Seed exchange 2009/2010

[Regelian]

Well, my seed arrived today in fine shape.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any of my first choices and only 3 of my second.  I guess I have popular taste in seed!  Plus my donations arrived too late for the list.  I certainly lost placement!  You live, you learn.

Something that occured to me on the method.  On the internet site, we can order for surplus seed, as well, which I did.  I didn't do too well receiving seed I would like, as I left the choice open for the various interesting genera.  The result is, I received lots of common seed I won't grow.  I think we need more space to order individual packets of the surplus seed to allow for what appears to be a large fall-out of choices.  Although I received some interesting seed, over 80% will have to find another grower, as I can't afford to dedicate space to common seed.  I will find growers, but I have that nagging feeling this is a waste of resources.

off to write some labels.......

[Maggi Young]

Jamie, did you see that you can order up to 50 packets of surplus seed by choice of  number ?

[Regelian]

Maggie,

yes, but at the rate of fall-out, 100 would have been better as my 'hit' average was less than 10%.  I honestly didn't expect to get so little of what I sought or that the surplus seed would be all that was left.  Next time I will use all options and hope for the best.  It just seemed to me that I cannot be alone and a great deal of unwanted seed may be being sent out.  I guess its just a bit of my scottish ancestors haunting me.  You know that one!  Waste not, want not.

To be sure, I am very impressed with the seed exchange in general and the amount of work that goes into it is quite clear.  Next year I will be better prepared in any case.

[Casalima]

My main distribution seeds arrived last week while I was away - sent on the 11th, so also taking slightly longer than post usually does from the UK. I am looking forward to another packet soon 

[Maggi Young]

As was seen from an earlier post where one member got the single packet available of a seed, there are some taxa that are  both in very short supply and high in popularity.
Thus it wouldn't matter if there were the option to nominate 1000 individual surplus numbers; if one is asking for those rare or popular seeds one will still get a high failure rate.
The seed team, rather than only give what they can of your requests, often make substitutes from what is available.... so that one gets at least some seeds for the money...thinking that the member may well have friends they could pass the seeds on to if they do not require them. What is unwanted seeds to some of our members may well be happily received by your neighbours of local gardenig clu or school, for instance.  Better that option than a bigger  pile of leftover seed here!

The Seed Gang generously make that concession, in spite of saying that subs will not be given for surplus or money refunded. 

[Lesley Cox]

It stands to reason that the surplus seed will be, not to put too fine a point on it, largely what no-one wants. That's not to say it doesn't contain many excellent plants. My very first Arisaema, (candidissimum) came years ago as surplus seed. Surplus seed is a good source for mass plantings of, say, bulbs for naturalizing or for some small nurseries or to replace common plants that one may have lost for whatever reason or for garden club or other salestables, plant fairs etc.

Smart members learn early in their membership to get donations to the seed exchange well before the close off date (I'm still working on it!), and to get their seed requests made out immediately the list arrives or becomes available on line. It may mean taking a day off work Jamie, to do this, or going without meals or going to bed in the early hours of the morning.

For NZers and probably Australians now, surplus seed is no longer an option as we have no idea of what will arrive and so can't send the required list for MAF. If it comes in without our self-made list, A, it will wait until MAF has time to process it (could be many weeks) and B, as it will contain many species not permitted, a large proportion of the seed would be destroyed. (The option is to have it returned to sender, but I doubt if the seed exchange want's it back.)

[Maggi Young]

Lesley, perhaps Ian Bainbridge will re-appear to shed more light, but, as far as I know, the Seedy Gang can now generate lists for those orders to NX, Australia and USA.... numbers, names, all listed and printed out.......

 added later, after consultation with Ian B:
......it is still asked that those members making paper order make a list of their main allocation requests, please!!

[Rodger Whitlock]

my donations arrived too late for the list.

I'm pretty sure that both the AGS and SRGC exchanges are happy to be sent email notification of seeds being shipped. The mails are so unreliable these days in so many places that seed shipments may be delayed beyond all reasonable expectations, so a parallel notification by email will ensure that your contribution doesn't miss the boat.

[Diane Whitehead]

It's been a while since I have ordered surplus seed, but when
I did, I would choose one of the genera that gets massive
amounts of seed donated, and Lesley is right in mentioning
bulbs.

I was able to nominate a block of numbers, so sometimes I
had it include several genera, or else only a portion of a really
immense listing of, for instance, Campanula.

In 2001 I noted how many surplus packets I got, which is
indicative of what is available in excess. 

A few examples:
Alstroemeria 6/15  (15 listings, and I received 6 as surplus )
Cyananthus 3/7
Incarvillea 10/22
Paeonia 10/31
Zephyrathes 10/21

Now that I think more about it, the numbers could instead
represent the decision of a seed picker to give me a wide
selection of seeds.  Maybe all 15 types of Alstroemeria were
still available.

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks Maggi for that note but it's not exactly what I meant. While the seed senders might include a list of what is sent, it wouldn't be a list (and seed) of what is permitted. For surplus seed of say Saxifraga, we would be allowed some but not others and I can't imagine the packers would want to consult our Biosecurity Index for each item. (No, I'm NOT suggesting that they do so.) We can ensure that the numbered items are permitted but not the genera items. I applied for surplus seed a couple of years ago and only received 2 of the numbered items so most were generic selections.

This isn't any kind of a complaint, I promise you. If there's any problem it is with our bio system, certainly not with the seed exchange. For my own part, I have sown so many seeds this year from 20 or 30 different sources, that the absence of surplus seed is a great relief!

[Lesley Cox]

I shall be pretty mad if anyone gets Cyananthus as surplus seed this year as I listed 2 as first choices and received neither!

[Maggi Young]

Thanks Maggi for that note but it's not exactly what I meant. While the seed senders might include a list of what is sent, it wouldn't be a list (and seed) of what is permitted. For surplus seed of say Saxifraga, we would be allowed some but not others and I can't imagine the packers would want to consult our Biosecurity Index for each item. (No, I'm NOT suggesting that they do so.) We can ensure that the numbered items are permitted but not the genera items. I applied for surplus seed a couple of years ago and only received 2 of the numbered items so most were generic selections.

This isn't any kind of a complaint, I promise you. If there's any problem it is with our bio system, certainly not with the seed exchange. For my own part, I have sown so many seeds this year from 20 or 30 different sources, that the absence of surplus seed is a great relief!

 Oh, yes, now I see what you mean.... yes, that is a problem.

Some items are marked to show they cannot be ordered by the USA members, and the "live" material is marked.... I suppose it would be rather complicated to have colour-coded markers for what is not allowed where....

[Lesley Cox]

It would be impossible for the exchange to make provisions fully to satisfy the regulations for every member. The fact is too, that more and more countries are becoming aware of biosecurity risks even if, for the most part, those horses bolted many years ago, and the regulations for each country are a little different from the others, so arranging for the seedlist to accomodate every circumstance is a no brainer.

We can only be grateful that so far, England and Scotland still permit the import of all seed (all relevant seed anyway) so that the seed exchanges are still able to operate at all. If overseas donations were not accepted and overseas members had to pull out from applying for seed, I can imagine that membership would go down with a bump.

[Maggi Young]

It is always said that the Seed Exchange is one of the biggest draws for membership, Lesley, but I was surprised to learn that it is in fact only a minority of members, home or overseas, who actually order seed. I don't know what the percentage is from the likes of the AGS exchange but there are an awful lot of SRGC members who never order seed !    Very odd   

[Regelian]

It is always said that the Seed Exchange is one of the biggest draws for membership, Lesley, but I was surprised to learn that it is in fact only a minority of members, home or overseas, who actually order seed. I don't know what the percentage is from the likes of the AGS exchange but there are an awful lot of SRGC members who never order seed !    Very odd   

Oh, I don't know.  You may come for the seed list, but you stay for the people!     This is one very informative and friendly club.