I thought it would be nice to start a list of reputable seed vendors. Please feel free to list any of your favorites.
I’ve broken the list out into U.S. and EU sections, but some U.S. vendors may ship to EU countries, and some EU vendors may ship to the U.S… If anyone has any good Asia-Pac vendors, I’ll add a third section.
#U.S.
- White Hot Peppers
- Jimmy Pickles
- Chileplants.com
- Towns-end Chili & Spice
- Puckerbutt Pepper Company
- Matt’s Peppers
- Refining Fires
- Sandia Seed Company
#EU
While I don’t want to invite “name and shame” over bad experiences, I do want to call out one vendor that has earned a lot of notoriety. Pepper Joe is one of the most popular seed vendors, largely due to having excellent search engine placement. However, the original owner sold it long ago, and pepper communities are FILLED with people who bought seeds from them only to have them grow into something completely different (typically common habaneros).
We have a discussion thread specifically for Pepper Joe’s.
My recommendation is to NOT buy from Pepper Joe’s, ever.
I especially like that he labels which seeds are open pollinated, which are isolated, and which varieties have not yet been stabilized. That kind of transparency is really important. Plus Justin has been an active member of the pepper community for many years, and gets some excellent varieties and crosses before they hit the general market.