Seeds waiting to be sorted
It’s even better when you can find a seed company that specializes in seeds for cold climates. Recently, a reader asked me just that:
I live in Norway long term and am trying to find cold climate food seed for my garden.
On my Cold Climate Merchants page I have Fedco, High Altitude, Johnny’s, and Pinetree. Unfortunately, I don’t think any of them ship to Norway.
Readers, Can You Help?
Do any of you know of other seed merchants that specialize in vegetable seeds for cold climates? If they ship to Norway, that would be a bonus.
Don’t miss our Botanic Interests seed giveaway, going on now through Sunday!
About Kathy Purdy
Kathy Purdy discovered the joys of writing in fourth grade, when she started corresponding with a former classmate. She's been writing letters ever since, first on looseleaf, then electronically, and now as weblog entries. That makes you, the blog reader, her pen pal. Her first independent (though frustrating) attempts at gardening were made in high school, though the gardening bug didn't bite hard until her mid-thirties, when she found herself mistress of a rural home on 15 acres. • USDA Hardiness Zone:4 • AHS Heat Zone: 3 • Location: rural; Southern Tier of NY • Geographic type: foothills of Appalachian Mountains • Soil Type: acid clay • Experience level: intermediate • Particular interests: colchicums, narcissus, cottage gardening, NY native plants, gardening with/for children
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I know this post is some time after the fact, but http://www.denaliseed.com has very good cold climate seeds. All are tested in Alaska, and quite a few were ‘breed’ to perform well in Fairbanks. Another good site is http://www.uaf.edu/ces/mastergardeners/ Both sites have really wonderful people that are happy to work with different requests. Hope this helps…
Thank you for the information. I added Denali Seeds to Cold Climate Merchants and I added the Agriculture and Horticulture department of Alaska Cooperative Extension to Cold Climate Information.
Hi all, I live on Bornholm (an island in the middle of the Baltic Sea). Our snow has disappeared now and our temperatures have been above zero for the last two weeks, so I’m pulling on the gardening gloves. I’ve just placed an order with Impecta based on Mari Ann’s recommendation. I’ll keep you posted.
Cheers and keep up the good work,
Fiona
.-= Fiona Tod´s last blog ..Carpets of wild garlic =-.
Twitter: @JoanLBailey
How about checking out nurseries and garden stores in Norway? Initially, I had a hard time here in Japan, but I’ve gradually found some good local sources. I imagine my resource list will keep growing of local shops or national companies where I can get some things. Package labeling can be a problem – I’m still pretty illiterate in Japanese – but the pictures are quite helpful. It’s been a great excuse to chat up other gardeners, too.
I am sorry, I missed out that the question was about vegetable. Vegetable seeds are available but most of us order from Impecta.se They are cheeper and have a far better collection to choose from. If your reader is still there, put her in contact with me. (mari_braekkan at yahoo.no) We gardners are in hibernation untill april.
Territorial Seeds also comes to mind – for short season seeds.
Gardens North: http://gardensnorth.com/site/index.htm
I live in Norway too, and Garden North has a good reputation among gardeners here.
I almost listed them in my post, but as far as I could tell they didn’t sell vegetables. But you are right, they do have an excellent selection of seeds for the cold climate gardener. Many of them are quite unusual, too.
I would think that Norway would have its own varieties of cold-weather garden seeds/plants. And those very local plants would be most adapated to that clime anyway.
Well, I would think that, too. But I got the impression that the writer of the email wasn’t native to Norway, but was living there for an extended stay, and it may be she wasn’t able to communicate with the local people or hasn’t met many yet.
I would send a note to Jim at Prairie Seeds here in Saskatchewan. He might be able to help you out. There is a link off of my blog.
http://aprairiejournal.blogspot.com/
Clayton
Wow, Clayton! You seem to have a lot of good sources in that sidebar of yours.
Hi Kathy and thanks for the good word. I am not a big “veggie” fan as that is mostly my wife’s domain but I do get the catalogs and try to keep up with what and where. I think we here in Saskatoon and North Central Saskatchewan are probably a good match for the Norway growing conditions and our own shorter season tends to be quite demanding.
Another option for seeds is to get on GardenBuddies as there are many good “sharing” opportunities for small quantities of seed.
Hopefully everything you tried was still “alive”.
High Altitude Gardens was first on my list, I order Tomato seeds from there – Sasha Altai is very short season.
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