Landreth Seed Co. turns 225, launches African-American collection

PHILADELPHIA — Six years ago, when Barbara Melera bought the venerable D. Landreth Seed Co., it had been decades since Landreths were at the helm, and the company no longer specialized in the vegetables and flowers that had built its fine reputation.

Instead, the nation's oldest seedhouse — founded by David Landreth in 1784 near 12th and High Street, now Market Street, in downtown Philadelphia — was selling mostly grass seed out of a warehouse in Baltimore.

Today, having moved the business back to Pennsylvania to bucolic New Freedom, near York, Melera has reason to celebrate. While nowhere near the powerhouse it once was, Landreth Seed Co. is celebrating its 225th birthday, an accomplishment in its own right, and officials are planning a future rooted in its beginnings.

In the words of Melera, a former venture capitalist whose twin passions are history and gardening, "For generation after generation, the Landreths taught people in this country how to garden and how to farm. We're going to do what this company was founded to do."

Melera is aware of the grandiosity of her declaration. "It's an enormous legacy to uphold, but that's what charges me up every single morning," she says of the company made famous for supplying seeds to every president from George Washington to FDR.

Part of the birthday celebration involves a 70-page commemorative catalog to be offered free to the public starting Dec. 10. (You can order online at www.landrethseeds.com or by calling 1-800-654-2407.) Its cover replicates Landreth's 1884 centennial catalog, and it will be the last one given out for free.

Another piece involves a new African American Heritage Collection, which is not free but is unusual. It comprises so-called heirloom seeds for 34 vegetables, grains, and herbs — like West Indian callaloo spinach and Jamaican sweet potato pumpkin — that were the dietary staples of slaves brought to this country from Africa and the Caribbean, and adopted by their descendants and others.

Opinions vary on how old a variety should be to qualify as an heirloom, but most consider seeds grown before 1950 to fit that description.

Many seed companies, such as the much larger W. Atlee Burpee & Co., based in Warminster, Pa., have sold these tried-and-true treasures for years. Some, like Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds in Mansfield, Mo., offer collections of fruit and vegetable seeds by country or continent. (No need to search further for that "Collective Farm Woman" melon from Ukraine or the football-shaped Afghan honeydew.)

And at least one company, Pinetree Garden Seeds in New Gloucester, Maine, markets a category called "Around the World," which includes Asian, European, Middle Eastern, French, Italian, and Latin American seeds.