Burpee Seeds has been selling seeds and garden supplies since 1876. Farmers and home gardeners alike purchase their seeds along with retail stores and it all happens in the headquarters at Warminster, Pennsylvania. W. Atlee Burpee founded the company when he was only 18 and it only left family control for a short time when it was bought by General Foods in the seventies. It returned to the family in 1988 and is currently run by the son of the founder, David Burpee.

In 1888 Atlee began to experiment with seeds from Europe and tried to make them suitable to grow in the United States. He perfected Surehead cabbage and developed a better variety of carrot called Long Orange both of which are still sold today. He also developed the first green bean that had no string on the pod. He searched the country finding farmers and botanists that developed their own variety of vegetables and flowers

By the time Atlee died in 1915 the company was sending out over a million of its mail order seed catalogs a year. Most customers were farmers but home gardeners were starting to take notice and were requesting catalogs. They were also purchasing Burpee seeds at local stores and from mail order.

David, also known as D. B., Burpee experimented with hybridization and he cultivated many new varieties of vegetables and flowers for the seed company. His first successful experiment was in 1934 when he came up with the Double Hybrid Nasturtium. Next came the red and gold hybrid marigold that almost everyone has in their gardens today. Sweet corn was always white but people could not believe yellow corn tasted so good when he found Golden Bantam Corn. Yellow corn was always fed to livestock but this seed changed everything.

Around 1940 Burpee flower breeders began to learn how to manipulate chromosome structure of plants using a substance from the autumn crocus. New colors of flowers began to emerge especially in snapdragons. This process was also used on black eyed Susan plants to create a popular modern flower called the Gloriousa Daisy.

Ball Seed company was owned by George J. Ball who also experimented with seeds. In 1991 he and Burpee Seeds merged. They created the best and biggest lab devoted to seed testing in the US. The catalog that resulted in those experiments now sell a variety of over 1100 seeds.

The current Burpee catalog is downloadable from the Burpee website online. It can also be sent out by mail. This catalog is very comprehensive and includes many sections including flowers, vegetables, and gardening supplies. The products in the catalog are priced competitively at about 1 dollar and all the way up to 50 dollars and more some supplies.

Burpee Seeds has a wonderful guarantee. If their seeds fail to grow as they should they will refund any money spent. Also if a charge shows up that you did not charge they will work with your bank and help to refund what they can within the law. Burpee is a very reliable source for getting seeds for your garden and without Atlee and D. B. Burpee we would not have the large variety of flowers and vegetables that we have the benefit of today.