The seed exchange is open to receive donation of seeds until 31 October 2026.  Seed ordering opens from first thing (GMT) on 01 December 2026 until midnight (GMT) on Friday 01 January 2027.

Wild Seed The reputation of the SRGC is at risk if we offer seed that has been collected illegally or does not have distribution permission. This could harm future attempts by people who want to collect seed legitimately. The SRGC is not able to check seed submissions, so please do not submit wild collected seed that would put our reputation at risk. Please also retain the documentation giving any relevant permission for as long as possible.

Seed donations from members in the UK: Seed donation from UK members is entirely unchanged; you can send seed in into the exchange as normal. Seed from UK members becomes increasingly important to us as the import of donations from the rest of the World become more and more difficult to manage. 

From members in the EU, Norway and Switzerland: We are very pleased to say that the UK government has relaxed the regulations for seed import from the EU, Norway and Switzerland. Members will be able to send seed without a phytosanitary certificate this year, directly to the seed exchange. We hope this arrangement will remain in place for the future - see below.

Seed donations from members in Other countries: The UK authorities now require all seed being sent to the UK from countries not in the EU, Norway and Switzerland to have a phytosanitary certificate from the donor country. We know that the cost of certificates, and the ease of obtaining them, varies greatly from country to country. We have been working on a means to solve this problem, and have introduced a co-ordinated approach for members in the USA and Australia.

From members in the USA: We are very saddened to have to report to you all that Marc Rosenblum, who coordinated seed donations from US members to the SRGC Seed Exchange for several years, passed away earlier in the spring. We send our condolences to Marc’s family and friends, and once again record our thanks to Marc for all he did to help the SRGC Seed Exchange operate in the USA. In the light of this, we are now seeking a US-based SRGC or Alpine Garden Society member who would be prepared to act as our USA seed donation agent. This role involves receiving seed from (usually 15-25) US member donors, checking that seed is clean, preparing a list of taxa and arranging for APHIS to undertake a phytosanitary inspection, then sending seed to the UK. The SRGC and AGS are prepared to pay for all expenses incurred in doing this valuable job. The work takes place between September and early November each year.

If you might be prepared to take on this task, we would be delighted to hear from you, and will try to answer any queries you might have. Please just email  with your initial interest. We very much hope that someone will come forward to take on this role; it is a great help to the SRGC and to all our US member donors.

From members in Canada: We are delighted that Bryan Emery, an SRGC member from Victoria, has volunteered to coordinate and collate all the seed donations this year from Canadian members, obtain a single phytosanitary certificate and forward the seed to the exchange. We are really grateful to Brian for this, and want to let you know the procedures for this year: 

First, you must, please, email and Bryan at with an alphabetical list of the full scientific name of each of your seed donations by 1st October 2025. This will enable Bryan to sort and check the incoming seed and enable us to ensure that your seed donations appear in the seed list. 

May we emphasise that seed for inspection needs to be really clean. Please send your clean, dry seed (no wet packs please) by 15th October 2025 to: Bryan Emery, 168 Lurline Ave, Victoria, BC Canada, 8Z 1H6 . 

Send an alphabetical list of seed with your parcel. Please use glassine envelopes if you have them, and send modest, not huge volumes of seed. If you have larger volumes of special seed you wish to send, please email us at . 

From members in Australia: We are delighted that Royston Pavelin, an SRGC member from Australia, has volunteered to coordinate and collate all the seed donations this year from Australian members, obtain a single phytosanitary certificate and forward the seed to the exchange. We are really grateful to Roy for this, and want to let you know the procedures for this year.
First, you must, please, email  and Roy at  with an alphabetical list of the full scientific name of each of your seed donations by 1st October 2025. This will enable Roy to do the necessary preparation for the phytosanitary certificate, and will enable us to ensure that your seed donations appear in the seed list.
May we emphasise that seed for inspection needs to be really clean. Please send your clean, dry seed (no wet packs please) by 15th October 2025 to: Royston Pavelin, 3 Bungarra Court, Kurunjang, Victoria 3337, Australia.
Send an alphabetical list of seed with your parcel. Please use glassine envelopes if you have them, and send modest, not huge volumes of seed. If you have larger volumes of special seed you wish to send, please email us at .
Please note that we will always be more interested in seed of southern hemisphere plants, and less interested in plants common in British or European gardens.

From members in ALL other Overseas countries: At the moment we do not have any similar offers to coordinate seed donations from other countries. We appreciate that phytosanitary certificates will incur extra costs; if you might be prepared to handle seed from a group of members in your country as a way of minimising costs, we would be pleased to hear from you at . If you are considering sending us a large or unusual donation, again, please contact us before you send. Please do read the instructions on seed donations above before sending seed to the exchange.

Happy seed collecting, and we hope the new arrangements work well. Once again, many thanks for your efforts in donating seed to SRGC.

Details of the Seed Exchange are published in our Dryas Newsletter in July each year, issued to all of our members.  However, these pages will always show the most up-to-date information including any late changes and updates.  Please also check our separate and more detailed page on the Seed Exchange, Seed Ordering menu above.