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Demo for Chiltern Seeds

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The Gardener:
I've been a customer of Chiltern Seed for probably 20 years, and have steered loads of people in their direction (I've got a link to their site on my website).  I find their catalogue really comprehensive in terms of the number of plants they offer, and the number of rarely available plants.  Over the years, I grew a lot of plants from Chiltern seed because a) it was cheaper to grow from seed, b) I had lots of room in my garden (not now!), c) I had a lot more time than I have now, d) I was young enough to wait until the seeds had grown to maturity or near-maturity (especially shrubs or trees) and e) Chiltern had the best selection of unusual plants, and I'm a sucker for anything unusual!  I used to browse the catalogue for any perennial I'd never heard of, then look it up and see if it was something I'd like.  I learned about a heck of a lot of new (to me) plants like that. I often thought it would be good to see photos of plants so that I could see immediately what they looked like. If they had a cd, then the customer could read about the plant, and maybe see a picture, and if they wanted to order it, one click takes them there.  What could be more simple and convenient.  Come on Chiltern - go for it!!

Pixydish:
Just checking in with this thread about the CD catalog. I see that the lady at Chilterns is concerned that fewer people buy seeds now. I'm sure she is correct about that. People do tend to go for things that they can see instant results from. All the more reason to have photos attached to catalog items, in my view. When you are trying to compete with the 'instant gardening' crowd, the more information you can offer a customer, the more likely they are to buy. In addition, young people growing up now, the future gardeners, are extremely visual. They have grown up in the media age and are accustomed to modern media formats. They will be the ones buying seeds when we're all gone.
So I'd really like to see a catalog that has photos, as well as complete germination information. It's not enough for me to know that a seed needs 'warm soil' vs. 'cool soil'. I want to know the best temperature range for that seed to germinate, whether is likes dry soil or moist once it has germinated, how much light, etc. I end up having to do a lot of research on my own to get this information, no matter where I buy the seeds. I don't know very many people who love gardening enough to go to all that trouble (except on this forum!). They certainly sell more seeds if they gave more information.
I recently ordered about 30 different seed varieties from a seller in California (USA) who has a catalog the size of a good paperback book. No photos at all, and only brief descriptions of the plants. If he had a catalog on CD, not only would I have saved many hours of research time, but I likely would have placed an even larger order. I order from another American company that has great seeds, and many unusual ones, but they have the exact same germination information on each packet, no matter what plant the seeds are from! Not exactly a key to success if you follow their instructions without thinking. And were I a new gardener, I'd give up on seeds fairly quickly with this sketchy information.
A CD catalog would be a perfect venue for offering more information and photos, and much cheaper to produce in the long run than a paper catalog.

gardenfan:
I, too, find the Chiltern Seeds catalogue good reading. I have been using Chiltern for some years now - my only problems are restraining myself from buying too many and finding the space for the plants I grow.
I find plants grown from seed often survive better than larger plants bought in nurseries. Our garden soil (in East Anglia) is so light and dries out very quickly but plants grown from seed seem to develop the ability to survive here.

ideasguy:
I'm still working on the Chiltern demo, Sylvia, so if you have any photos of plants you've grown from Chiltern seeds they would be much appreciated.
Andre (Greenfinger - Belgium)  has sent me a good selection. I held back to get them added to give more content.

Anyone who sends a few photos can have a copy of the demo.

The Gardener:
Over the years I've grown lots of plants from Chiltern Seeds, and probably photographed most of them, BUT - I can't remember what I've ordered in the past from them, so I can't tell which are theirs and which aren't! I wonder if they have an archive of orders and can tell me what I've ordered in the past ten years  :)

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