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Press Release

Sowing the seeds for success?

28 September 2007

Forget about green fingers, it’s poor quality seeds that are preventing gardens from growing, reveals new Gardening Which? research released today.

The results of a study of leading flower and vegetable seed brands show huge variation in quality, with only six of the 15 companies tested coming up to industry standard*. One supplier’s delphinium seed packets were found to contain no healthy seed at all**.

Gardening Which? found Edwin Tucker and Sons Ltd to be the worst offender, scoring poorly across the tests. 99 per cent of its delphinium seeds were found to be dead, and a mere 15 per cent of lettuce seeds produced normal seedlings.

Popular brand Unwins also fared badly for flower seed germination, with as few as two per cent of its delphinium seeds generating healthy plants***. For vegetable seeds, Suffolk Herbs, D.T Brown, Mr Fothergill’s and Dobies all failed to reach the minimum standard for both parsnip and lettuce germination.

Thompson and Morgan proved to be the best all-rounder, with 83 per cent of seeds producing healthy plants. Plants of Distinction also received top marks for seed germination, and Dobies flourished in the flower seed tests.

Ceri Thomas, Editor, Gardening Which? says:

“Most gardeners naturally blame themselves when seeds don’t develop into plants, but our tests show many seeds are dead in the packets before they’re even sewn.

“How disheartening for any gardener to put time, effort and love into growing plants from seed, for only a handful to make it.

“We hope our report will shame the seed suppliers who scored badly into reviewing their quality control.”



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