RAREPALMSEEDS

[Will]

So after a month, 1 Nannarhops ritchiana and some Archontophoenix alexandrea germinated. 

 

[Will]

Just 2 of the 12 seeds didnt germinate. Since I bought 10 and they gave me 12 i would say its a 100% germination rate 

[Palmensammler]

Hi Will,

Bought seeds from Y.  potosina, declinata, capensis and baileyi from RPS and germination rates for the first three ones seem to be fine.

Got seeds of Y. brevifolia from two different locations from a friend and they germinate lime hell.

Good luck for your babies.

Eckhard 

[Will]

Thanks! Happy to hear 

Good luck with yours too!

[Dadamanga]

I received an email to say that rps had fresh Joey seeds so I placed an order large enough to qualify for a bulk price and paid on the 3rd November. They sent automated emails confirming my order and payment, and then they informed me of dispatch, the 25th November, when I received an email with 2 German post tracking reference numbers. The link provided opens a tracking page that gives me the following message: The posting of the item was announced to Deutsche Post by the customer on 12.11.2021.

There is no tracking of any movement of the package, indeed there isn’t any mention of collection of the shipment to date, the 26th December.  They no longer respond to my messages. 

I wish I’d listened to the negative reviews and saved $500.

That was the first and last time. 

 

 

 

[Scott W]

12 minutes ago, Dadamanga said:

 

There is no tracking of any movement of the package, indeed there isn’t any mention of collection of the shipment to date, the 26th December.  They no longer respond to my messages. 

I wish I’d listened to the negative reviews and saved $500.

That was the first and last time. 

 

All I can say is pick up the phone and call them....their email response is horrible.  

 

[AZ_Palm_Guy]

Placed an order of Phoenix Theophrasti (10), Phoenix Sylvestris 'Robusta' (10), Beccariophoenix Alfredii (10), Roystonea Regia (10), Corypha Umbraculifera (10) and Bismarckia Nobilis 'Green' (10) from RPS on Nov. 28. Received all my seeds on Dec. 22. I had them shipped to Arizona without a Phyto Certificate but I had applied for a small lot of seeds permit and was granted the permit.

I have fortunately had a positive experience through RPS.

[Dadamanga]

On 12/27/2021 at 12:26 AM, Dadamanga said:

I received an email to say that rps had fresh Joey seeds so I placed an order large enough to qualify for a bulk price and paid on the 3rd November. They sent automated emails confirming my order and payment, and then they informed me of dispatch, the 25th November, when I received an email with 2 German post tracking reference numbers. The link provided opens a tracking page that gives me the following message: The posting of the item was announced to Deutsche Post by the customer on 12.11.2021.

There is no tracking of any movement of the package, indeed there isn’t any mention of collection of the shipment to date, the 26th December.  They no longer respond to my messages. 

I wish I’d listened to the negative reviews and saved $500.

That was the first and last time. 

 

 

Just to update that my seeds arrived today so it took 2 months from payment to delivery. It’s a bit too slow for seeds but I’m gonna go ahead and say I think this was a postal issued more that anything else. 

[Dadamanga]

Actually I think that apology was a bit inadequate. I think was impatient when I should know that post can be slow here. Sorry guys at rarepalmseeds, I received very well packed seeds in perfect order, they all sank, so, good job and sorry about being cranky. 

[Will]

They might need longer to places outside Europe. You have to keep in mind that customs can slow a delivery process by a lot. Ordered something from the US, not seeds, but it also took almost 3 months to arrive...

[SoulofthePlace]

Seeds from RPS received a year ago that never germinated. It turns out these seeds should never be allowed to dry, let alone ship them dry like this:

[PalmsandLiszt]

I recently ordered a few Johannesteijsmannia perakensis seeds and one out of five is noticeably lighter than the others and floats in water—obviously embryo-less. It's a pity that RPS can't do a simple float test before shipping, particularly with seeds that cost almost 10EUR apiece (and more still factoring in shipping). It would have been so easy to detect and avoid and that's 20% of my seeds written off. Someone making a much larger order might be justifiably pissed off.

Other than this, my experience with the viability of RPS seeds has been overwhelmingly positive.

[palmsnbananas]

Whats the deal with RPS now, is it really 47 euros for shipping?

It used to be free!!!

[Scott W]

5 hours ago, palmsnbananas said:

Whats the deal with RPS now, is it really 47 euros for shipping?

It used to be free!!!

Shipping was never free that I recall, especially to the US.  

Rates have went up globally...even the US Postal Service just raised theirs.again April 1.  

[palmsnbananas]

Small packets shipping used to be free!

Why would I pay 50$ to ship 10 banana seeds?!?!?

I guess times have changed

[Darold Petty]

I think the 47 Euros is both shipping and a phytosanitary certificate.  Anyway,  the new mandatory, minimum charges have priced me out, no more RPS for me !

[SoulofthePlace]

Those sellers who significantly raise prices and shipping charges want to take a break from filling orders. Imagine the stress having to fill orders on a daily basis ...

[PalmKeeper]

Looks like almost all the chamaedorea woodsoniana seeds I ordered have some healthy growth 😁 Some Johannesteijsmannia magnifica and Basselinia moorei also sprouted! I ordered 12 different packs of seeds from RPS on August 11th and they arrived August 30th. Quicker than I expected!

[Victor G.]

Hey guys! I have to say, I'm pretty confused about the ratings. There are some very positive and some very negative ones, making it difficult to understand what's going on.
A friend of mine recently ordered some seeds and only a minority sprouted (assuming he did everything right of course).

Is there any way we could start a poll or something similar, to rate the best seed supplier?

[SoulofthePlace]

1 hour ago, Victor G. said:

Hey guys! I have to say, I'm pretty confused about the ratings. There are some very positive and some very negative ones, making it difficult to understand what's going on.
A friend of mine recently ordered some seeds and only a minority sprouted (assuming he did everything right of course).

Is there any way we could start a poll or something similar, to rate the best seed supplier?

If you live in the E.U. get your seeds from Réunion (no molestation by Customs). Those are the freshest seeds off a tree, without intermediary and without shipping delays. I had Hyophorbe verschaffeltii seeds sent to me from Réunion and from France and the ones from France never sprouted while from Réunion sprouted so many that it's a forest in the pots now. I think I am done buying seeds since I have so many seedlings, and I've learned what grows best in my area. Now it's the time to raise them, to take care of the palms and start giving them away and even sell some.

Edited October 23, 2022 by SoulofthePlace
Forgot to add soul

[PalmsandLiszt]

1 hour ago, Victor G. said:

Hey guys! I have to say, I'm pretty confused about the ratings. There are some very positive and some very negative ones, making it difficult to understand what's going on.
A friend of mine recently ordered some seeds and only a minority sprouted (assuming he did everything right of course).

Is there any way we could start a poll or something similar, to rate the best seed supplier?

From my experience, there are things you need to consider with RPS seeds:

1) freshness: this means monitoring the website periodically and noticing when new seeds arrive and which batch is fresh and which is old. I bought 10 B. fenestralis from RPS when they had been on there for months and they arrived bone dry and a couple of them basically crumbled into dust when I took them out of the bag. Don't do that! To my surprise, I did get a single germination, but I don't expect the other seeds to do anything. I could have bought a healthy, established seedling for around the same cost.

2) Price: I think RPS puts more effort into ensuring the viability of its more expensive seeds, and, in addition to that, they tend to be more coveted and so sell out faster, meaning they will likely be fresher if you manage to buy them before they do. Although they still don't seem to bother float-testing even expensive seeds, which is annoying, as I have mentioned above.

3) Research you seeds before you buy them. What is the viability period of the seed? Does it require very specific conditions to remain viable? RPS has sold Angiopteris spores that are viable for about 24 hours, no doubt down to ignorance about ferns. Obviously don't buy those! But I have bought other spores from them with are perfectly good. I don't ascribe any of their failings to bad faith on their part; just that one very small niche company can't be expected to know everything.
Also, their communication with their customers is terrible. That is something they could fix.

[Victor G.]

@SoulofthePlaceI would think that RPS ships immediately as well, since it's in Germany. But I didn't know about Reunion, so I will check them out. Probably even try them!
Thanks a lot for the suggestion!

@PalmsandLisztYeah, I understand what you mean. I was hoping that a company like RPS, who's been active for several years, would know better than to sell seeds past their viability period.
But your method is definitely better; know and research what you buy. I will do so, many thanks for the tip!

[Than]

On 10/23/2022 at 1:53 PM, SoulofthePlace said:

If you live in the E.U. get your seeds from Réunion (no molestation by Customs). Those are the freshest seeds off a tree, without intermediary and without shipping delays. I had Hyophorbe verschaffeltii seeds sent to me from Réunion and from France and the ones from France never sprouted while from Réunion sprouted so many that it's a forest in the pots now. I think I am done buying seeds since I have so many seedlings, and I've learned what grows best in my area. Now it's the time to raise them, to take care of the palms and start giving them away and even sell some.

Any particular sellers from Reunion you recommend?

[Bandita74]

I had an okay experience with this company in 2021 even though some of the seeds I ordered turned out to be other than what I ordered, at least I received them. I placed an order in February of 2022 and received an empty envelope months later as it was confiscated by customs. I emailed about getting the correct paperwork and didn’t get a response for 8 months. I initially paid 15 euros or there about for shipping so when I asked if I could get the confiscated order resent they said they would send it if I placed another order. They are now charging 86 euros to mail the same sized package which is just insane. When I emailed to inquire about the price change, I just got a litany of excuses. It was my bad I didn’t initially have the permit but I still think this increase in shipping costs is absolutely ridiculous. The woman who answers the emails is not pleasant and it’s pointless to try and reason with her. So please beware when ordering from this company. As I said, some of my 2021 order was not correct and germination was erratic at best. You can read my whole story on DG’s watchdog page along with all the other terrible reviews of this company. 

[Bandita74]

On 4/7/2022 at 4:46 AM, palmsnbananas said:

Small packets shipping used to be free!

Why would I pay 50$ to ship 10 banana seeds?!?!?

I guess times have changed

I posted my story above but when my order got confiscated and 8 months later I received a reply to my email they told me they would resend it if I placed another order. So I went to place an order and the only shipping available to me in the US was priority for 86 euros! They don’t even dispatch the seeds for a month after ordering so this is a laugh. This is for a small envelope of 7 packs of seeds. The original order was for 3 packs of seeds which was about 57 euros in total including shipping. Nothing can justify this price increase. Plus I’m seeing orders getting confiscated even with the right paperwork so something fishy is going on with this company or customs is on the lookout for packages coming from them. The person answering emails told me that 35 euros is just the “processing fee.” Ridiculous! Buyer beware! 

[Will]

Yeah delivery prices are ridiculous. A pack of 10 seeds are 14€ to Austria, the neighbouring country. I mean a pack of 10 seeds fit into a small envelope which would be 1.60€ till 500g. That would even fit the lot more. Sad that the delivery is so expensive, they probably have some efficiency problems in their logistics...

If delivery would be cheaper people would order a lot more and people wouldn't turn to ebay resellers, which probably take away a lot of customers. They are just shooting themselves in the foot, not getting a high volumn of orders in to maybe make the process of packing cheaper...

Guess somebody is packing them by hand for each order and waiting times in-between orders are probably high...

But what do I know about their background, just some assumptions...

[PalmsandLiszt]

Can anyone suggest, or does anyone happen to know why Marojejya darianii is EU-only on RPS? This species is CITES appendix II, not I, so there shouldn't be any legal impediments to sending seeds worldwide. Is RPS under the misapprehension that it is appendix I, or is there some other reason? What motivates EU-only designation for seeds that can be legally traded per CITES?

[khachaturian]

21 hours ago, Will said:

Yeah delivery prices are ridiculous. A pack of 10 seeds are 14€ to Austria, the neighbouring country. I mean a pack of 10 seeds fit into a small envelope which would be 1.60€ till 500g. That would even fit the lot more

 

Ironically, I pay the same amount for delivery to MX. And it's sent in a padded envelope.

[Will]

15 hours ago, khachaturian said:

 

Ironically, I pay the same amount for delivery to MX. And it's sent in a padded envelope.

Interesting...Also to Malaysia its 14€, Turkey and Portugal too, probably a lot more other countries too...

 

[SoulofthePlace]

High shipping charges is a popular way to kill your business.

[Will]

I wrote them an Email yesterday asking why the shipping is so expensive and why its the same to another continent and to neighbouring countries...

Answer was, that they dont add any staff costs or other material costs to the shipping. So they havent directly answered my questions but it seems something else must be the reason for the high shipping costs...

[meridannight]

I'm actually gonna amend my negative review to a carefully positive now. 

They do have their hang-ups. Processing time for orders can be extremely long if you happen on some of their holidays or just have the bad luck of ordering when some employee is on vacation. It's not uncommon for my order to take a whole month before it's shipped out! To within EU! No extra paperwork or anything, and their explanation has been, it's either the holidays or employee absence. That's one annoying part especially since we're often buying seeds with sensitive viability periods. 

It's also true that sometimes you can't reach them by email, but I can kind of relate to that. And I have always been able to reach them by phone, and their understanding of English is  good, so that makes up for it for me.

As for the seeds. Most of the problems I've had have been with palm seeds no longer fresh. They do sell them past or at the end of their viability periods, so not sure what to make of that. But if one keeps his eye on it and only buys their fresh seeds, the palms usually do come up. Since my negative review 2 years ago, I've successfully germinated Licuala grandis, Johannesteijsmannia altifrons, Kerriodoxa elegans, Dypsis leptocheilos, and a few others. (I've had no luck with their Licuala peltata var. sumawongii, but maybe I messed something up myself...). Also there mostly are no issues with their agave and aloe seeds, which I also purchase from them a lot. 

So, while it can be frustrating dealing with them at times, if one does his research and pays attention, there should be minimal issues to contend with. At the end of the day I only care about whether the seeds germinate. As long as I'm in the positive with that, my review will be positive. 

[SoulofthePlace]

If a fresh seed company has to take a whole month just to send the fresh seeds out then two things must happen:

1. Customer does not buy
2. Company shuts itself down

Being on holidays is as lame excuse as communism. Does not play with fresh seeds well.

I bought the same seeds from RPS, from France and from Reunion and the only ones that germinated were the ones from Reunion. Which means I did everything correctly.

Buy seeds at their source or don't buy at all, so not to waste your money and time.

Seed resellers are a bad source for seeds.

[meridannight]

2 hours ago, SoulofthePlace said:

If a fresh seed company has to take a whole month just to send the fresh seeds out then two things must happen:

1. Customer does not buy
2. Company shuts itself down

Being on holidays is as lame excuse as communism. Does not play with fresh seeds well.

I bought the same seeds from RPS, from France and from Reunion and the only ones that germinated were the ones from Reunion. Which means I did everything correctly.

Buy seeds at their source or don't buy at all, so not to waste your money and time.

Seed resellers are a bad source for seeds.

I agree seed resellers are a bad source. You gotta go as close to where these things are picked up off the ground as possible. 
RPS has a great assortment, though. Not many or any can rival that.

I will definitely try Réunion island though. That sounds very promising.

 

[SoulofthePlace]

Selling dried and aged manure of different animals is a great business. You can ship it within a month or two; that won't change anything. Most important is to have a great assortment of it. What the end user does with it is none of your problem. Monkey shit vs. cow manure vs. kangaroo poo. You can plant it in the ground or hang it in the air and see if anything grows from it.

[Bandita74]

I also want to cautiously amend my review of this company as I have been working with customer service to get my confiscated order resent and they have replied to me in a timely fashion. The shipping is still very high but I placed a larger order so it wouldn’t be so much of a hit. I’ll update when I receive it. 

[PalmsandLiszt]

Incidentally, I noticed the Google mail was sending RPS seed-availability emails to my junk folder, so to anyone who uses Google mail, put the RPS email on your approved list if you want the notifications. This might also apply for other email providers.

[Hardypalms]

I was just about to place my first order. I don’t think i will. Too much hassle. If someone has another source in the States, I would appreciate it. You can message me.

Pat