Any online seed places in eastern Canada?

My husband and I are budding new permaculture people. We just got the deed our own land and I’ve been dreaming about having our own turf for sooo long and now finally we have it. It’s really hard to find permaculture plant seeds such as comfrey and medical plant seeds also fruit/nut trees/shrubs seeds. We are looking for seed because of genetic diversity and it’s also cheaper. Do you people know any good permaculture seed places?

Hi Gina, and welcome to Permies.  I'm by the bridge in NB and I'm having a lot of problems finding comfrey.  I moved out here from ON and I really like William Dam Seeds.  They do a lot of mail order sales and have very high quality seeds.  I typically get 85-90% germination from 3 year old seeds.

Where abouts are you?

Timothy Markus wrote:Hi Gina, and welcome to Permies.  I'm by the bridge in NB and I'm having a lot of problems finding comfrey.  I moved out here from ON and I really like William Dam Seeds.  They do a lot of mail order sales and have very high quality seeds.  I typically get 85-90% germination from 3 year old seeds.

Where abouts are you?

Hi Tim! I also live in NB it’s terribly hard to find seeds here. All of the really good seed places seem to come from ON. I would buy some but mailing lately has been a bit iffy with the current issue. Thanks for the help!

Ontario Seed Company (OSC) is another well-regarded seed company.  It's in Waterloo, ON and you can find their seeds in Home Hardware, as well as online, probably.  They're my second choice to William Dam.  They are both recommended by Steve Solomon in Gardening When it Counts and I have had years of good results from them.  

I'm new out here so trying to find local suppliers too.  I'm asking everyone I encounter about comfrey.  No luck yet, lol.

This site lists a number of the smaller seed companies in Canada. Many are in Eastern Canada.

https://seeds.ca/diversity/seed-catalogue-index

That's a great resource, Lorne.  Thanks.

I've used William Dam as well. From Ontario I use Richter's Herbs but sometimes if an item has low stock it won't come with your order but will show up eventually. https://mckenzieseeds.com from Manitoba is good, they supply Canadian Tire.

I've ordered from https://www.rainbowseeds.ca (in New Brunswick), www.veseys.com (PEI i believe?) and West Coast Seeds (in BC i believe but ships across Canada). Had good germination rates with all of these...

Nova Scotia: incredible seed company is great but they are running out of stock in the covid crisis, Halifax seed company and Annapolis seeds.

Thank you, people for the help!

I wouldn't be too fast in planting comfrey.  If you get the wrong kind you will find it is a weed that you can never get rid of.  I had some arrive in my garden in some free topsoil 10 years ago and every year I try to dig it out but the roots go down to hell.  If I till it the plant becomes a hundred plants.  An old man's advise is back peddle  as soon as you see comfrey!  

We've had success with ordering from Vessey's, although they send too many paper catalogues in the mail. They're glossy so we don't even use it for compost. You would think a seed company would consider that in their advertisements!
We've also used OSC seeds but I wasn't as impressed with them.
We haven't ordered trees yet, but I'll be looking at http://www.hardyfruittrees.ca/ based on their descriptions and the variety they have. I enjoy hearing about their experimentation and attempts to develop more hardy trees for us up north!

Whereabouts in NB? We're just outside of Fredericton. We just moved in at the end of October last year so this is our first spring on the property. it's exciting to see there are a few permies local to us!

Bill Astell wrote:I wouldn't be too fast in planting comfrey.  If you get the wrong kind you will find it is a weed that you can never get rid of.  I had some arrive in my garden in some free topsoil 10 years ago and every year I try to dig it out but the roots go down to hell.  If I till it the plant becomes a hundred plants.  An old man's advise is back peddle  as soon as you see comfrey!  

That sounds terrible what type of comfrey specifies should we stray away from?

Hello Gina

I'm in the northern part of the province, between Bathurst and Tracadie. It's not a big province but there is much variation in climate (Tuesday we had 10cm of snow).

Here are the seed places I've done business with:

Richters, On. I got a bunch of perennials from them. I like to browse their catalog.
William Dam, On
Stokes Seeds , On
McKenzie, Mb
Halifax Seed, NS
Vesey's, PEI. The only place that wasn't sold out on seed potatoes.

Hawthorn Farm, On. They carry Lofthouse Landrace Moschata.
Hope Seeds, NS. My favorite place but they changed their website and I don't like it much.  They carry stuff from local growers.
Annapolis Seeds, NS. Their grain section is interesting.
Terre Promise, Qc. A source of Ancienne d'Acadie, an old summer savory.

Hardy Fruit Trees, Qc, I placed an order with them earlier this year. We'll see how it goes.

My comfrey is from Richters. It's the fertile one and while it hasn't become the invasive monster it's supposed to be it does self seed successfully. I don't mind for now, maybe I'll regret it one day.

I don't have much experience with gardening, permaculture or seed saving so my seed bank is of dubious quality. With that disclaimer in mind I'd be willing to share/trade some of what I have.

The Incredible Seed in NS has lots of great edible tree and shrub seeds in addition to the usual veggies and herbs and flowers.

Mapple Farm in NB has good permie vegetable seeds and starts. Some unusual things I haven't seen elsewhere in Canada.

Veseys and Halifax Seeds are good for the standard garden stuff.

I'm in BC now but was near Moncton 20 years.