- Seeds and prices (tax included): Carol Passion mini tomato, about 12 seeds, 495 yen; Hana-enogu seed-ball mix for spring sowing, about 10 g, 550 yen. Both come in limited spring 2027 packets, sold through Sakata’s mail order including its online shop.
- Orders and shipping: Orders open in mid-November 2026, with shipping from late December (the contest results page says delivery from mid-December). Sales end when the limited packets run out.
- The contest: Held from June to September 2025 to mark GREEN×EXPO 2027, open to students at universities, vocational schools and high schools in Kanagawa, on the theme “seeds and people”. Sakata judged the entries and chose two grand prizes and three merit awards.
- The winning designs: The tomato packet shows large ripe tomatoes and children watering around them. The seed-ball packet shows a person holding a seed ball among a field of flowers. According to the results page, the artists are Yume Takimoto, a fourth-year student at Tokyo University of Agriculture, and Ryota Sugawara, a second-year student at Kanagawa Prefectural Ofuna High School.
Our take
The student packets line up with the expo period right down to the sowing calendar. On Sakata’s product page, the seed-ball mix for spring sowing is sown in April to June and flowers in July to October. It contains amaranth, cosmos, zinnia, cleome and globe amaranth, among others. Sown in a garden or planter in spring, it should flower at home in July to September, the second half of the expo.
The seed-ball mix in the limited packet costs the same 550 yen as the regular price on the product page. The results page also says that once the limited packets run out, sales switch to the regular packet, so the seeds themselves seem to remain available.
Sakata also has five exhibits at the expo, including the garden Hyakka Sairan. The flowers on site and the ones grown from the student packets can be compared in the same summer.
Tips for visitors
- Orders open in mid-November through Sakata’s mail order, including its online shop. Orders under 8,000 yen including tax carry a shipping charge.
- Sakata’s five exhibits at the expo are in our 15 September news.
- Carol Passion and Hana-enogu are Sakata’s product names; the English renderings are ours.
Our take
The tomato costs 495 yen and the seed balls 550 yen. The seed-ball mix is sown in April to June and flowers in July to October, so seeds sown in spring will bloom at home during the expo's summer.