West Coast Seeds

Extra early, incredibly sweet snap peas on short, 60cm (2') vines that don't require trellising. Sugar Ann snap pea seeds are an excellent choice for smaller garden spaces. The bushy plants produce crisp, tasty, 6cm (2") pods, and have excellent resistance to pea enation virus and powdery mildew. Sugar Ann was the 1984 AAS Winner, and also received the Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society. It has been a stand-by snap pea for West Coast Seeds for decades. If you're short on space, this is the pea for you - they can even be grown in larger containers.

Matures in 56 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

Enjoy the diversity that carrots can bring to the garden. Plant Rainbow Blend carrot seeds to grow purple, white, red, and nice big orange carrots all in the same row. Get the most out of this collection by sowing as evenly as possible to reduce thinning and waste. Repeat sowings will provide a polychromatic carrot bounty from late spring to winter. Kids will love the variety of colours - and flavours.

Matures in 75-110 days. (Hybrid and open-pollinated seeds)

Coriandrum sativum. Cilantro "Santo" is bred to be slow bolting. Direct sow short rows of Santo Long Standing cilantro seeds every other week from spring to late summer for continuous harvest. The mature seeds, better known as coriander, are easy to harvest, and used in many dishes - notably curry powder blends. Keep an eye you your cilantro crop because the flowering process (bolting) is famously quick in this plant. As soon as a central stem appears and the uppermost leaves become frilly, it's time to harvest the whole plant, roots and all. 

If growing for seeds, simply allow the plants to flower. Cilantro flowers are highly attractive to beneficial insects like Syrphid flies, lacewings, and lady beetles. Be warned that if the seeds are not harvested when they are mature, you will have volunteer cilantro plants for years to come.

Cilantro will grow somewhat leggy, but productively in partial shade, and it is quite tolerant of cool temperatures. With the protection of a cloche greenhouse, cilantro will continue growing all winter.

Nepeta cataria. Not just for cats! Tall pink and white flower spikes are great in fresh and dried arrangements. Use the leaves in salads, sauces, teas, and soups - and of course fresh or dried for the cats! Catnip seeds are a good choice for a bee attractor that works well in containers on cat-free balconies. Protect seedlings from cats.

Catnip (and a few of its close relatives) contain the compound nepetalactone, which is extremely attractive to domestic and wild cats. It has the same effect on leopards, lynxes, and tigers as it does on house cats. Roughly 33% of all cats do not respond to catnip, and the response is believed to be hereditary.

This delicious carrot shrugs aside heavy soil, and forms beautiful 15-20cm (6-8") long, fine-grained roots that are bright orange throughout and as coreless as the name suggests. Nantes Coreless carrot seeds develop cylindrical and sweet roots, with relatively small tops. They have excellent flavour, and are very tender. Sow these lovely carrots in raised beds or in deeply cultivated garden soil, and be sure to thin the seedlings to 4-10cm (1.5 - 4") apart in the row so that each has room to develop on its own. In the home garden, sow short rows of carrot seeds at two to three week intervals, and enjoy a much longer harvest window.

Matures in 75 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

This early maturing popcorn has tall plants with two ears each, that average 13-15cm (5-6") long. Pink Popcorn corn seeds produce excellent popping corn that yields lots of fluffy white kernels with a great rich flavour. The beautiful pink to mauve kernels are attractive for decoration. This is not a variety for eating corn on the cob, but rather for drying and popping. The stately tall plants are attractive in the summer garden.

To harvest popcorn, allow the plants to turn brown and the ears to dry for as long as possible in the field. When harvested, the husks should be completely brown and the kernels hard. Harvest the ears and remove the husks. Hang the ears in mesh bags in a warm, dry, airy room, and let dry for several weeks. The ideal moisture content for popcorn is 13 to 14%. Once a week, extract a few kernels and try popping them. If the popcorn is jagged or chewy, it still has too much moisture. If the flavour and texture are good, remove all the remaining kernels and store them in airtight containers. They should remain in good popping form for several years.

Matures in 85 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

Beta vulgaris. Can't choose which beet to grow? Try this multicoloured beet blend. It represents the best and brightest of our beet varieties for high performance and great flavour. Get the most variety out of this colourful, tasty, dynamic blend of beet seeds. This easy to grow vegetable may be eaten from foliage to root. Beets can grow in cool months and can take some frost. Beets are high in Vitamin C, folic acid, antioxidants, minerals, fibre, and potassium. They also contain betaine, a compound that is essential for cardiovascular health.

Matures in 50 to 65 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

We love the flavour and delicate texture of the leaves for lettuce wraps! Buttercrunch butterhead lettuce seeds are a Bibb type lettuce that forms a tight little rosette of soft, dark-green, upward-facing leaves surrounding a tender, pale centre. The small hearts don't become bitter in hot weather. Later plantings stand well into fall and make good growth in spring cold frames. Buttercrunch lettuce is a good candidate for growing all winter if you can provide cloche or greenhouse protection, or even a simple cold frame. Sow some extra early indoors in February for transplanting to the cold frame in March.

Matures in 67 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

Bolero carrot seeds are a great variety for home or market. Very sweet and crunchy, it is a good keeper in storage or in the ground. Roots are bright orange, up to 20cm (8") long, and slightly tapered, with the typical blunt Nantes tip. High level of resistance to Alternaria blights and powdery mildew. Very tasty! Our Bolero carrot seeds are also available as pelleted seeds for easier handling. This variety is something of an industry standard. Because of their hybrid uniformity, they are very attractive to market growers. We think the flavour is so superb that these carrots are a nice choice for the home gardener as well. Winner of the RHS Award of Garden Merit.

Matures in 75 days. (Hybrid seeds)

Ya Ya Organic carrot seeds are CERTIFIED ORGANIC! Ya Ya is a smooth skinned, uniform carrot that performs all season long. Incredible flavour in summer that gets even sweeter after frost. These are especially well adapted to the coastal BC climate and will perform throughout the Pacific Northwest. Ya Ya’s strong tops are good for bunching. This variety is a customer favourite, and many home gardeners that grow it depend on it year after year. Be sure to thin your carrots as early as possible to 4-10cm (1.5-4") apart in the row so the roots can grow nice and straight.

These seeds are coated with an inert, organically certified layer which helps to minimize clumping in storage and seed sowing machines. The coating is approved by organic certifiers in Canada, the US, EU, and Japan.

Matures in 65-70 days. (Hybrid seeds)

Flat, dark green leaves are deeply cut, with a rich parsley flavour ideal for cooking or salads. Dark Green Italian Parsley Seeds are easy to grow, sturdy plants with stiff upright stems. Holds flavour better than the curly kind when dried. Use parsley in companion planting: Parsley likes asparagus, carrots, chives, corn, onions, and tomatoes. The leaves can be sprinkled on asparagus to repel asparagus beetles, and around roses, to improve their scent. Let some of your parsley go to bloom to attract hover-flies and predatory wasps. Parsley is a biennial plant that forms a long (edible) tap root. Choose deep pots for container growing.

Matures in 80 days

This is the ultimate golden beet. Its roots are smooth and orange/red on the outside with intensely golden flesh beneath and subtle banding. The green tops are tall and strong — not to mention sweet and delicious. This gorgeous beet looks amazing when pickled.

Matures in 53 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

Patio Snacker cucumber seeds produce compact little plants that grow to only 90-150cm (36-60"), but producing numerous full-sized slicing cucumbers from mid-summer on. Trellis the little plants, or try them in a hanging basket and allow the short vines to spill over the sides. Patio Snacker was bred with the small-space gardener in mind, so it's ideal for balcony growing. Be sure to keep the plants picked so that new flowers and fruits continue to come.

Matures in 50-55 days. (Hybrid seeds)

CERTIFIED ORGANIC! This is the extra early hybrid that organic guru Eliot Coleman raves about for cool season growing under cover in early spring and late fall/winter. Napoli carrots become incredibly sweet after frost as they literally convert starches into sugars as a kind of carrot anti-freeze. It is rated by many as one of the best tasting carrots available, and wonderful as baby roots. Plant Napoli Organic carrot seeds in August in a raised bed or beneath a cloche, and experience the full flavour of winter "candy carrots." Winner of the RHS Award of Garden Merit.

These seeds are coated with an inert, organically certified layer which helps to minimize clumping in storage and seed sowing machines. The coating is approved by organic certifiers in Canada, the US, EU, and Japan.

Matures in 55 days. (Hybrid seeds)

CERTIFIED ORGANIC. This parthenocarpic, early variety bears an abundance of 7-8cm (2.5-3 inch) fruit that are perfect for snacking. Mini-Me is a productive plant that performs well in the field as well as in greenhouses as it does not require pollination. The mini cucumbers are uniform with smooth skins and crisp, mildly sweet flesh. Harvest the cucumbers often so plants keep producing. An excellent choice to fill lunch boxes and crudités platters!

Imperator type. Versatility and long storage ability makes this variety a good choice for growers and homesteaders alike. Neptune carrot seeds produce large, handsome, medium-orange roots grow 20-25cm (8-10") long, with outstanding flavour and crisp, crunchy texture. The roots are very straight with a slight taper to a pointed tip. Tops are abundant for tying market bundles. Grow these carrots in deeply dug soil with fluffy texture - raised beds work really well. Apply carrot fertilizer or the All Purpose 4-4-4 organic fertilizer at planting time for the largest, most uniform roots.

Matures in 65 days. (Hybrid seeds)

Flavourful pale centres are surrounded by thick green outer leaves on enormous upright plants. Parris Island Cos romaine lettuce seeds can be planted close together for a long harvest of little leaves for gourmet salads. Given space and time to grow to full size, Parris Island forms huge heads up to 30cm (12") tall, but even at this crazy size, the leaves are tender and succulent, with mild flavour. Dating back to 1952, this heirloom lettuce is named after the actual Parris Island off the coast of South Carolina. Parris Island Cos is tipburn and mosaic tolerant. Winner of the RHS Award of Garden Merit.

Matures in 75 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

Salad Bowl lettuce seeds are a traditional stand-by for salad mixes. These large, lime-green rosettes resist bolting for a long time in summer and do not get bitter. The frilly, deeply cut oakleaf shape has excellent flavour and good texture. They add loft and character to salad mixes. Rapid cool-weather growth makes it a prime candidate for spring cold frame growing. This heirloom lettuce dates back to 1952, the year it was given a well deserved AAS Award. It's also a winner of the RHS Award of Garden Merit. Give it a try in patio containers to keep near the kitchen. The individual leaves are a nice addition to sandwiches, or just as garnishes.

Matures in 60 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

Mokum carrot seeds are back by popular demand! The finest flavour and so crisp and delicate that it actually has to be hand dug, not just pulled out by the tops. You can enjoy these as baby carrots (they colour up quickly) or longer at 15-20 cm (6-8"). These deep orange carrots are high in Vitamin A and sugars. Mokum is an Amsterdam type - an imperator with blunt (as opposed to pointed) ends. Be sure to plant this variety in soil that has been deeply cultivated. Use a garden fork to break up all dirt clods and remove all stones. And thinning carrots is critical if you want them to grow straight and unblemished.

Matures in 60 days. (Hybrid seeds)

This French filet type bean has superb flavour. The tender, uniform, 10cm (4”) long beans are produced in abundant yields on tidy, upright plants. The plants’ petite size make them a good choice for containers. Masai bush bean is resistant to BCMV, and tolerant to Curly Top virus, bacterial brown spot, and halo blight. The beans are produced in a concentrated set on the upper half of the plants, so they are easy to see and harvest. Try some in the balcony vegetable garden or community plot.

Matures in 55 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

Melothria scabra. Also known as the Mexican Sour Gherkin, cucamelon seeds produce vines that could be mistaken for regular cucumber plants. The plants are not quite as productive as cucumbers, but the fruits are amazingly cute and novel. They look like tiny watermelons, but have a very appealing cucumber flavour with slight citrus notes. Eat them fresh or pickle them for a crunchy treat. Harvest them at the 2cm (1") size, before the seeds develop. This is a heat loving tropical plant that is most productive in hot weather or a greenhouse setting. Start the seeds indoors and treat as you would a conventional cucumber seedling.

Matures in 67 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

Green Arrow shelling peas are excellent for fresh eating, freezing, canning, or cooking. Heavy yields of dark green pods up to 11cm (4.5") long contain 9 -11 peas each, born in pairs at the top of the compact bush plants. A reliable, adaptable variety for gardeners and market growers.

Green Arrow shelling pea seeds were first bred in England as a main season pea crop and are listed in some UK sources as Green Shaft.

Matures in 70 days.  (Open-pollinated seeds)

Oregon Giant snow pea seeds produce plants with unusually large, broad 13cm (5") long pods are thick and very sweet. They are most tender when peas begin to form but remain so up to the very largest sizes. Plants stay short at only 1.2m (4'). This variety is very resistant to pea enation virus and powdery mildew, which makes it a good candidate for late sowing and summer/fall harvest. Sow as late as July, and enjoy a second fall crop. Enation virus is a serious problem for peas in our region, so if you're planting peas after April first, choose enation-resistant varieties only. Winner of the RHS Award of Garden Merit.

Matures in 70 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

This old heirloom shelling pea dates back to 1880. It's a versatile, tasty, reliable pea that grows well in cool soil, so it's great for the north, and has good potential for spring and fall plantings. The short vines grow to only 90cm (36), but benefit from some twigs stuck in the soil for support - or a low trellis net. Once known as 'Earliest of All,' Alaska pea matures in just 55 days, making it our earliest pea of all. Expect heavy yields of round, straight, pale green pods, each containing five to eight smooth peas. For drying as soup peas, let the plants mature to 80 days.

Matures in 55 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

Cosmos bipinnatus. Purity cosmos seeds yield single snow-white flowers to lighten the dark areas of a cottage garden. Regular dead heading will encourage continuous flowering from summer into late autumn. The ferny foliage on this variety is graced by the flowers up to 10cm (4") in diameter on plants that grow to about 76cm (30") tall. Stake this variety if growing in exposed areas, or use Green Garden Netting to keep plants upright. When they are just two feet tall, let their tips grow through a layer of netting lain flat over the bed. This will give them all the support they need.

Annual

Tasty Green cucumber seeds produce vigorous vines bearing long English cucumber fruits up to 30cm (12") in length. Allow the sweet tasting, burpless fruits to hang as they grow by providing a strong trellis for each plant. Tasty Green is productive in raised beds or in containers in the greenhouse, but keep the plants picked to extend the harvest period. This was the first long English hybrid slicing cucumber to be bred for "burplessness," meaning that it is easy to digest. Many sources refer to it as Burpless Tasty Green F1. For containers, use three to five gallons with fertile soil and excellent drainage.

Matures in 65 days. (Hybrid seeds)

This is a blend of green and red lettuces selected for use as baby greens. These lettuces look spectacular in a container with their diverse shapes, colours, and textures, almost like a bouquet of flowers. Harvest the baby greens with scissors for an instant, pre-mixed salad. Grow in full sun from fall to spring, and in partial shade in the summer. Each pellet contains numerous seeds, so one or two pellets per 5" container is ample. The result is very attractive and fully edible.

Matures in 55 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

Like Ramrod scallions, Eiffel produces a nice, strong, upright growing, white Lisbon type scallion with little or no bulbing at the root end, even in the heat of summer. This variety grows straight, with mild, crisp, appealing flavour and good uniformity. Its stiff upright leaves shed the rain, so it is less susceptible to the diseases that can occur in damp weather. Sow short rows of Eiffel scallion seeds every two weeks from April to the end of September, and you'll have scallions all year long. Provide a cloche row cover over winter for the best results.

Matures in 65 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

The standard summer squash, introduced in the 1920s. Large bush plants grow semi-upright and open, and are loaded with glossy dark green fruits with firm creamy white flesh and fine flavour. Plants are productive very early, and over a long period. Best eaten when under 20cm (8" long). Black Beauty zucchini seeds are the best variety for freezing. Black Beauty zucchini is a 20th Century heirloom that won the All American Selections prize back in 1957. It was first introduced to American market growers in the 1920s, and was commercially available as seed from the 1930s on.

Matures in 60 days. (Open pollinated seeds)