The Heirloom Vegetable Gardener's Assistant

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The Heirloom Vegetable Gardener's Assistant

Merchants and Purveyors of Heirloom Seeds

Part 1: A - L

 

Home What is an heirloom vegetable? What to grow: 10 easy heirlooms What to grow: more suggestions. Seed Merchants: A - L Seed Merchants: N - Z Seed Exchanges, Swaps Searching for seeds? Public Display Gardens About this site.

 

Not all that long ago, seeds for heirloom vegetables were hard to find. Fortunately, that is changing. Several seed companies now specialize in heirloom vegetables. Others offer a mix of old-timers and modern varieties. As hopeful as this trend is, many heirloom vegetable varieties are threatened and may soon become extinct. Still, there is time to save these plants. All it takes is a patch of land (or a container), water, sun, and some seeds. The rest is up to you.

As every gardener knows, seed catalogs are wonderful reading. Between the tantalizing descriptions of varieties and the first-rate cultural information, many catalogs can double as reliable gardening books. They are also interesting as historical sources, but readers will sometimes find that catalogs offer some very different dates and historical information for certain heirlooms. Gardeners (especially those re-creating a period garden) should rely on the old rule of thumb that historical facts need to be verified with three independent sources.

Here are a mix of commercial seed companies, museums, and non-profit organizations that sell heirloom vegetable seeds, and the things you need to grow them. I selected these particular sources because I've had good experiences with them, or have heard good things about them from my sources. I list them here for informational purposes only, without any guarantees. There are, of course, many other fine sources of heirloom seeds.

Note: Many heirloom vegetable varieties are not available in the seed trade, but can be found through seed saving networks. For more information, see also: Seed Savers, Seed Exchanges, and Seed Societies

Merchants and Purveyors

 

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

2278 Baker Creek Road Mansfield, MO 65704 (417) 924-8917 http://www.rareseeds.com Catalog: Free online. Baker Creek has only been issuing catalogs for a few years, but the current one looks like they're well-seasoned in the world of heirlooms. Offering more than 500 non-hybrid vegetables, flowers, and herbs, this catalog is especially strong on hot-weather crops. It lists 27 different eggplants, five pages of tomatoes, plus ample numbers of old-time corn, squash, and melons. The other garden vegies are here, too, just in smaller numbers.

 

Bountiful Gardens

18001 Shafer Ranch Road Willits, CA 95490 (707) 459-6410 http://www.bountifulgardens.org Catalog: Free online. Offers only open-pollinated varieties, including some newer varieties as well as a fair number of old-timers. Of these, only a few are identified as heirlooms, even though many others, including some fairly rare ones, are also heirlooms.

 

Colonial Williamsburg: The Colonial Nursery Seed List

The Colonial Nursery P. O. Box 1776 Williamsburg, VA 23187-1776 http://www.history.org/History/CWLand//nursery1.cfm Catalog: Seed list free online. Gardening was part and parcel of colonial life, and this remarkable museum displays everything from the aristocratic pleasure grounds for the governor to a work-a-day kitchen garden of vegetables and herbs, all carefully researched and authenticated. Their "Colonial Nursery" sells period-appropriate vegetable, flower, and herb seeds, plus bulbs, gardening accessories, and other goodies.

 

Eastern Native Seed Conservancy

P.O. Box 451 Great Barrington, Massachusetts 01230 (413) 229-8316 e-mail: natseeds The non-profit Eastern Native Seed Conservancy has two lists of interest to heirloom gardeners. One is a Native Seed Listing that features very old Native American vegetables from the Seneca, Mohawk, Iroquois, and other tribes. It is appropriately strong on the "Three Sisters" of American agriculture--beans, corn, and squash. The other-- Diversity Seed Listings --features heirloom vegetables from New England and beyond. For many of these crops, they are the only source. While these crops are particularly well suited to New England gardens and areas with a similar climate, gardeners everywhere should check out what these good people are doing to preserve plants that could otherwise disappear.

 

Eternal Seed

657 Pritchard Road Farrellton, Quebec J0X 1T0 Canada (819) 827-8881 e-mail: edecas Catalog: free This young company has assembled a fine selection of heirlooms, including some nice short-season varieties and some that are very rare. Many are grown organically and packaged without pesticides. They also offer many old-fashioned flowers (including some choice vintage sweet peas) and a long list of herbs. BTW, I've never had any problems with customs or plant quarantines when I've ordered seeds from Canada.

 

Filaree Farm

182 Conconully Highway Okanogan, WA 98840 (509) 422-6940 (Message only) http://www.filareefarm.com Catalog: Free online. This organic farm offers hundreds of garlics gathered from literally all over the world. Some are heirlooms.

 

Heirloom Seed Project

Landis Valley Museum 2451 Kissel Hill Road Lancaster, PA 17601 (717) 569-0401 http://landisvalleymuseum.org Catalog:$4, refundable with first order. The Landis Valley Museum is a living history museum with a farm that showcases Pennsylvania German rural heritage. Exhibits include gardens planted with crops that date from the early 1800s to 1940. They sell seed from these plants through their dandy catalog, which features more than 200 heirlooms grown at the farm. This link gives contact information, but you'll have to snail-mail for their catalog. It's worth the effort.

 

Heirloom Tomatoes

Heirloom Tomatoes 5423 Princess Drive Rosedale, MD 21237 http://www.heirloomtomatoes.net/ Catalog: Free online. Donna Meinschein is now shepherding Chuck Wyatt's astonishing collection of tomatoes, and carrying his tradition forward. As before, this website offers hundreds different heirloom tomatoes -- red, pink, orange, yellow, green, purple, and black tomatoes, big ones, little ones, short-season tomatoes, hot-weather tomatoes, and everything in-between. Best of all, Donna even has tomatoes that taste like real tomatoes.

 

Heritage Farm

3076 North Winn Road Decorah, IA 52101 Catalog: Free (563) 382-5990 http://www.seedsavers.org/Home.asp Associated with the Seed Savers Exchange, Heritage Farm maintains an astounding 20,000 endangered vegetable varieties. To help finance that worthwhile effort, Heritage Farm sells seeds of heirloom vegetables, herbs, and flowers plus books and posters. Their collection of vegetables, which numbers more than 500 popular varieties, is particularly strong on heirloom tomatoes, beans, and peppers, but also has a nice selection of others.

 

Heritage Harvest Seed

Box 2177 Carman, MB, R0G 0J0 CANADA Print Catalog: $2.00 in U.S. Free in Canada. (204) 745-6489, FAX: (204) 745-6489 email: heritageharvestseed Specializing in rare and endangered varieties, this start-up's catalog is chock-full of intriguing heirlooms. Some, such as 'Champion of England' peas, 'Boston Marrow' squash, and 'Tip-Top melon' are vegetable superstars of days-gone-by. Others, including 'Brandywine' tomatoes and 'Moon and Stars' watermelon are popular today. If those weren't quite enough, HHS offers Canadian originals, Native American vegetables, and short-season varieties. For many of them, HHS is the only commercial seed source. A laudable effort, especially since without niche seed companies like this one, many rare and choice heirlooms would simply cease to be.

 

Irish Eyes - Garden City Seeds

PO Box 307 Thorp, WA 98946 Catalog: Online. (509) 964-7000, Fax: (800) 964-9210 http://www.irish-eyes.com Irish Eyes, known for garlic and seed potatoes, and Garden City Seeds, known for short-season vegetable varieties for northern gardens, now offer more than ever. Their combined catalog offers hundreds of varieties, and features a category titled "heirloom varieties." It includes more than 125 varieties. A few of them seem fairly new. The 'Oregon Spring' tomato, for example, was released in 1984. (On the plus side, it's especially tasty and it performs well in the Pacific Northwest.) Such quibbles aside, this website is definitely worth a browse.

 

Johnny's Selected Seeds

955 Benton Avenue Winslow, ME 04910 (207) 861-3900 Fax (US Only): 1-800-738-6314 E-mail: rstore http://www.johnnyseeds.com/ Catalog: Free online. While Johnny's specializes in short-season crops, it also offers a nice selection of heirlooms identified as such. To streamline the hunt for heirlooms, try using Johnny's search function using the keyword heirloom.

 

Landreth Seed Company

180 West Ostend Street P.O. Box 6398 Baltimore, MD 21230 (800) 654-2407 Catalog: Free online. This historic company (founded 1784) offers an assortment of old and open-pollinated vegetables. This year, they added a page devoted entirely to the heirloom vegetables, many of which they have offered since these varieties were new. The 193 varieties listed here (with nifty vintage images) include many classics, and is worth a browse. To Heirloom Seed Merchants, continued ->

The Heirloom Vegetable Gardener's Assistant does not sell seeds (or anything else). Please direct requests for print catalogs directly to the sources above, not to this site. Comments? Feedback? Return to Heirloom Vegetable Gardener's Assistant: Home Top