Why are growing numbers of people choosing to buy seeds from Irish Seed Savers?

The ethos here at Irish Seed Savers Association, is to conserve and distribute wonderful rare and heritage varieties, as well as to encourage the skills of saving your own seed and empowering people to do this in their own gardens, small holdings or farms.

All of our seeds are grown and saved in Ireland and are Open Pollinated which allows you to save your own seeds from them, keeping the variety true to type. By choosing Irish Seed Savers Open Pollinated Seeds you contribute to keeping food security in your own hands and Irish agricultural biodiversity alive and vibrant.

Download 2024 Heirloom Seed Catalogue

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  • Tobacco

    3.75 (3.75 incl VAT)
    Tobacco plant, Nicotiana, has become a popular bedding plant in recent years. This lovely variety is especially tall-growing, with broad, luscious leaves and crowned with many pink-white trumpet-shaped flowers. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 100
  • This lovely winter radish came as the name suggests from China and was introduced to Europe in the 1880s. Perfect for autumn planting, the long, cylindrical, tapering roots reach 15-20cm in length and 5cm in diameter. The skin is a beautiful rose colour, with white tips and firm white flesh. These spicy, peppery roots are delicious when cooked up, or even sliced and eaten raw. A very good variety for storage. Certified Organic Average seeds per pack 250
  • These rocket seeds were brought back to Mud Island Community Garden by garden member Mark Kawa from the Lebanon. They nick-named it Lebanese Rocket when planting the seeds with little hope for such a hot climate plant, but it has thrived in winter and summer. If not regularly picked it quickly goes to seed but the leaves do not go as bitter as others. The delicate champagne coloured flowers are equally delicious and mild. If properly managed it can grow to a mass of about 30cm and planted as edible filler in the flower garden. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 700
  • Foxglove

    3.75 (3.75 incl VAT)
    This striking native wildflower loves the edge of shady places - hedgerows banks, woodlands, mountains and moors. An elegant plant with dozens of purple, inner-speckled, tubular flowers that cluster around a tall stem, reaching 1.5m in height. As a biennial, the plants will produce foliage in their first year, with the magical flowering spikes developing in the second. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 100
  • Originating from Russia, this shaped oval shaped salad tomato came to Irish Seed Savers in 1999 via the Seed Savers Exchange in the USA. A high yielding variety. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 30
  • This unusual tomato came to us from a seed saving community in Portugal. The name literally means ‘the Black French Guy’. A striking fruit to look at, oval in shape and has an amazing dark red colour, with darker shoulders. Medium sized and absolutely ideal for cooking delicious sauces. A cordon-type and healthy cropper too. Average Seeds Per Pack: 45
  • This Northern Irish heritage variety is a superb, purple-topped globe swede, with an excellent sweet flavour. It’s great raw and stores well – if you don’t eat them all straight away of course! Probably the same cultivar as Major Dunne, based on observation trials. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 450
  • Ox-Eye Daisy

    3.75 (3.75 incl VAT)
    This large, cheerful wildflower grows to 80cm tall, with flowerheads 25-50mm in diameter. The flowers consist of soft yellow centres, surrounded by bright white rays. A dramatic and lovely native plant to add to the garden. Seeds are best started in pots, left to overwinter outside, and planted out in plugs in the spring Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 100
  • Ruby Regis

    3.75 (3.75 incl VAT)
    Our seed for this variety came from ‘Bôite de Graines’ a seed company in France where our former staff member Flora Barteau now works. It is a stunning upright bushy annual with masses of deep-veined, funnel-shaped, bright pink blooms. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 50
  • This is a vigorous, thick-stemmed variety. Reaching heights of 2.5-3m, adequate support is definitely required for this robust pea. Lovely white flowers and soft marbled green leaves develop as the plant grows, giving way to a plethora of pods. Highly productive, with pods containing an average of 8 large peas developing well into the season. The peas are delicious – very sweet and crunchy when raw, softening after cooking. If you have the space, this is a highly recommended variety to grow. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 45
  • This tapering variety of pepper produces beautiful, thick-walled, juicy, sweet, scarlet fruits. The plants are vigorous and productive, with tapering fruits of 10-15cm in length developing in abundance throughout the autumn. They have waxy skin which may help them to be storable for longer. These seeds came to us via Clare Island from Christophe and Ciara who had grown them in their garden tunnels. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 25
  • Evening Primrose

    3.75 (3.75 incl VAT)
    Beautiful yellow, bowl-shaped, flowers along a tall spike. Blooming from June to September. They release a light fragrance in the evening and are very attractive to nighttime pollinators including moths. A tall plant that self-seeds readily. In modern times the oil has been extracted from the plant and used medicinally for regulating hormones. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 100
  • A rare variety originally from Peru, this chilli is a mainstay of native peoples on both sides of the Andes. Its high pungency has given rise to regional names like ‘levanta muertos’ (raising the dead) or ‘gringo huanuchi’ (gringo killer). It scores 7-8 (out of 10) on the Scoville Scale invented to test the ‘fire’ of chilli peppers. A fantastic cropper producing lots of vibrant red, round fruit. It is also one of the most cold tolerant capsicum varieties and produces plenty of seed for saving! Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 25
  • Stenu Pea

    3.50
    This is a tall variety, up to 2m in height, so the plants will need good support. the word ‘Stenu’ itself means wall or rock in several Eastern European languages, perhaps referring to what it was grown on. Gorgeous pink-purple flowers produce pods of up to 8 peas. Lovely eaten raw when young, and they sweeten up even more when cooked. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 50
  • Originally from China, this variety was donated to us by supporter Pam from Wales, who has saved this beautiful bean for 20 years. The pods are streaked dark purple-red against light green, making them a highly decorative plant as well as being delicious to eat. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 30
  • This yellow cherry tomato was introduced from Siberia so it's well-adapted to cool climes. Vigorous and early maturing. Producing numerous trusses of bright yellow fruit. with an irresistable complex sweet flavour. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 45
  • A variety named for an American civil war veteran born in 1822. This lovely loose-leaved lettuce has large, crisp, juicy leaves that are light green in colour tinged with bronze. Grows well even in poor weather.
    Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 200
  • Grown originally by Sean Flynn of Killucan/Cloughan, Co. Westmeath, we trialled this cut-and-come variety in 2020. A medium-sized cabbage, with a lightly crinkled, semi-flat green leaf. The flavour is mild and delicious, producing plenty of leaves throughout the season. Average Seeds Per Pack: 250
  • From the North of Chile, ‘Red Faro’ is both productive and attractive with red-pink foliage and cream seed heads. Less prone to mold and suitable for our cool, damper climate. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 300
  • Angelica

    3.50
    A herb taking its name from an angel who revealed its virtues of protection from infection to a monk. It is a biennial, though often lives longer, and can grow to a height of 2m. A statuesque plant which is is easy to grow, prefers damp ground and self-seeds readily. All parts of this lovely plant are subtly aromatic and have both medicinal and culinary uses. It is often cooked with tart fruits like rhubarb, helping to reduce the acidity. The seeds are used in biscuits, and both seed and root are ingredients in some liqueurs. BIENNIAL Average seeds per pack 100
  • A long Japanese burpless type, tender and sweet even when large. This productive and delicious variety needs to be grown with protection.
    Average Seeds Per Pack: 16
  • Wonderful vigorous mustard greens with lush big, brilliant-green leaves. The flavour of these leaves is delicious and not too strong compared with other more pungent mustards. Especially nice steamed and served with a lemon juice and soya sauce dressing. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 500
  • This rare landrace kale from the Friesland area of northern Germany can no longer be found in commercial catalogues. “Highly praised and almost gone’”, according to grower Reinhard Lühring, “In the shade of the East Friesen Palm we cannot stroll under the southern sun, but we enjoy the green all winter long”. A very tall curly kale that can be harvested from late summer all the way through the winter and into the following spring. Average seeds per pack 200
  • This heritage bush variety from Russia is a productive early cropper. As a northern-climate tomato, this variety is suitable for growing even in wet and cool conditions. The round fruit are medium-sized, ripening to a deep golden yellow/amber colour. These mild, sweet fruits would be a welcome addition to any salad. Average seeds per pack 30
  • This is a very popular overwintering onion from Japan. The big, delicious, golden bulbs of this variety store exceptionally well, up to a year. Perfect for roasting and soups.       Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 200
  • This wonderful variety has been selected from a bunch of orange carrots by John Purves in Oxford in the 1970s. Over time he obtained a pure line of purple roots, quite beautiful and unique, crisp and extremely flavoursome. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 700
  • A Czech heirloom cordon variety, highly recommended by many who have grown it over the years. It is a very reliable, good cropper, ripening quite early with an abundance of medium-sized, round, tangy red fruits. Grows outside as well as under cover. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 30
  • A really excellent, large Japanese Onion. Wonderful flavour and great storage properties. It even won a prize at the Clare Garden show many years ago. Sendai is a city in Japan’s Tohoku Region, northeast of Tokyo on Honshu Island. Tamangi is the Japanese word for Onion and we are very grateful to Matteo Petitti, former colleague and long-time supporter for introducing this open-pollinated variety to us directly from Japan where his partner Tomomi hails from.
    Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 200
  • Won an award of merit from the RHS 1923. A deliciously tasting variety with more substance than modern Cos varieties. Hardy, it can be overwintered with little protection & has proved quite slug-resistant. Certified Organic. Average Seeds Per Pack: 200
  • This variety came to us via a Syrian refugee. The young courgettes are pale green, almost white. The small and delicious fruits retain good flavour as they mature. Highly successful outdoor crop.
    Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 10
  • A German heritage variety of champion size, originally from Schmeltz. Rich soil and plenty of space is required for this mammoth vegetable, which can reach up to 8kg over a long season. The colour is white to light-green and despite its large size, this kohlrabi remains tender and buttery-soft. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 200
  • This attractive chilli produces long tapering fruit, up to 2.5cm wide and 19cm long. The plants grow very well in Capparoe, producing plenty of fruit throughout late summer and well into autumn. The fruits have characteristic ‘corking’, with light-brown striations contrasting beautifully against the deep red skin. In intensity the fruit ranges from medium to hot, and is deeply flavourful. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 25
  • Purple Poppy

    3.75 (3.75 incl VAT)
    A large, handsome and cheery poppy, with lilac petals that form dark patches at the base. The leaves are lobed and wrinkled, the stems a beautiful bluish green. They produce large seed capsules, and the attractive seed heads make great additions to dried flower arrangements. Super easy to save the seeds. Average Seeds Per Pack: 1200
  • An Irish heritage variety, originally saved in the Russian gene bank and repatriated to Ireland. These plants grow quite tall (2m) so a strong fence is required but you will be rewarded with prolific small pods and sweet peas, best eaten while young. Good disease resistance, the peas can also be left to mature and dry off to be used as a soup pea in winter. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 70
  • Sunflower Mix

    3.75 (3.75 incl VAT)
    The perfect choice for any sunflower lovers this mix of white and black seed will attract a lovely crowd of pollinators and provide blooms all summer long.  Leave to ripen and mature for your own supply of seeds for next year. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 15
  • This lovely herb produces clear lemon-yellow flower heads, which are highly attractive to insects. It is very easy to grow, and its fern-like, aromatic leaves are perfect for salads, with fish, pickles and sauces. The seeds can also be harvested and used for flavouring, particularly along with gherkins. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 200
  • This variety has a mix of the many colours of different types of quinoa: tan, red, orange, and black. These plants make a stunning addition to any garden with their bright and colourful seedheads, not to mention the nutritional powerhouse of the seeds. Each colour has a slightly different attribute – sweeter, nuttier, or chewier - we hope you enjoy them all! Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 300
  • Hopi Red Dye Amaranth

    3.75 (3.75 incl VAT)
    This plant came from the Hopi people of Arizona and New Mexico, and is so-called because the stems were used to make a food colouring for their ‘Piki’ bread. The leaves can be used like spinach, and are an excellent source of many vitamins and minerals. The plants can grow up to 1.4m, the flowers a vibrant, rich, deep red, making a stunning display as they hang in cascades 30-60cm long. Because of its height, this lovely plant benefits from some staking. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 600
  • This prolific dwarf variety produces uniform plants with lovely yellow pods and wonderfully golden/brown beans when mature. The young pods can be steamed or stir-fried, and the mature beans can be cooked up in soups or stews.
    Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 30
  • Bluebells

    3.75 (3.75 incl VAT)
    These beautiful late-spring native flowers like to grow in shady conditions that mirror their classic woodland habitat, but will tolerate sunny and semi-sunny sites. Lovely, tubular, purple-blue flowers droop on top of the long racemes that emerge from April-June. Seeds are best started in pots, left to overwinter outside, and planted out in plugs in the spring. Average Seeds Per Pack: 50
  • Also known as Chinese cress, this variety originally comes from China, and was made popular by the grower and gardening writer, Joy Larkcom. This mild and tasty brassica plant is usually used for salad or cooking greens. If sown in summer and autumn it will produce leaves through the winter, followed by beautiful edible violet flowers in spring. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 150
  • Bred by Alan Kapular and brought to us by our seed ambassadors visiting from Oregon a few years back, this variety has been described as ‘beautiful, vigorous and prolific’. The tender green beans are mild and delicious, and the mature bean seeds make a delicious addition to stews. Certified Organic Average seeds per pack 30
  • A vigorous, robust red onion. Dark round-flat bulbs. Matures quite early and is very productive, also stores very well for a red onion if kept under optimal conditions (cool, dark and dry environment). Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 200
  • This maize corn variety gets its name from the clay pots that the seed was found in. The history of this corn goes back to the Anasazi people some 500 years ago, with this seed coming originally from Hopi elders. It grew very high in the tunnel, providing large colourful cobs with kernels in stunning shades of violet and black to shades of red, yellow, gold and cream. As this variety is a maize type, it is more suited for grinding into flour than eating as a sweet ‘corn on the cob’. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 26
  • This variety is of Italian heritage and was named after the Roman General ‘Lucius Luccullus’, renowned for his splendid banquets and vast gardens some 2000 years ago. It was introduced in 1914 and won the RHS Award of Garden Merit. Quite hardy through the winter, with heavily ‘crimped’, bright, lush green leaves and white stalks that are almost like asparagus when cooked. Young flowering stalks in spring can be eaten like sprouting broccoli. It has the seal of approval from ‘Scoil Chroi’, in Galway who shared that “Lucullus was a big hit with students of all ages, they loved it, devouring it raw”.
    Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 200
  • This rare variety comes from the Amish people of Pennsylvania. The bountiful plants give many trusses full of fruit all throughout the season. The plum-shaped fruit is medium-sized and pink-red in colour, with a lovely fresh sweet but tangy flavour. Excellent sliced for salads, and good cooked too. Certified Organic Average seeds per pack 30
  • This variety, once very popular with commercial growers, was given to us by the Wellsbourne gene bank. Barry Murphy, who bred the original from a farm collection of Irish brassicas, describes it as an outstanding variety, with small tight sprouts and good for freezing. The plants are very neat and uniform.
    Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 300
  • This variety has medium-sized, tapering, dark orange-red roots, with no hard core. Particularly delicious when eaten young and small, and good for freezing. Bred in US to have an especially high carotene content - three times the norm. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 700
  • A heritage swede returned to us from the Wellesbourne Gene Bank, UK. Like other native brassicas, it is hardy and disease-resistant. It has a delicate, mellow, sweet flavour, still remembered fondly by many. “The flesh,” says Andrew Williams, “is not tough at all and keeps well through winter”.
    Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 450
  • This is the oldest known local vegetable variety in Scotland, grown on the Shetland Isles since as far back as the 1500s. Due to the extreme weather on the Shetlands, the cabbage seeds were planted in “Plantie Crubs” (small circular stone-walled enclosures) before transplanting into larger fields, which were also enclosed in stone walls. This rare cabbage grew beautifully on a windy hillside in Clare, hardy right through the winter. The heads of this variety are quite open, the green leaves tinged a beautiful pink-purple, deepening as winter progresses. The outer leaves were traditionally used as animal feed. The cabbage itself has a distinctive peppery taste that was once a prized ingredient of mutton stew on the Northern Isles. Average Seeds Per Pack: 250
  • This robust landrace bean has references as far back as 1293 in English manorial account rolls. It is an attractive plant, with lovely purple/maroon mottled flowers. The pods of the beans are small but extremely numerous, containing small, brown, meaty, delicious beans, used fresh or kept for drying. Average Seeds Per Pack: 20  
  • Originating in Virginia, in the USA, this delicious curled spinach has the added benefit of being resistant to blight. As with most spinach, you’ll get better results if you sow in autumn as this crop tends to bolt in warm weather. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 250
  • This fabulous variety was bred by biodynamic growers in Germany. The plants have good resistance to fruit-splitting and blight. It yields very well, providing plenty of juicy oval-shaped plum tomatoes throughout the season. Firm skin means the fruit holds it shape when cut, perfect for salads and sandwiches. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 35
  • We had seven seeds in a packet from a German gene bank, dated 1999 with the place of origin given as Sweden, the description ‘vegetable marrow’. The plants grew amazingly well, quickly covering an entire bed in the tunnel with their small, tasty courgettes, though this crop comes into its own as the more traditional marrow.
    Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 10
  • This translates from French as ‘curled dark green’, an accurate description of this old French variety. The tightly curled, fresh-tasting leaves stand clear of the ground on long stalks for clean and easy harvesting. This variety does well through winter, and can be grown under cover for a year-round supply. BIENNIAL Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 200
  • This lovely rainbow chard produces a bounty of colourful stems, topped with large green and bronze leaves. Each plant reaches about 50cm in height and 40cm in spread. The leaves can be harvested from mid-summer to late autumn, and the plants can even be overwintered to provide a fresh crop in the spring. The flavour is deliciously mild, with young leaves suitable for salads and larger leaves perfect for soups and sautéing. Certified Organic Average seeds per pack 200
  • This seed from Poland was collected by the German gene-bank at Gatersleben. A cordon variety that produces quantities of small gold, thin-skinned plum tomatoes, still delicious even in November. Stephen Carrington in Wicklow was still harvesting a few in January from a polytunnel! Growing outdoors as well as under cover, this sweet, mild tomato is a lovely addition to any garden. Average Seeds Per Pack: 50
  • This heirloom variety produces delicious and beautiful blue-green crinkled leaves. It is compact and very cold-hardy. Commonly eaten boiled as greens, it can also be chopped fresh for salads when young. Average seeds per pack 200
  • Tewkesbury Woad

    3.75 (3.75 incl VAT)
    Woad has been used for centuries to obtain a blue dye. Though the extraction process is elaborate, it is easy to grow this ancient plant and, as nature and culture writer Richard Mabey says, ‘it's worth having in the garden’. An attractive plant with 1m high stems, long, succulent, blueish leaves that shine like stained glass, and foamy clusters of brilliant-yellow flowers. Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 160
  • A rare, smooth-skinned variety from Switzerland, the name translates to ‘fire ball’ in German. Described as being bolt resistant, and having spectacular, tender, ball-shaped roots with fantastic mild flavour. Very successful and absolutely delicious.
    Certified Organic Average Seeds Per Pack: 300
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