know. I am perplexed.

I am generally pleased with Baker Creek because
a) plenty of seeds in the packets (saves even more $$$ to purchase the bulk sizes for items like beets, mesclun, carrots, etc.) and in fact some seed packets have 28x more seeds than what I would get at my local nursery from another seed company,
b) offerings from great seed producers such as Wild Boar Farms and Frank Morton--while WBF doesn't charge shipping, Frank Morton is $6 for shipping which is fine but if you just want to try some of his seeds you can tack them onto your BC order,
c) generally shipping is quick and service is good, d) shipping cost of $3.50 is just plain reasonable,
e) I've generally received all the seeds that I've ordered--one time a seed was out of stock after I ordered but other than that fulfillment on both my large orders and small orders has been spot on, and
e) germination rates are terrific--I've never been disappointed with germination rates--just to be clear I order fresh seeds each year and I generally get them right in the ground/starter trays or they are sown within 6 months or so.

While the glossy catalog might be off-putting for as a waste of paper and/or energy or just printed to drive sales, it is fun to browse and you can always pass it on to a friend. Some catalogs are only a list and well I must say that I don't get as excited about those lists as the BC catalog. It can be helpful to have more than a website as I can't mark up a website or easily compare seed offerings.

It is my understanding that they now only take phone orders with expedited shipping--makes sense to me as the prices are already terrific. To save the $ mail the order in or order online. I would rather shipping stay reasonable for the rest of us.

I was glad to find this thread today. I was reading the vendor rating board, and was horrified with all the bad reviews. This is the first year in our new home, and I have dozens of spots to have a vegetable garden on this rocky hillside.

I searched for seed vendors online and found Baker Creek. I wish I had ordered more because I forgot summer squashes and tomatoes. I might just try planting tomato seeds from the beefsteaks and roma's I buy at the grocery.

Regardless, the reviews here are comforting. I didn't spend much... $21.00, but I'm happy I chose this vendor.

Thanks for all the above opinions! I'm so excited for spring to come!!

Desertdance,

You would probably have some success planting seeds from tomatoes you got at the grocery, but they are likely hybrids and not heirlooms -- they would not come up "true" to the parent. My advice is if you want to do that, go to farmers' markets and specifically ask for heirloom tomatoes.

I discovered them last year. This year they are supplying about 60-70% of my seeds. I love the variety, the prices, the fact that they only sell heirlooms, and the fact that I can buy things a little off the beaten path. But it's too soon to see how well the seeds will do.

Angie

I've ordered all my vegetable seeds from Baker Creek every year for three years, now. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, marigolds, cucumbers, some other odds and ends. I've gotten to know some of my favorite varieties through BC, and I love 'em.

You can't beat the selection, they always give you lots of seeds in each packet (at least two or three times the minimum number printed on the back, sometimes even more), and with very few exceptions I've found the germination rates to be very high. Especially as I've improved my germination methods (less wet towels in a baggie, more trays of vermiculite).

Also, they're one of the few online seed companies I've been able to find that take Paypal, which is handy.

Just got my new book, Best book and place I found for seeds.

I have a small vegetable garden and switched over to using heirloom seeds last year for the first time. After checking reviews, I ordered all my seeds from Baker Creek and had very mixed results. I planted the same vegetables I normally plant and our summer was pretty much like usual. But I had VERY poor results from the broccoli (no heads formed at all), pickling cucumbers (got about 5 cukes from 2 plants), zucchini of all things (a total of 3 from 2 plants), and green peppers (I got 1 pepper the size of an infant's fist from 6 plants). My bush beans, cabbage, carrots, lettuce and tomatoes did OK. Jalapenos did OK, but the fruit had just started forming about the time I expected to be picking mature fruit. I'm late ordering my seeds this year, and I'm very hesitant to order from Baker Creek again, since I'm unsure if it was something I did/didn't do, if my expectations of heirloom seeds was too high, or if it was a problem with the seeds. I just don't want to put that amount of work into my garden again only to be so disappointed.

We were big fans. We used to go to their huge annual "campout". We're kind of slow. After a few years, we asked why we were camping in a field full of fresh cow patties, but saw no cows. And were restricted to vegetarian food [very good, but still, on a cattle farmâ¦]. Then we began to ask about the gardens they kind of bragged about, but were nowhere in sight, not even up or down Baker Creek. As the years went by, the staff costumes got, well, kind of over the top. One April, there was a booth selling "local" strawberries [this is the Missouri Ozarks, no berries 'til much later]. The year that "Jere" showed up dressed like The Man in the Yellow Hat from Curious George was our last campout. We continued to go, but not camp. The [fake] seed store kept getting bigger, while we learned the hard way that there were only a few reliable vendors [Bean Mountain from Arkansas and some others] And, the cow field, the lack of [annually promised] gardens that never materialized, the expanding "show biz" type atmosphere,,,we finally saw the light. Mr. Gettle is a marketing genius who rode in to town on the wagon of fright driven by gmo development and over-use of herbicides/pesticides on food plants. His showroom is the fake hillbilly town plopped down in front of an old restored [for show] farmhouse. Then I saw a magazine article about his purchase of [I think] Ferry Seed Co. complete with photo of Jere and Emmilee in quaint, pilgrim/old-timey costumes. The costumes, the lack of any gardens, hiding the cows [but not the plops], the silly town and the silly shows, all add up toâ¦us sticking with Seed Savers.

I agree with the folks who mention the whack-a-doodle politics, marketing, and fear mongering, if any of you have been to their forums you'll see what I mean. From what I have see, about a 1/3 of the topics are about GMO, another 1/3 is climate change and very little in the way of actually growing plants. I guess they have their customer base.

That being said, I like their variety. They have a great selection to choose from and for the most part, I have not been too disappointed with the product. I will continue ordering from them for those reasons alone. I don't ever, and will never only use one seed source. I also like SSE a lot. They also have great variety (even for non members like me) and a good product. I will also continue to order from them as well. I also use seeds from any number of sources that include Ferry Morse and Burpee to Botanical Interests and Lake Valley. I also don't grow ALL heirlooms, if I see a hybrid I like, I plant it.

Mixed. They offer a very nice and interesting selection of stuff but the viability of some of their seeds is quite low. The okra seeds I ordered never germinated, while other vendors' seeds did. It could have been a one-off event though, because that was the only time I ordered okra from them.

Their catalog is fun to browse through, but after a few years I stopped ordering from BC. Why? Low germination, lack of variety info on packets, started getting sick of the political stuff inserted all over the catalog. Now I don't even get the catalog anymore. Oh well.

ordered my seeds March 28 still have not received them, shipping is slow for Canada orders. Will order from Canada company next time, here's a list of 230+ companies supplying heirloom / non-GMO / organic seeds

http://www.off-grid.info/food-independence/heirloom-seed-suppliers.html

received package today, ordered March 28, shipped April 10, that's 9 business days after my order.

I ordered a large variety of seeds, both flowers and veggie. I saw about a 5-10% germination rate, with about 1/3rd of what I ordered not having a single germinating seed.

When the first round seemed to fail, I replanted. Those have failed as well. When I look at my trays of tomatoes and peppers, the empty rows are all Baker Creek.

I wonder if something happened to the envelope that held my order, like it was exposed to extreme heat. I have never had such poor results. I wish I had found a different source for my peppers when the seeds failed the first time.

I would highly recommend it! They have such a selection, shipping is only 3$ to Canada, the seeds had a very high germination rate( except for 1 tomato variety), the staff are very friendly and helpful! And the packaging is pretty cool, which is a nice bonus.

Great products, terrible politics.

On the plus side: quick shipping, adequate to good germination rates, lots of unusual varieties to try.

On the negative side: some of these "heirloom" varieties have fallen out of favor for good reason - lack of hybrid vigor and disease resistance compared to modern varieties, and no better tasting.

If you buy from Baker Creek, you also get their e-mail harangues about GM vegetables, featuring demonstrably false claims about genetic modification (including nonsense about how animals avoid GM vegetables). Given the lack of GMOs available to home gardeners, when this and other companies aggressively promote their "GMO-free" stock, it's nothing more than a marketing gimmick.

I have had good luck with Baker's Creek. One example, I order Bonny's Best tomato seeds. I wanted 4 plants, so I started nine seeds. I got nine plants. I do start in small pots with regular potting soil in the bottom and seed starting mix in the top. I use gentle heat from the bottom. They produced so many tomatoes on four plants, I am still using tomatoes I froze last year.

Ordered everything from BC this year. This is my first year growing from seeds and so far I started eggplants. I've heard they are very hard to start so I planted a TON. Not a single plant didn't sprout in a week! Either I have a green thumb inside me I never knew existed (don't think this is the case) or they were really good, viable seeds. Looking forward to more this season.

I like the fact that they have reviews of the different varieties on their website with the reviewer's city and state. It helps to know what grew well (and tasted good) where.

Also, I had wondered about the prairie dresses! I wondered if it was a religious thing. They reminded me of the dresses the women at the Warren Jeff compound wore. Interesting to know it's just a gimmick! I ordered quite a few seed packets from them this year because I had heard good things about them and liked the varieties they offered. Since this is my first time ordering from them, I don't know how they will do yet. I agree that the catalogue is beautiful, but heavy on anti-GMO articles.

Ok....i live in Singapore. I ordered from Baker's Creek in my 1st batch :

1. Hale's Best melon

2. Jimmy Nadelo sweet peppers

3. Zucchini

4. Radishes

All had very very good germination. The radish seedlings most probably bolt anyway since it was a mistake ordering a cold season crop when i live in the tropics.

I've ordered in my 2nd batch which is still in shipping:

1. Leeks (another cold season crop as well, my bad)

2. Okra

3. Chadwick cherry tomato

This is how my Hale's Best melon plants look like today.

Was about to place a large order when a sneakey red flag went up re all the chinese lettering and asian products. thinking twice now, wanting to get real USA product instead. appreciate all the real reviews. their catalogue is amazing, but like i dont listen to cnn or other fluff, im thinking this is a pass. really pretty tho!

probably a good call this year, ordered my first time last winter. Very sorry I did, so far 50 50 on having any of their seeds even sprout, planted side by side with seed from other companies same potting soil same heat mats, only about half of their seed sprouted. been doing this for years never had so many seed fail, so yes pretty pictures nice looking seed packets but this is going to be the sad in the garden, since we are in Alaska by the time you realize the seeds are a complete failure it's to late to restart and get a full crop.

I ordered some black beauty tomato seeds , I was very excited to try them but after trying every way I know I haven’t gotten a single seed to germinate, I will nor order from then again.

I've been ordering seeds from Baker Creek for 4 or 5 years. I've never had trouble with germination or wrong product. However I sow into the ground and sow extra seeds, so can't know what I might of had.

I appreciate their presenting unusual open pollinated varieties from around the world.

have been waiting for over ten days and still have not received my seeds. Now they want me to wait another twelve days. Is that reasonable?

I am getting tired of waiting

When were you told they would be sent when you ordered?

Have placed 2 completed orders in the past 3 years. 1 was fine, the other said "delivered" but I never received it. That's not really their fault (except maybe that they used USPS instead of a more reliable shipper). BUT, the fact that I can't get a response from them about this order IS their fault. Their customer service so far seems to be sub-par