Possible tomato swap.

[gunnerbee]

lol !!

[gunnerbee]

[Jeannine]

Woooh girls, slow down here, I have been ordering from this company for many years even before I came back here, in fact for the last 2 years I have done a group purchase for A4A folks,,,but,,,and here is the bad part, DEFRA is starting to stop packages when they come in as theroetically we can't bring toms from the US. I have only had 1 parcel stopped and it wasn't from this company, it was boxed rather than bubble wrapped which means it came via Parcelforce here rather than the postie and it is Parcelforce that are checking them.. I have had several shipments since my boxed parcel was stopped, all came in bubble wrapped envelopes. The man from DEFRA himself explanied to me on the phone that customs are getting tighter all the time and currently anything via Parcelforce can be checked if it says seeds on, he also told me that envelope mail isn't.

So it is do at your own risk I am afraid.

As for the company, they are excellent.Yes you can pay by plastic,  and they do sell large sizes, when we ordered for A4A wherever we could we ordered large sozes and shared them, everybody paid for a  30 seed packet but actually ended up with 60.

I want to look into the import regs to Holland, maybe Ruud could help me there as the Defra man hinted that they are more loose and then of course there is no restriction for someone posting from Holland to the UK. I have a son in Holland.

I do havea lot of there seeds but at the moment I am not sure if I will get anymore. Personally I would risk ordering for myself but I would not do a group order again.

There is a man on US e bay who is excellent by the way, I have shared his na,e here before and many have used him. He knows me quite well now, he always posts in bubble wrap envelopes. His prices are cheap and he has an excellent reputation.   Daves Seeds . He knows about the Defra thing and is very careful what he writes on the outside. His postage is practically nothing. He has many of the same seeds as tomatogrowers because they are one of his suppliers. Dave by the way sells all veggies not just toms. Check him out on US e bay, he takes Paypal.

So please be aware of the DEFRA thing beore you order.

There is a legal way round this by the way, you can get a sanitary certificate from the seller to satisfy DEFRA, costs about $50, no matter what the size of your shipment, some companies won't  do it as it involves a lot of paperwork, I ma not sure about tomatigrowers,,it is worth an ask as $50 is not much if split many ways.
Also check out seeds by size here in the UK, he has many of these toms, you can look at tomatogrowers pictures and see if seeeds by size have them.

XX Jeannine

[rentawreck]

Have we got a possible bean swap going now Jeannine?

[Jeannine]

I will join in but am reluctant to do it till after I go to the hospital next week if yiu want to wait till then I will but if someone else wants to go for it, we could combine it with chillis and squash if you like, take part in i bit or all three.

XX Jeannine

I have loads of squash to tip in

[rentawreck]

Sorry Jeannine saw this and thought YOU were doing a bean swap next:-

So come on now you lot, WHO is going to do a  bean swap..

Thought you were looking for contributors as I do a few climbing beans.

Sadly I too am away for a few weeks in a couple of weeks time.  I only hope they are ready for me in Spain because I'm on my way.   Maybe I can bring a little sunshine back!

[gunnerbee]

I cant find Daves Seeds on ebay, just been looking for him !!! hes done a runner!!

[rentawreck]

Gunnerbee try this

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/DAVES-SEEDS-AND-PLANTS_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZQ2d33QQftidZ2QQtZkm

[gunnerbee]

aha thanks a million x

[Jeannine]

Update, your packets have had a delay, John took then to the box and didn't think they would go in so he brought them home, didn't tell me of course, they are on their way now though,, sorry folks he is lovely but that memory!!

XX Jeannin e

[otto_nowak]

I cant find Daves Seeds on ebay, just been looking for him !!! hes done a runner!!

done a runner... the bean man,... brilliant ..  :D :D :D

[Jeannine]

I had an e mail from Dave yesterday as I had sent for some more seeds, he has been ill, in a lot of pain he can't get under control and struggling to keep up to date with his shipping. He has always been very rapid so I thought it very sad as he has been a super seller to me over the years. I don't know if he goes on forums but if you do Dave...get well soon, we need you.

XX Jeannine

[Tin Shed]

They've arrived!!!!!
Many thanks to Jeanine for organising and to everyone else who sent seeds in.
Guess what I will be doing when I get home from work. :D

[markfield rover]

Very many thanks Jeannine, bonus beans too.I do not think I should be this delighted this time of the morning! then again it is the April 1.
Cheers.

[Paulines7]

Jeannine, thank you very much for organising the swap, it must have been a nightmare for you what with some people not putting on the correct postage and using too small an envelope.  I hope you didn't have to go to the sorting office and pay £1 postage charge for anyones package. 

I expect when you received all the Costoluto Fiorentino you must have been wondering what to do with them as there was no point sending them back to those people who had sent them in.    ;D ;D ;D  I can see why spares would have come in handy but, unfortunately, I only had five packets that had enough to be able to send you ten seeds.

Thank you for the magic beans; I look forward to growing the beanstalk.  For the life of me I can't remember sending you a cow but I had probably had too many glasses of wine.   ;D ;D ;D

Seriously Jeannine, thank you very much everything.  All the seeds I received are new to me.   :D

[sims girl]

 
??? how do you do the seed swop as l have lots of runner beans in my tin from   last year  :D

[Deb P]

Just got home from work........package here! ;D ;D ;D
Very pleased as several varieties I haven't tried yet, so I will be sowing tonight!
What HUGE beans! 8)

[markfield rover]

Evening Jeannine, now these fab beans ,are they Greek samos lima beans?
Cheers

[Jeannine]

The beans were my treat, they are Gianteus, Gigandes,  whichever name you use in your part of the world, this is the bean that Supersprout got everyone excited about, not easy to find so I thought I would share a few around. There are lots of posts about them if you do a search, I believe Supersprout used the name Giganteus. Treat them as Runners as they grow tall and plant them as soon as you would normally plant your first runners, don't leave them to the back end of runner planting as they need a fair bit of time. There are also some special recipes on here and on the net for using them.


Sims girl, if you go to the beginning of this post it will tell you all about it, this one was a little differnt to some of the swaps going on just now, those are pass the parcel.

I don't know yet if a bean swap will go.

XX Jeannine

[rentawreck]

Hi Jeannine.   Received my package today.   Thanks very much.......must have been difficult to sort out!

Quite a few I didn't have.   Looking forward to trying them.

Found some really interesting huge white seed almost as big as a 2p piece......Wow can't wait to see the whopping great tomatoes that produce them!!!

Just kidding......

[Suzanne]

Jeannine got the package today and lots of lovely tomato seeds I hadn't even heard of. Thank you and those that donated spares as well, I didn't expect to get any extras.  :)

I am looking forward to growing the giant beans -whoppers  :o