My circles on GooglePlus alerted me to a report from NPR in the US, that the country’s oldest extant seed company is facing bankruptcy. The D. Landreth Seed Company has been going since 1784, and is credited with introducing the zinnia to the US and with popularising the tomato when it offered seed for the first time in 1820. Now the company is in trouble with its creditors.
That’s a great shame, the more so because it is happening in a country that, unlike some, ((And today is the deadline for signing up to a hopeless attempt to open up EU seed laws.)) does not enjoy legislation preventing the sale of specific varieties. So what about market demand? Don’t people want the seeds that D. Landreth has to offer? Could it be that the company’s website is, as one commenter suggests, not entirely up to date?
At G+ Anastasia Bodnar said “it’d be sort of sad if the company went under, but as it says in the article, it’s not like the germplasm would disappear, it’d be auctioned off”.
Well, maybe, but what guarantee is there that whoever buys it would maintain it? And if Landreth can’t make a living selling that germplasm, maybe the reason is that lots of other people have the self-same varieties and are selling them successfully.
My question is this: “how many varieties offered by Landreth are not offered by another seed company in the US or elsewhere?”
In the old days, I might have checked by looking in Seed Savers Exchange’s wonderful publication the Fruit, Nut & Berry Inventory, but I see there hasn’t been a new edition since 2001, and I can’t see the database on which it was based anywhere. Having produced a UK version myself, I know how hard it is to do this kind of information wrangling, but it is really worthwhile.
<dream>Maybe I should attempt to Kickstart that effort again. </dream>
The Garden Seed Inventory is really what you need, though the most recent edition (6th) was published in 2005. Look for a new edition to be published this year, based on 2011 varieties.
Dear Jeremy,
I agree that losing Landreth’s would be regrettable. I know the proprietor, Barb Melera, very well, and she runs a fine operation.
I’m wondering if you are confusing the Fruit, Berry, and Nut Inventory (FBNI) with the Garden Seed Inventory (GSI), both published by Seed Savers Exchange (SSE).
I’m happy to report that the FBNI and the GSI are both alive and well. These are “catalogs of catalogs” of all the standard open-pollinated varieties of fruits, nuts, berries, and garden vegetables available in the commercial trade by mail order in the United States and Canada. These resources are invaluable preservation tools, as you note.
SSE published an updated book version of FBNI (4th edition) in 2009. It is available through SSE and other booksellers, including Amazon.
By the end of this summer, SSE plans to post a readable version of the FBNI on line for our members, in the Yearbook section of our website (www.seedsavers.org).
We at SSE are working to one day develop both of these inventories into searchable databases that would be posted online at the SSE website. And we are considering developing, down the line, both inventories for Kindle and Nook.
With best wishes,
Amy Goldman
Chair of the Board, Seed Savers Exchange
Thanks Amy and Sarah. You’re right, I was confusing the two meta-catalogues; mea culpa. A searchable database will be invaluable as it will allow people to focus on varieties with just one or two suppliers. For The Fruit and Veg Finder we had a list of those varieties as part of the book, and from memory I think the SSE Inventories did too. I look forward to it.