This is the End da na na

To my surprise my order arrived from Italy in SHORTEST TIME, over 20 days earlier than scheduled! VERY CLEAN seeds ( no dust, broken bits or other stuff mixed in as usual) in sealed little bags. A personal touch to the letter attached and overall you get the distinct impression that Mr Carlo Martini and his Team put serious work and care in this product ( Prodotto ''con amore'' as written on each of the little bags - Yep - sure feels like it!) . Can't say anything yet about the growing-results ( which also will be up to me!), but I have a good feeling since they also are controlled GMO-free ! They even included an additional set of seeds as welcoming presi....GRAZIE MILLE - am very happy, can't wait to taste these beauties and shall keep you updated......Update: 1 week later : had the first batch of all 6 Varieties in simple, unheated but covered (transparent cover = Garland budget windowsill propagator here in Amazon - handy, also recommended!) windowsill propagator, a mix of last years compost/soil I keep for starting seeds and some sand mixed in for aeration as ''starter'', seed just placed lightly on top, pressed lightly to the surface, NOT covered with soil so the light can start the growing, temperature around 20-22 degrees and kept the ground nice and damp, everything facing south for maximum light exposure. They are literally exploding! I probably have used to many seeds....( thought better be safe than sorry since normally you only get a few plants out of a large amount of seed - Yeah... guess what?) .I will have a heck of a time to separate the little plants and find enough containers to replant them. I can safely say that 95-98% of all seeds have started to grow - so be careful how many seeds you use! These seeds seem to be of seriously top quality (they also looked extremely good when sewing them)! Ha! If only half of these plants actually mature ( and probably most will!!) I can feed half the county with Basil!Update mid April: all are growing happily, very slowly due to cold weather and exceptionally low light levels here ( weeks of low light grey clouds and no sun whatsoever). Had to learn that my first batch of the Violet Basil was not exposed to enough light - I had to make a second batch of them in a very bright location ( growing light) and they now are fine. Suggests that specially the violet Basil needs more light and more warmth than the others and perhaps shouldn't be ''out there'' to early-even if it is in a greenhouse. Taking into account that normally you have about 50% of seeds germinating and approx. 10-15% of them after that do not survive, these have now stabilized at an overall 80% of plants growing, at stage 2 (leaf stages) and even 3 already! They already have a strong, lovely smell. Yep, we all are happy!Update 12.05.2018: Thanks to very cool weather and low light levels everything is growing slowly. But I can say that the Italian Basil now has started to come very good ( Greenhouse ). We have tried all the 6 different Basils. Fantastic, beautiful taste! The dark red basil takes a little more time and light, therefore is a bit slower than the others but you will be compensated with a real taste of Italy! My wife also bought an already grown basil plant in B&Q to see how the compare to these Italian ones. It is like day and night. The B&Q ones are fine, nice taste. But in direct comparison you can clearly taste the difference between these mass production plants (with chemical feed) and the organic, non GMO and hand-picked basils from Semi Strani grown in natural soil/homemade compost.Same applies to the standard seeds I got from the seed rack in a shop which also have grown beside the semi Strani plants. they are better than the pre grown B&Q plant but although they were in the same ground as the semi Strani's they don't have the same intense and beautiful smell and taste. Tip: the ''Lemon'' basil works beautifully in Vanilla Ice-Cream! Yeah, I thought exactly the same you think just now but my wife started experimenting with Basil in various dishes and this actually works!Update 3, 26/06/2018: All Basil's are growing with no end in sight.... Lovely quality, huge plants! Very different taste to each Basil plant. A Joy!

The note with the seeds says that they were harvested in 2016 and should be viable to December 2018 (which was six months ago). No seeds for purple basil in the packet - which were one of the ones in this set that I particularly wanted.

Very easy to grow.

Great seeds. I have got them to try out kratky method and it's going to the way how I dreamed.