Chiltern Seeds

How do you know that it's soft paper?!!!!

 

Does the job

 

Well, I don't know what was wrong with torn-up copies of the Radio Times, bunched with string at the corner.

 

I can feel just a slight stirring of sap in my capillaries with all this talk of seed catalogues. Best to stay dormant for a while yet.

 

Seed catalogues are free??

 

My Chiltern 2014 seed catalogue has just arrived!

 

I had a look on Chiltern's website a few days ago. It was a pain to use and I soon gave up. I find it frustrating not to have photos and the descriptions (though amusing) have to be taken with a very large pinch of salt. Every time I added something to my basket the page flicked back to page one, meaning I had to click through to continue reading where I left off. I had clocked up about £20 worth after only 5 or 6 choices.

It seemed easiest to find the Latin names of stuff I like from trawling elsewhere (for example GC ), then look it up on Ebay to see if anyone else stocks it and they often do, at half the price. Then I look up what else that seller has got that I like the look of, so I can get extra packets with no extra postage.

I know Chiltern's are producing a catalogue but even so I can't see why their prices are so high, they must be dealing in greater bulk than most seed sellers. I think they'd be better off charging at cost price for the paper catalogue and keeping their seed prices really competitive in today's market. After all, they don't need posh premises or use fancy coloured packets. However, I imagine many Ebay sellers are operating out of their own homes giving them a big edge.

 

I've not bought anything from Chiltern for maybe 2 years now, still getting the catalogue sent though.

 

Lots of small retailed have rubbish websites, and most concentrate on "appearance" rather than "usability" (I have built huge ecommerce websites for a living for more than 10 years)

In situations where websites do that jig-dance you are better off pressing BACK the moment the "Basket confirmed" screen appears, rather than waiting for it to then cycle round back to the original page. using BACK will (should!) scroll the page back to exactly where you were when you pressed BUY. If you have to go from Product Listing to Product Details page (to get to a BUY button, or to read the description / look at photos) then you may have to press BACK twice (i.e. to get back to the Product Listing page you started from)

Snap!

Possibly more seed per packet / fresher / guaranteed / not available elsewhere.

But I agree eBay can be cheaper. eBay is a MAJOR pain to use as a shopping eCommerce site though ...

 

I don't think they are fresher! I've had lots of fails with Chiltern. I wouldn't ask for my money back as there are so many variables with seed raising and it's hard to be sure of my ground. It's true they stock lots of weird stuff but so does everyone else these days and such is the wonder of the web we can easily get our hands on them. I find I have to use several sellers to get what I want over the course of the season, anyway, even Chiltern's has omissions in the catalogue.

Why do you say that? I use Ebay so much it seems as natural as breathing!

Oooooh, it's so exciting to be even TALKING about seeds!

 

I will have a look through the catalogue, see if there's anything I like (even though I know I've probably got enough seed anyway but I can't resist!!) then I'll see if I can get it cheaper elsewhere. I agree though that I dislike Chiltern's website due to the lack of photos of many of their varieties.

 

I rarely buy from Chiltern or T&M or the like, I think they have got way too expensive. For everyday seeds I use SimplySeed, not a massive range but ... (i've mentioned them before, no I don't work for them!) and for what I can't get there or for unusual seeds I will go to local nursery or if pushed big seed sellers. Never had a problem with Wilko or Simply, ebay etc.

For instance bog standard stuff:

Gardeners Delight
Chiltern 2.15, T&M 1.79, Simply Seed .79, Wilko .79 IIRC

Same goes for lots of other veg seeds.

Gets pricey when the differential is tha big and I don't like spending money i don't have to.

p.s. Forgot to say, nothing like browsing the paper catalogues though.
GG

 

I received my Chiltern seed catalogue yesterday and seed price as defenetly gone up.
What I tend to do is have a look at Chilterns catalogue then got from else were

 

eBay site's usability as a "Fill my basket and checkout" is dire.

eCommerce site for plants should allow browsing by all sorts of plant attributes. Some eBay sellers organise their products into sensible groups, but most only have A, B, C groups, or perhaps by Genus ... nothing to filter on flower colour, height/width, sun/shade, hardy/half-hardy, Acid/Lime pH and so on. Descriptions are cluttered with self-promotion of Vendors, details about their shipping policy, how impressed you should be with their feedback ... or yards of T&C's. Often difficult to pick out the bit that actually tells you about the product, and that's often a one-liner - minimum that the seller can be bothered to enter. eBay's handling of pack-sizes, colour choices, volume discounts and so on is dire, at best. Volume-postage is often miscalculated by eBay, so you have to send a "please combine shipping cost" message to the vendor.

Every vendor has a different layout, some better than other, but it makes it slow work comparing offerings (probably made worse for me as I am dyslexic and such "assimilations of information" off the page no doubt take me longer than average.

 

For popular varieties I agree. I like, and grow, Gardeners Delight so any seller (i.e. "cheapest" ) will do me. But one of the key reasons why I grow-my-own is to have my varieties of choice, and many of those are far from common. Like Cauliflower Candid Charm. Used to be available in many places, lots of people in Vegetable Growing Forums said how well they got on with it (compared to other varieties) and now the darn thing is becoming as rare as Hen's teeth. Why? No idea ... presumably they've bred new, high-cost, varieties that their marketing people are trying to push-sell. Cheapest-price Lettuce is no use to me unless they have varieties that I want, but I can see that there will be others who are less fussed by variety and cost will be a significant consideration.

The stuff I buy from Chilterns is rarely vegetables, and mostly unusual annuals that I can't get (easily) elsewhere.

my Gardeners Delight come from the local garden centre group's Autumn sale at 50p a packet, and for that I get a brand like Suttons with enough seed for 3 or 4 year's crops The 50p-a-packet sale reduces my outgoings on vegetable seed enormously - I did a price average in another thread, back in September, but I would think I save £1.25 average, per packet, on 40 or 50 packets of seed. Or put another way I still save 25p-40p compared to buying at Wilko's or similar