B-ware!! - great seedlings

Thought I'd tell you of my splendid mistake this season (well one anyway!) Had bought lots of seeds from various firms (Thompson and Morgan, Seedaholics , ..... Oh and various others!!) I was searching for odds and ends when I found a site on Amazon and found some interesting stuff. However .... I didn't notice who I was buying from before sending my order off! The seeds I remember ordering turned up promptly but other things took my time for a while. Then one day, through the door came this tiny package - about 3" square, grey plastic bubblewrap with complicated label but NO NAME of contents. Inside a minuscule plastic envelope about 1" by half inch with a small pinch of seed (child packer I'd say!) All that was written was Made in China! Bl@@dy strange I thought, and it took its place amongst the compost on my table.
Didn't think about it but another three similar packets arrived in next three weeks! I looked carefully and worked out that there was a possibility that one contained Brassica seeds, another some Digitalis I felt certain, and would be planted ....... soon!
Then I started worrying - should I plant stuff from China? Could I have got myself into a drug growing situation? No non were marijuana (I'd grown some once when kids were in uni (c'mon dad you can do it!) Amazing germination, great seedlings, off to snowdonia, back two weeks and plants pushing off glass in greenhouse. Neighbour in Drug Squad so within ten minutes six plants on compost heap!!) So didn't want that pressure again with these Chinese plants. Anyway I've planted them today, and will let you know how things grow. I found the supplier and wrote an email, but no answer in a month. When I get time I'll let Amazon know!

 

Just come across this on another forum growingontheedge.net - View topic - Mystery seeds from China: DO NOT PLANT! coincidence?

 

oh my gosh Glynne...bin them...bin them now

 

Thanks for your quick responses! Having re-read my thread, I should have said that I searched 'my orders' on my Amazon account and discovered that I had ordered seeds from two Chinese sellers! That was the point of my warning - make sure you know from whom you are ordering! It's not Amazon, it's other sellers who sell THROUGH Amazon! This was how I was able to see exactly what I'd ordered! Thus when I looked at the packets I worked out that they were foxgloves, Brussels sprouts, broccoli and Iris seeds! ! !
I don't think they're dangerous otherwise I would have dumped them.
I didn't get a reply to my email, well not yet anyway. You will have realised that I'm devoted to planting seeds and looking for self- setting seeds.
Most of my poppy seeds are hybrids. I found a capsule on an orange Cambrian poppy growing in a wall near the Ironbridge (I live in Telford) This year the garden was full of the two colours - orange and yellow. They've really spread and the plants aren't dead headed - they're pulled out out and composted! My sister wanted some and I sent plants to her, but she says that they haven't spread? The penny dropped - she's treating them as perennials and dead heading them. So I've told her how to 'spread' them - don't be so tidy!
Thanks again for you're responses - I'll keep you in touch regarding my Chinese foxgloves!

 

I can recommend Rehmannia aka Chinese foxglove. Nice doer, but not the hardiest will self seed though.
Rehmannia elata

 

Thanks! Wow what a great plant, will buy some today - but not from China! Curiously digitalis are my favourites, long before salvias. Being from North Wales I recognise foxgloves as being part of me. We had a caravan in Beddgelert for many years and were under trees surrounded by foxgloves and Scots pine. So my present garden was meant to be a snowdonia glade. Still is though many of the trees have been felled and chipped, composted and supporting various foxgloves, and these days, salvias! Thanks again!

 

Beddgelert, wow.
I've got a print on my wall by Sydney R Persey.
I often look at it and admire the shear beauty.

 

Those were the days! Lots of local painters these days and still wonderful in the memory. Our van was on the Forestry Commission site now curtailed and taken over by log cabins. Presumably more profit? Great place to take kids camping and exploring. Took kids from three different schools/areas long ago. Hope those now adults remember the forests, the rivers, the mountains, and that fantastic rain!

 

I've stared at Llyn Doninas many times and wondered how it would have been to be there back in Victorian times. Such a tranquil unspoilt natural beauty.
I'll visit it one day hopefully in a 'quiet' mid week trip.
Whilst there are times to be sociable that won't be one of them!

 

Re: Chinese seedlings. Read article in the Guardian today. Seems lots of unsolicited packets of seeds arriving USA and Canada labelled 'ear studs' Mine were this (didn't include this!) One only labelled what I'd ordered. However I was able to find my original orders if you remembered, but I've no doubt they came from same place as those in the article!
No germination yet by the way! I have tried emailing the Gov department but Virgin Media manage to stop all emails (blank screen!) every weekend, and you've guessed it, no way of contacting them by phone - unless you want to hang on for hours. So I hang up! Should I move my supplier for the three things I buy from them? Technology!!

 

Well folks they've started germinating! One, the brassica, up in just a few days and look normal. Another , I thought was a digitalis by the size, has also shown but don't think is a foxglove as germinated in 7days - usually take 14 days! Whatever it is, it's fresh! Another similar, so must wait til pricked out.
Re: the Chinese Foxglove has arrived (from RS seeds) so will plant soon and overwinter in heated conservatory.