Home & Garden Publications

Seed pioneers: It's a brave new world of flower and vegetable varieties, thanks to these seed specialists - garden - outdoor living - Product Announcement

Sunset, Jan, 2002 by Lauren Bonar Swezey, Jim McCausland

* Twenty years ago, most gardeners didn't know the difference between an 'Anaheim' and a habanero pepper. An haricot vert? To the uninformed, it sounded more like a foreign hairstyle than a green bean. And mesclun? These colorful mixes of baby lettuces and greens are standard fare now in grocery stores, home gardens, and restaurants.

Thanks to a group of individuals who are passionate about finding great new varieties and making them available, such delicacies are commonly available. Five Western pioneers--Mary Ballon of West Coast Seeds, Tom and Julie Johns of Territorial Seed Company Rose Marie Nichols McGee of Nichols Garden Nursery, Renee Shepherd of Renee's Garden, and Howard-Yana Shapiro of Seeds of Change--have brought an international flavor to our kitchen gardens.

Looking for alpine strawberry seeds? You can order French 'Mignonette' from Renee's Garden. Tasty greens? Nichols Garden Nursery sells seeds of Asian, French, Italian, and American salad and cooking greens. Need to spice up your cooking? You'll find seeds of 'Bolivian Rainbow' and Mexican 'Hidalgo' chilies at Seeds of Change.

"This is an ecumenical business," explains Shepherd. "We bring in seeds from all over the world, and every seed has a story."

Each of the five seed companies described here offers a wide selection of flower, herb, and vegetable seeds, many of which are unique. Each company has grown and evaluated the seeds in its own trial gardens here in the West.

RENEE'S GARDEN Felton, California

Renee Shepherd never intended to own a seed packet business. She was teaching in the Environmental Studies Department at the University of California at Santa Cruz when a manager of a Dutch seed company (the husband of a graduate student) challenged her to try growing gourmet vegetable varieties at her home garden in Felton.

Shepherd quickly realized the possibilities of bringing these and many other varieties into American gardens. She traveled through Europe and contacted seed growers around the world to learn the seed trade. "At the time, gardeners here didn't have access to the richness and diversity that was available elsewhere in the world," says Shepherd. "I wanted to share what I found."

SEEDS OF CHANGE Santa Fe, New Mexico

Howard-Yana Shapiro has lived two lives: cultural anthropologist in Mesoamerica, South America, and Asia, and, for the past 10 years, one of the driving forces behind Seeds of Change. His company's catalog sells open-pollinated seeds (whose offspring set seeds that gardeners can save and replant), organically grown seeds (some of which are heirloom varieties), as well as others developed by the company--'Martian Giant' tomato, for instance. "Our goal is to push for organic, sustainable agricultural systems and biodiversity," says Shapiro.

As vice president of agriculture, Shapiro oversees the seed business and spends much of his time seeking new varieties, while researching sustainable chocolate production for the company's owner, M&M/Mars. He works and lives at his farm just north of Santa Fe.

NICHOLS GARDEN NURSERY

Albany, Oregon

Rose Marie Nichols McGee began working at this nursery which she runs with her husband, Keane, with her founder-parents in 1978. "I like my father's statement of purpose," says Rose Marie, "which is to bring people closer to nature through gardening. That still fits us."

Nichols was the first nursery to introduce elephant garlic. Since taking over, Rose Marie and Keane have let their own passions filter into the catalog: supplies for making wine and beer, for example, and seeds for lots of flowers.

WEST COAST SEEDS

Vancouver, British Columbia

Raised in a farm family that grew nearly all the food it consumed, Mary Ballon opened Territorial Seeds's Canadian franchise in 1983, then her own company in 1998. "My goal is to supply the best seed for organic growers in our region," Mary told us, referring to coastal British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon (shipping seed across the Canadian border isn't a problem). She's found that the best-scoring varieties grown on her farm, which you're welcome to visit, tend to be hybrids.

TERRITORIAL SEED COMPANY, Cottage Grove, Oregon

Committed to the notion that Pacific Northwest gardeners should be able to grow Territorial's vegetables every day of the year, Tom and Julie Johns offer both summer and winter catalogs. Each contains a mix of hybrid and open-pollinated varieties, all tested at the farm.

The Johns favor open-pollinated seeds. "That way, people can select seed for their own climate," Tom says. "Saving seed is getting to be a lost art."