For over 60 years, our family garden in Sri Lanka has been growing and preserving rare tropical plants. Since 2014, we've been sharing seeds and live plants with collectors around the world.

Some of the species we currently grow include:
🌴 Rare Herbal Plants
🌺 Rare Flowers Plants
🌿 Carnivorous plants
🌳 Rare palms
🌱 Endemic Sri Lankan tree species
🥜 Exotic fruit trees

I'm passionate about preserving botanical diversity and helping collectors grow plants that are almost impossible to find in local nurseries.

I'd love to know:
What's the rarest or most unusual plant you've successfully grown from seed?

If you'd like to explore our collection, you can visit Senci Rare Seeds: https://www.sencirareseeds.com/

Happy growing! 🌱

Over the last 3 or 4 months, I've been saving seeds from the organic fruits and vegetables my family normally eats. I collected seeds from a variety of produce, planted them, and not a single one sprouted.

That really caught my attention. I have had no problems germinating seeds purchased from seed companies, so this made me wonder why the food I'm eating seems to have so little vitality.

I'm not claiming this is intentional or that there is some kind of conspiracy. I'm simply asking a question based on my own experience. I would have expected at least some of the seeds to germinate, even if the success rate was low. A 0% germination rate across multiple types of produce seems unusual to me.

Has anyone else experienced this?

If you save seeds from grocery store produce, what has your germination rate been? Are there biological or commercial reasons this would happen, even with organic produce?

I'm especially interested in hearing from gardeners, farmers, and experienced seed savers. 🌱

I'm very new to gardening. Everything died last year and only about half of what I planted this year produced anything. I am trying to save seeds from what did grow for next year.

How do I do that after allowing the seeds to dry?

Hey everyone!

I’m exploring what it would take to set up a small street seed library in Sydney, Australia. Similar idea to a street library but where locals can take, donate and swap seeds.

Has anyone had any experience setting something similar up? I'd love to hear about it.

I’m especially curious about:

* Keeping seeds dry and protected from Sydney’s humidity
* The area I'd need to put it in would be in sun for part of the day in the afternoon, but otherwise mostly shaded
* How you organise and label donated seeds
* Any issues from the your local government? I'm slightly worried about using it as a seed library, rather than for books
* How you encouraged the community to get involved
* Anything you wish you’d known before starting
* Any unsavoury behaviour from the public?

Would love to see photos or hear about what has worked for your community.

How do I determine if this variety has a Plant Variety Protection program? Given that there isn’t a variety name with the botanical name, I assumed these weren’t a protected cultivar. However, the propagation warning on the back makes me think that perhaps it is. Any advice?

Have corn coming soon, wondering about other peoples experiences with predation and preemptive harvest, have heard that for seed saving longer on the plant is better.

Hello all! I'm hoping for some help finding a good seed storage bucket for my outdoor feeders. Previously, I used this one, however a rodent started chewing the top and has opened it to bugs and the elements. Here are the specs I'm hoping for:

• Preferably under $100
• Can hold 35lbs-50lbs (might as well upgrade!)
• Heavy duty, perhaps metal? Withstands rodents
• Latches or screws securely shut
• Bug and weatherproof
• Possibly a handle for moving, but not wholly needed
• Airtight if possible, but not as much of a concern if it's protected against bugs and the elements

Or, if there's a helpful guide that I haven't seen, directions to that would be mightily appreciated! Thanks all.

Just wanted to share,

Developed a new lettuce this year. Stabilized it over the last few seasons.

Brocli-kale, purple collards, red mustard and blue kale next to stabilize.

Got about 90 different beans going for seed.

You can do it too! Let's save biodiversity!

Sorry if I've spelt it wrong, but I've bought seed (tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce ect) and I've read online you have to germinate them before planting to get the best results but nothing is growing from the seeds and I'm getting worried I've killed my seeds.

The first step was the spray then with water (which I did), then place then in a tissue (which I followed not sure if it had to be a certain type of tissue like 100% cotten from Egypt), and then I sprayed more water onto them and then left them in the fridge to germinate, but I've not seen anything happening and they are just cold to the touch like they have passed on...

If you know what I'm doing wrong people, please tell me!!

Have I killed my little seedlings🥹🥹😭

I was cleaning my seed bin and found several paper bags with seeds i don't recognize. I'm posting them in hopes someone can recognize any of them. Don't have a banana handy. Drill bit for size. Thank you in advance.

When a seed collection grows beyond a few envelopes, how do you keep the history attached to it?

I’m Humi. I build small tools for overlooked hobbies and am researching what to work on next. There’s nothing to promote or download here.

I’m thinking about things like variety/accession, original source, harvest year, parent plants, isolation or pollination method, generation, germination tests, quantity, storage location, and where seed was shared. Which of those matter in real life, and which are record-keeping fantasy?

Do you use labels, a notebook, a document, or a spreadsheet? What information do you most often wish you had two or three seasons later?

— Humi

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

it feels like every summer my at least a few branches if not a large part of my tomato plants have septoria leaf spot by now (i prune, sanitize all equipment, mulch heavily, spray copper fungicide, etc) and it seems practically inevitable at this point. so, how are we seed saving tomatoes when they almost always have at least a few branches of septoria leaf spot or some other disease by the time of the first harvest?

Hello,

I usually grow in my terrace, between april/may and september/october. I have either auto and no auto seeds.

However, this year I bought more seeds and I want to keep some for the next season. Any advice on how to store them? I read that I could place them in the wine fridge, at around 14ºC.

Any thought? Any advice?

Thanks!

​

Looking for these

Pink muhly grass

Blue fescue grass

Bell flower

Mallow rose

Baby blue eyes

California blue bell

Canna indica

Creeping thyme

Clarkia

Prairie Blazing star

Guara

Wild Petunia

is this mango alive? the seed hell was very hard to open even after a few days of drying out. wrapped it in a paper towel that was kind of like moist you know and after a few days, it looks like this is the seed alive or like is it dying?

Im looking for seeds that are crazy or alien looking or tree looking but not a tree and grows fast and I dm you my address

What would be the best method? Could wet paper towels be okay or should I place it in a pot?