Choosing seeds can be a huge task, especially since you are narrowing it down to a couple of varieties out of a couple thousand to choose from.
Choosing a seed company can also become a bit of a headache since they all claim to be the best.
Bellow I have listed some price information as well as information about the following seed companies.
Backers Creek Heirloom
Gurney
Southern Exposure Seed exchange
Johnny’s
Seedsavers
Burpee
Territorial Seeds
Ferry-Morse
Click on Magnifying glass to enlarge
SO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM
Baker Creek Heirloom
- Sells over 1450 variety of vegetables flowers and herbs.
- One of the Largest selection of heirloom and open pollinated seeds including Asian and European seeds.
- Sends out a very gorgeous glossy catalog with over 200 pages.
- Baker Creek supplies free seeds to some of the worlds poorest countries, as well as school gardens and other education projects, in our own country.
- Their goal is to “educate everyone about a better, safer food supply and fight gene-altered, Frankenfood and the companies that support it.”
- They are behind the beautiful magazine, Heirloom Gardener.
- Jere and Emilee Gettle (cofounders of Baker Creek Heirloom seeds) published a book called “The Heirloom Life Gardener”
- They have a farm and Pioneer village in the Ozark hills, where you can attend festivals, eat lunch at their restaurant, see the gardens, and shop for seeds.
- Bakers creek Heirloom Boycott all gene-alterming companies.
- Located in Mansfield MO
GURNEY
- Found in 1866
- Located in Greendale IN
- They mail out a catalog
- The website has a large amount of information and planting instructions about each vegetable.
- Carries trees, shrubs, perennials, fruit trees, and berries.
- You can find How to videos and informative articles on website.
- You can find very little information about the company on their website.
Southern Exposure Seed exchange
- Emphasize varieties that do well in the Mid-Atlantic and southeast.
- Specialize in heirloom seeds, and open pollinated seeds.
- Over 700 varieties of vegetable, flower, her, grain and cover crop seeds.
- Own a 72 acre farm with goats, chickens, hayfields, and vegetable gardens. You can visit their farm when they have events.
- Southern Exposure hosts workshops about sustainable gardening
- Located in Mineral, VA
- You can find a program online that helps you plan out your garden.
Johnny’s
- One stop shop for gardeners
- sells vegetable, fruit, flower seeds, herbs, farm seeds, tools and supplies
- offer 100% satisfaction guaranteed.
- FANTASTIC online tools such as, seed calculator, target harvest date calculator, fall planting calculator, seed starting date calculator, Caterpillar tunnel worksheet, succession planting calculator.
- Online, you can view a tour of their gardens in Albion, Maine.
- “Johnny’s does not sell genetically modified seeds and it does not breed new varieties using genetic engineering. Rather, it breeds plants using traditional methods a slow and painstaking process that can take eight years or more from the first selection to seed sales.”
- Johnny’s donates thousands of dollars to educational, agricultural, and horticultural programs and events, as well as local community efforts.
- Very socially connected through; Facebook, twitter, flickr, youtube, pinterest, and their “Growing Ideas Blog”
Cooks Garden
- Located in Warminster, PA
- “Dedicated to cooks who love to garden and gardeners who love to cook.”
- Offers European and american variety that work great in the kitchen
- Sells Hybrid, heirloom, open pollinated seeds, gardening supplies, fruit, flowers, and kitchenwares.
- Website full of recipes and nutritional information.
- “We travel around the world to seek out varieties with top-notch culinary qualities that will inspire great meals from seed to table.”
Seedsavers
- “Mission is to conserve and promote America’s culturally diverse but endangered food crop heritage for future generations by collection, growing, and sharing heirloom seeds and plants.”
- You can join their membership and receive a seed encyclopedia, 10% discount, magazine subscription, and the knowledge that your money is going to conserving and promoting heirloom vegetables, fruits, flowers and herbs. Membership also supports the seedsavers preservation efforts at Heritage Farm, where they maintain one of the largest seed banks of heirloom and open-pollinated varieties of its kind in North America.
- Seedsavers carry very unusual varieties of seeds and even tell you the history of where the seeds come from.
- You do not find many of the popular variety of seeds since they are more focused on keeping the rare varieties alive.
- Non of the seeds they sell have been treated, and are non-GMO varieties.
- You can find Webinars and educational programs and workshops on their website.
- Located in Decorah, Iowa.
Burpee
- Huge selection of vegetables, flowers, herbs, garden tools, supplies, and fruit plants
- Mostly carries Hybrid but increasing the amount of heirloom.
- Burpee has been in business since 1881.
- Burpee makes it east to compare different vegetables on their website.
- “Burpee provides its customerswith the latest varieties that offer improved yield and disease resistance. Not only do we offer an extensive line of new hybrid and tried and true heirloom seeds”
- You can visit them at their farm Fordhook Farm in Doylestonw PA.
- Website contains how to videos and gardening articles.
Territorial Seeds
- Specializes good producers in the Northwest.
- Family owned business since 1979.
- Offers 100% satisfaction guaranteed or they will replace or refund.
- Extensive information on website about seeds, planting, pests, and diseases of each vegetable.
- Features the Drunken Botanist – “Grow your own cocktail garden! We’ve teamed up with bestselling author Amy Stewart to put together a collection of cocktail-friendly herbs, fruits, vegetables, and flowers, all inspired by her new book, The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World’s Great Drinks”
- Located in Cottage Grove, OR
- Invested in a 44 acres fro testing and evaluating thousands of varieties for the best taste, Northwest hardiness, and good germination.
- You can find How to videos on their website.
Ferry-Morse
- The oldest seed company started in 1856
- They shaped seed selling into what it is today
- Ferry Morse probably has the largest selection of seeds but limited amount of variety in each category.
- Sells in around 10,000 stores countrywide.
- The website has very detailed instructions on planting each vegetable.
- They do not Mail out a catalog
- Carries the brand name, Jiffy, Lilly Miller, and green Arbor
- Sells garden supplies, lawn care, deer food, gifts and more
- Online you can shop for flowers by color.
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yeah! okay, so when it comes up in my blogger reader, there are “x” for the picture and the link is broken and doesn’t take me to your blog – but now, well, now there shouldn’t be a problem…….but check your feed links just in case
xo + blessings,
Anne Marie
(and yes, I would love to do a guest post)
p.s. I ONLY buy from seed savers…..everything else is garbage in my garden it seems
This is so helpful. I’m thinking it’s time for me to order my seeds and I usually order from Territorial, but his year was curious about poking around a little more at the other companies. I really want to get seeds that can be saved at the end of harvest for use next year! I don’t know where to start so I need to research up on it. Maybe it’s not as hard as I think…
Thanks!
I saw you at my real life friend Claire’s website. I just had to pin this since I am from Fort Worth and I will need your planting advice! LOVE your adorable header!