The Seed Bank
A Dutch seed company from the 1980s, built by a Perth-born breeder who wanted plants that suited northern European weather.
- 9cup results
- 9first places
- 1989–1990active in results
- 1cups entered
01Beginnings
The Seed Bank is the company of Nevil Martin Schoenmakers, a breeder born in Perth, Western Australia, to Dutch parents. He moved to the Netherlands in 19761. The source article describes his company as the first cannabis seedbank, though its two mentions of the business do not quite match: the introduction calls it "The Seed Bank of Holland" and places it in the early 1980s, while the biography says he set up "The Seedbank" in 19841.
The spark was a practical problem. By the source's account, the Thai, Colombian and African strains then sold commercially did not cope well with the cooler northern European climate, or with growing indoors under artificial light1. Better-suited genetics were the answer he pursued, and a seed company was the vehicle. Why he picked that exact route, and what the early premises looked like, is not documented in the sources used here.
02The Story
Early stock came from David Paul Watson, a Californian breeder known as Sam the Skunkman, who sold Schoenmakers seeds of leading Californian varieties including Original Haze, Skunk #1, Early Girl and California Orange1. The business grew quickly. By 1986 it was reported to have sold to more than 15,000 different growers in the United States alone1.
Success brought trouble. In 1990 the US Drug Enforcement Administration's Operation Green Merchant targeted him, because shipping seeds from the Netherlands to the United States was illegal1. On 24 July 1990 Australian authorities arrested him in Perth, at the request of the US government, while he was visiting family. He then spent almost a year in Fremantle jail without bail1. Bail finally came on 21 June 1991, a few weeks before his Federal Court hearing. Because his activities were legal under Dutch law, extradition was refused and the charges were eventually dropped1.
Also in 1991, Schoenmakers sold The Seed Bank to Sensi Seeds and worked there briefly as head breeder. He then co-founded a separate company, Greenhouse Seed, with Arjan Roskam1. These are different businesses, and the sources describe them only as later chapters in his career. By 1998, with several High Times Cannabis Cup wins to his name, he had sold his share of Greenhouse Seeds and stepped back from public life to pursue other interests1.
03Culture and Legacy
The Seed Bank arrived with some swagger. High Times magazine called Schoenmakers the "King of Cannabis" in 1985, and the source says his was the first seed company to advertise directly to the public in that magazine1.
His reputation rests mostly on breeding. The article credits him with a long list of well-known, award-winning strains, among them Nevil's Haze, Northern Lights Haze, Super Silver Haze, Nevil's Skunk, Super Skunk and Silver Pearl1. The work he is best remembered for is the F1 hybrid Northern Lights 5 X Haze; according to the article, that hybrid and its offspring have led the Cannabis Cup field from the 1980s to the present1. Later in life he also joined the movement to legalise medicinal cannabis in Australia, co-writing a submission to a New South Wales government inquiry on the subject1.
04Where Things Stand
Nevil Schoenmakers died on 30 March 2019 after a fight with cancer1. What became of The Seed Bank after he sold it to Sensi Seeds in 1991 is not documented in the sources used for this page, so its current operations, ownership and catalogue cannot be described here.
One more thread is worth noting without over-reading it. The article's external links include a Sydney Morning Herald piece dated 21 February 2015 with the title "King of cannabis Nevil Schoenmakers stages a quiet comeback"1. Only the headline is available to us, not the article itself, so what the comeback involved is not documented here.
05What Comes Next
No announced plans for The Seed Bank were found in the sources used for this page. The only on-topic material is a biography of its founder, and it says nothing about the seed bank's direction after the 1991 sale, nor about any revival, relaunch or new releases.
On the podium, in our data
CannaLib records 9 cup results naming The Seed Bank, between 1989 and 1990, 9 of them first places.
Where they showed up
- High Times Cannabis Cup (Amsterdam) · 9 entries
Strains behind the results
Sources
Written from the sources above and checked on 2026-10-29. Spot an error? Tell us on the contact page.