Wildflower Seed Packets on Amazon and eBay

Wildflower seed packets sold on Amazon and Ebay are very symptomatic of some of the things going wrong in my world at the moment. There ARE some very good packets there - but - Jeez - there are some shockers. Some have wildly inappropriate species, including things like foxgloves in "meadow" mixes or aggressive agricultural grasses. Others consist of cornfield annuals and grasses. Many have incomprehensible or no species lists. My favourite horror mixes include things like lavender and a raft of either non-native plants or exotic cultivars. Goodness knows where the seed is from. Mars? Some punters comment their "wildflower seed" comes with Chinese packaging. These mixes can't possibly work beyond a year, even if the seeds are viable. It's not physically possible. Quite apart from all the other obvious issues, when they fail the customers will never try "wildflowers" again. They will write them off as difficult or unattractive As you can imagine - to declare my interest! - as an impecunious supplier of pukkawildflower seed packets this completely does my head in. I've tried to contact some of the people selling the funny stuff, with varying degrees of success. Those I have managed to talk to express surprise or disinterest and... carry on selling the same mixes. Weirdly, some of these folk are large seed companies and many enjoy really good seller ratings* on Ebay or Amazon. Or perhaps not weirdly. The packets apparently arrive super promptly and, presumably, well presented. Some of these seeds will germinate pretty quickly if all is well. This is what the buyers want and what the rating system is designed to measure. You can't blame people for not understanding that lavender isn't from around here and can't possibly exist in a meadow by definition - in the unlikely event it germinated it would get mown out pretty much instantly. Most folk just don't know - they don't know what wildflowers are and they certainly don't know what a wildflower meadow is. It's another symptom of nature deficit disorder. These products succeed because they work really well in their unregulated retail environment. They deliver what the punter is told they want - swift delivery, pretty pictures, instant effect. This is the reality of how the commercial world works. We should wake up to this kind of thing, and not just turn a blind eye. So far as I can make out, these notional wildflower seed packets sell in pretty good volumes. It has a terribly corrosive effect. We all want to reconnect people with their natural environment, rather than see them drifting further away from understanding it. *I would encourage you to leave some one star reviews!