Details   An old variety, very popular in the UK originating from Scotland in 1908. Named after the island.Ailsa Craig near the mouth of the Clyde river. A vigorous grower with good disease resistance, medium size and good flavour.

Details   Sow on surface of trays in spring and plant out after danger of frost have passed. Plant into manure enriched soil. This is stunning in the garden with beautiful deep red leaves. Seeds are tiny and they are delicious popped.

Details   A purple variety that is sweeter and less fibrous than green asparagus. Takes three years for the crowns to grow large enough before harvesting, though a small amount of light picking can be done in the second year. Seed needs 18 to 23deg for germinating, once seedling first shows itself transplant into its own 2L pot and plant out into its permanent about 12 months later, never let the first seedling spear get frosted till fully in leaf.

Details   Great for borders, containers, companion planting, or in masse. This hardy grass can tolerate most soils, easy care and very striking with its blue colour.

Details   This variety of pumpkin is mainly grown for its seeds to be eaten as is or pressed for oil, seeing they’re Hulless you can eat them straight from the pumpkin or soak in water for a few days before drying to store in your pantry or freezer. Sew when the weathers warmed up with no chance of a late frost.

Details   Flavourful, flat podded, white-seeded bean, one of the best flavoured dwarf bean cultivar that Nev saved from oblivion in 1974 and has grown ever since.

Details   A rare Russian heirloom known to set fruit in hot weather. Black From Tula is one of the largest black tomatoes that grows a flattened fruit which has a rich, salty, smoky flavour.

Details   Black Krim Tomato is an heirloom tomato originating from Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula. "Krim" is the Russian word for Crimea. This tomato is open-pollinated, and bears large flattened globe fruits that are dark reddish-purple to black with green/brown. A very good producing plant.
Propagation: Sow seeds in seed raising mix in Spring, prick out once 2 true leave appear.

Details   Black mini popping corn is Hulless so no getting them stuck in your teeth, they pop white, they are low growing cobs grow to 6 cm in length. plant in blocks for better pollination, avoid growing near other corn to avoid cross pollination. The drier the kernel the better they pop. Heirloom

Details   Bloody Butcher corn is a dry corn producing beautiful rich red cobs that are quite large. These plants grow very tall, can be over 3 meters, this should be kept in mind when planting - you don't want them getting blown over in strong winds or shading out your tomato crop. The corn can be eaten fresh in the "milk stage" or left to fully mature where it has a multitude of uses from milling to make flour or cornmeal to brewing and is even used as an ornamental in flower arrangements. Alice like the rest of the Sentinels growers uses only spray free organic methods.

Details   Hopi maize is also known as Yoeme Blue, Tarahumara Maiz Azul, and Rio Grande Blue, ground it's used to make blue tortilla chips, tortillas, corn soup and cornbread. Hopi Blue grows 1.7m tall

Details   A productive vigorous climber, Long vines that will grow to 6m tall if provided support, ideal as a drying bean. Borlotti are descendants from the original Cranberry beans that originated in Colombia

Details   Brandywine Red grows vigorous vines with large globe shaped rosy-red fruit, can get up to half a Kg in weight. This American heirloom beefsteak variety is one of the most popular grown in the US.

Details   De Cicco Broccoli is a traditional Italian heirloom broccoli, producing medium sized delicious main heads followed by a large yield of side shoot spears.
Propagation: Sow De Cicco Broccoli seeds in trays of potting soil in late summer - early winter, plant out when 2nd leaves have developed.

Details   This particular old strain of broccoli takes longer to grow than the modern types while also being a larger plant, so give seedlings a half meter spacing when planting out

Details   Produces large deep green sweet and tasty sprouts over a long period, best sown mid summer for winter picking.

Details   Many of the older gardeners will remember the dwarf butterbean which was very popular in the 60's and 70's. This strain has been grown for over 40 years by a long time home gardener before being given to Richard so as to preserve this heirloom, This bean produces a pale yellow/cream pod in colour that grows to about 15cm in length. The complete pod is eaten although the ends can be trimmed if desired and is wonderful added to salads when small.

Details   A relatively rare cabbage outside of France. This variety of small drum head red cabbage has excellent flavour and is best suited as an autumn cabbage. 

Details   From the cucumber family Caigua suits most areas of New Zealand as it handles cooler weather. The small thumb sized fruit can be used as a gherkin replacement as well as cut up into salads. Can grow to 3m so best to grow up and over some sort of frame work.

Details   This heirloom sweet variety originates from the Balkan region, a Hungarian cheese-type. Medium-late heavy producer of yellow fruit. This is a yellow capsicum is used for paprika and stuffing, can be fully ripened to a deeper orange/red colour. The pods grow to a size of 50mm long by 60mm wide, the plant grows to a height of 60cm.

Details   Purple flowers, Purple fruit ripen red. Thumb-sized, they are big on flavour.Sow indoors in early Spring. I now germinate my frost-sensitive species on a purpose-built compost heap, in our glass house. (Capsicums require soil to be 15C. to germinate.) I grow the resulting plants outdoors once the frost danger has diminished. Czech Beauty is a reliable performer, in our Scargill climate, where growing-season temperatures can fluctuate widely.

Details   An old family heirloom from Ohio USA, this variety grows red, yellow and chocolate capsicum plants produce an abundance of tiny colorful orbs that are easy to grow.

Details   A Hungarian sweet bell pepper that turns from yellow to red when ripe,ideal for stuffing.

Details  

Yellow and Orange peppers tastes a little less sweet than red peppers, crunchy and juicy, grow from medium to large in size. Plant grows to approximately one meter in height, they are part of the night shade family.

Details   As the name suggests this carrot grows into a small root of about 8-10 cm long. Nev and Sue have selected for the sweetest tasting roots. Their garden doesn't have wild carrots growing anywhere in their district so it would be rare for any white rooted carrot to show up in the seed line.

Details   This original line of carrot dates back to the late 80's when a long time gardener gave Richard carrot seed that he had grown for most of his life. The name of this carrot had been long forgotten so it was named Benhorn in 2000. It is a large stumpy carrot which has been selected for its sweetness and flavour. This is done by tasting each carrot before being replanted back for flowering and later seed production. To add to Benhorn's genetics two new carrots - St.Valery and Kuroda were used in the 20016-17 season in cross pollinating.

In January 2024 the following carrots were grown and will be added to Benhorn's genetics 2024-25 - Baby Pak, Every season, Manchester Table, Touchon, Express Hybrid, Kuroda Improved and Topweight.

Details   Landrace southern grown Celery Elne, Originally from Kings seeds, Has been on the same spot for 2 years before going to seed and has been a strong producer - I originally planted it for rabbit food and just cut and let regrow before it finally went to seed. Has a lovely flavour and strong stems. Likes alot of moisture

Details   Celtuce is a cultivar of lettuce grown primarily for its thick stem or for its leaves. The stem is usually harvested at a length of around 15cm and a diameter of around 3cm. It is crisp, moist, and mildly flavored, and typically prepared by slicing and then stir frying with more strongly flavoured ingredients. Grow plants about 30cm apart

Details   A dark green leaf and with a lighter green stem,

Feed back from a customer living near Katikati, she sowed this variety in Sep 2020 which is still growing March 2022 having not bolted to seed during this time, being a bi-annual it should have run to seed late 2021.

Details   A collection of different coloured chard

Details   A light green coloured chard with wide white stems.

Seed should become available summer 2024/05

Details   Ford Giant Hook is a Heirloom standard Silverbeet. It's crinkled leaves are mid green in colour with white veins. The stems are broad white, ideal as a steamed vegetable or in salad as a baby leaf.
Propagation: Sow seeds directly where to grow or in a tray of seed raising mix in a warm sunny location, should germinate in 14-21 days.

Details   A red/ purple skinned fruit that can weigh up to 400grams. It has a balance of sweet, acid and savory with firm skin and flesh. Fruit should ripen in about 80 days during the summer months on an indeterminate bush.

Details   Between 1838 and 1839 the Cherokee people of the United States were forced to march across the Smoky Mountains to Oklahoma. This winter death march is known as the Trail of Tears as over 4,000 people died making the trip. In 1977 a member of Seed Savers Exchange named Dr. John Wyche from Hugo, Oklahoma, USA donated seeds to there collection. It is thought that his Cherokee ancestors carried this heirloom bean with them on the Trail of Tears. Beans were domesticated in the Americas thousands of years ago and serve as a protein in the diet of humans and animals. Growing this bean takes about 55 days to produce a purple podded green bean and 90 days to dry beans. This is a vigorous climber is enjoyed very much as a fresh green bean and have found to be highly productive.

Details   Bee pollinators love it so it's great for borders of the vege garden. Flowers all summer long.

 

Details   Brought in to Northland from Croatia in the late 1800's This large red skin fruit is considered to be one of the best tasting tomatoes. Will need staking or grow over some form of frame work

Details   Crown pumpkin has a bluish/grey skin, with orange flesh. Great for soups, roasts and in baking. Grows well in a drained site

Details   A cross between Whangaparoa Crown, Green Chestnut and an unknown very large crown-like pumpkin. This current generation of seed is 6 years into selection and stabilization. It is starting to become quite uniform in both colour, size and taste, though do expect some variation. The idea behind using these three varieties was, green Chestnut had wonderful flavour but thin flesh, Whangaparoa Crown had thick flesh but average to good flavour while the unknown had size. Richard thought combining all three could produce an outstanding new variety. Between 50 -60 plants are grown each year and about 140 fruit harvested. Seed from only the best flavoured, large and thick fleshed fruit are used for breeding over the successive growing seasons.

Details   This climbing bean was given to Richard 2017 under the name 'Crystal', grows to 2 -3 metres tall and produces a black seed.

Details   Poona Kerra is an heirloom from India. This cucumber produces creamy light-green fruits with a delicious crisp and juicy taste. Fruit are shaped like a potato with skin turning brown as they ripen.

Details   White flowered, white seeded bush form of the Scarlet Runner bean, grows to about 40cm tall. Like all dwarf beans they are frost tender. During long periods of wet weather it can be an idea to throw a cover over to shed the rain as beans close to the ground can rot.

Details   Daniels Defiance is a tall growing bean with seeds a slightly different colour to the standard Runner Bean.

Details   Early Gem is a NZ heirloom corn that Richard continues to select for the number of cobs per plant, the size of the cobs, and the earliest plants that produce ripe seed, grows to about 1.7m tall. Regarded as a semisweet variety while being moderately starchy.

Details   These are hardy perennial onions that are very prolific. They do best in a well-drained, moist garden bed. Bulbils are best planted from March till Sep.
Breeding work on the onion is currently being done. The Egyptian Walking tree onion is a F1 clone which is a cross between the Walsh and a standard brown onion. Through bulbil removal and hand pollination 13 seeds were produced in 2015, from those 13 only 5 seedlings germinated, one of those later died. During that summer the four remaining plants grew and divided giving me 23 new base onions. These were then replanted out separately and it is hoped they will produce more seed. The goal is to develop an open pollinate walking onion that is grown from seed and not bulbils.

Bulbils will be available again Jan 2024

Details   This broad bean has pure white flowers. The pods enclose beans that are sweet, and which remain green once cooked and are nice eaten raw. Nev selected this cultivar from a random mutation over 35 years ago that he noticed had produced pure white flowers and so over the following years carried on selecting for that trait. he much preferred the flavour and colour.  In colder parts of the South Island and Inland North Island you don't want to sow broad beans between March and and early May. Best sown in spring to early summer.

Open Source Seed Initiative Pledge: You have the freedom to use these OSSI-Pledged seeds in any way you choose. In return, you pledge not to restrict others’ use of these seeds or their derivatives by patents or other means, and to include this Pledge with any transfer of these seeds or their derivatives.

Details   Photo taken 14/7/2022 of the last 15 remaining beet plants out of around 500 that were chosen for being the healthiest and most productive. These went on to provide the 2022-23 seed crop. Etollbeet is a new cross between Detroit Dark Red, Bulls Blood and a unknown dark red large beetroot given to Richard by a Takaka gardener. Mixing genetics in vegetables produces wide variation in size, shape, colour range as well as tastes, This crossing is also capable of unlocking traits that can go back many generations, this grex seed is something quite different for the home gardener and should be quite interesting to anyone who's a bit experimental.

Seed packets do contain some plant material and varying size seed.

18th July 2024 seed was sown of original Etoillbeet grex as well as - Crosbys Egyptian Flat, Rainbow Blend,Action F1 hybrid, All Sseasons F1, Derwent Globe, Baby Beets, and Cylindra. By sowing in winter this tends to expose plants that want to flower in there first season. Its only those that dont and carry on growing through to the following growing season that end up being used in the next generation grex mix. First year bolters/flowering and any weak plants will be pulled out.

Details   This is not a building fennel, the green/brown leaves are useful in soups,pickles,roasts,salads and many more culinary dishes. Easy to grow, great for the bees as well and looks pretty intermixed into a veggie garden or cottage garden setting

Details   Florence fennel is a cool-weather perennial grown as an annual for its swollen leaf bases and edible leaves. When using in salads, the flavour can be improved by slicing the bulb and putting it in a bowl of water and ice cubes in the fridge for an hour.

Details   Sweet or common fennel is part of the Apiaceae (umbellifers) family, along with carrot, dill, anise, parsley, parsnip, celery and angelica. These plants have umbrella shaped flowers and aromatic flavours and hollow stems. Many are medicinal herbs and attractors of predator insects to the garden. Most of the fennel plant can be used. Fennel has traditionally been used for digestive, endocrine, reproductive, lactation and respiratory systems.

Details   New Zealand Variegated Green Flax, Phormium Tenax has soft light green tips with cream stripes through the center, they can grow 3.5mt x 2mt wide with dark red flower spikes, that the Tui's love. Sometimes, this will grow bigger in the right conditions but being variegated, expect it to be smaller than the green non-variegated flax.
Propagation: Plant NZ Variegated Green Flax seeds in spring undercover in seed raising mix for later outside transplanting.

Details   This variety was gifted to Nev which he has now grown for over 20 years. A black hilum forage pea was at the time being exported to India. They have found it to be an ideal pea for making into hummus. Grows about 30-45 cm tall and is quite productive.

Details   A tall climber that can get as high as 3m, has large pods and peas, The Alderman pea variety is known to date back to 1893 and was a common site in Victorian kitchen gardens. Its long-cropping time made it ideal for using fresh and any excess crops were dried, stored and used later in the year for soups, stews and other dishes. The Americans have their own version of the Alderman variety which they call the Tall Telephone in honour of Alexander Graham Bell who invented the telephone.

Details   Glass Gem can be grounded into oatmeal, popped or used as a ornament. It is a tall growing plant so choose a sheltered sight, grow in blocks for better pollination, away from other corn to avoid cross pollination. Each plant will grow 3/5 cobs. Give the kernels a chance to dry before popping the less moisture the better they will pop

Details   The immature flower is eaten as a vegetable. The medicinal properties of Globe Artichoke have been known for many years. The leaves were very popular between the 16th and 19th centuries when they were used to stimulate bile flow and for a variety of digestive disorders.

Details   Golden Light tomatoes have been tested as having one of the highest levels of Tetra-cis-lycopene, a highly beneficial bioavailable form of lycopene. An orange teardrop fruit this variety is very similar to 'Orange Roma' which is a good producer of tasty Roma style tomatoes. Propagation: Sow Golden Light Tomato seeds directly onto a firm bed of seed raising mix and press in well.  Cover with a light layer of mix. Seedlings usually appear in two to three months depending on temperature.

Details   Goldenrod are tall and slim with fluffy golden flower spikes in various shades of yellow. They're attractive when in bloom in the late summer to autumn and are a valuable food source for pollinators, particularly the Monarch butterfly.

Details   Dates back to the 1870's England.
Needs support to grow up, has large pods. Plant autumn for northern areas, South Island sow spring and summer. Grows up to 2 metres

Details   Unlike Scarlet Runners they have pure white flowers and huge white seeds. Flowers over a long period and grows up to 3m tall

Details   Green Grape is a compact, semi-bush variety that grows as high as 1.3m tall. The fruit average two to four centimeters in diameter and are rounded with a slightly oblong shape, like that of a grape. Their juicy flesh is lime green in colour, the taste is a rich combination of sweet and spicy flavours with minimal acidity.

Details   Original old strain of shell out dwarf pea, mildew can be a problem if sown late summer. Some growing support is ideal for this variety.

Details   This French heirloom is a very vigorous white runner bean that grows up to 3-4m Broad pods containing only 2-4 large seeds (15 by 30mm). Good eaten as a green bean as well as a dried bean. Similar bean to Greek Gigante in bean size

 

Details  

Hopi Yellow Beans are a high-yeilding tasty, early maturing, pole green bean that can be eaten as a fresh green bean or a dried light yellow/beige bean. From Hopi Indian, also called "grease beans".
Propagate: Plant Hopi yellow bean seeds in spring either inside in trays for later outside transplanting or outside where you wish to grow, watch for slugs and snails.

Details   Indian Hannah is also known as Lenape Cutshort or Delaware Cutshort, this climbing bean produce good yields

Details   First seedling up from South Island grown seed seen in the attached photo.



Known in South America where is originates as Camote, it is also known here in NZ as as Kumara or Sweet Potato in North America. This widely grown tuber crop is normally grown each year from cuttings. Camote grown from seed rather than a clone is globally rare. The government funded DSIR back in the 70's or 80's carried out a short trial but for some reason was stopped, this may have been the only Ipomoea batatas seed had grown till 2017 when Richard-Paul was gifted some seed from a passionate home gardener/breeder in the US, he then set about starting a long term breeding program with the idea crossing it with a local Kumara.
Six new cultivars were germinated from the first shipment of seed some were able to produce flowers but no seed, this following three seasons were the same till that generation of cultivars died out because they had been cloned six times.
2020 a second attempt was make where fresh seed was sent again from the US breeder and a small number of new cultivars started, but this time cutting were shared with a gardener in the North Island who managed a successful crossing and a small amount of seed was produced. This seed was gifted back and a second crop of 28 seeds was grown 2022-23 form 7 new cultivars. Plans are 2023-24 the 28 seeds will be germinated where its hopes are for at least 5 new cultivars and again more seed, maybe even enough to be made available via our website.... stay tuned by hitting the 'watch' tab

Details   A great tomato with history. This tomato is a large fleshy one (up to 600 grams ) ,low in acid with very few seeds. Rick says that out of the 50 plus tomatoes he grows, this is his number one. was given to Duncan by an Italian sailor sometime in the 50's and grown by him for many years and eventually was forgotten. Rick attained just a few old seeds of which only two grew and have a good inventory of seeds