9 Best Places to Buy Garden Seeds

Whether you’re planning a colorful flower patch or a backyard vegetable garden, if you’re starting with seeds you’ll need a good source to bring your vision to life. Seeds are the building block of a healthy garden. It’s important to buy the highest quality seeds possible so your plants germinate and thrive throughout the growing season.

Here are some of the best places to buy garden seeds. And, here’s how to collect and store your own flower and vegetable seeds to plant next season.

Best All-Around: Burpee

If you’ve ever bought garden seeds at a home improvement store, chances are they were from Burpee, one of the most well-known seed companies in the U.S. Burpee has been around since 1881. Today it sells all kinds of garden seeds — vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers — as well as organic and heirloom seeds.

Burpee seeds are known for their high germination rates and reasonable prices, making them ideal for beginners and experienced gardeners.

Best for Vegetable Garden Seeds: Gurney’s

Gurney’s is another seed supplier that has been around for more than 100 years. Its vegetable seeds are known for superior disease resistance, yield and ease of planting. Gurney’s carries a wide range of vegetable seeds, including more than 30 kinds of tomatoes, to best suit your growing conditions and tastes.

Best for Flower Garden Seeds: Eden Brothers

For a huge selection of flower seeds, including wildflowers, check out Eden Brothers. It offers hundreds of flower varieties, including rare and unusual options. In addition to its single-species flower seeds, this online retailer sells specialty wildflower mixes designed to grow in certain conditions — Dry Area and Deer-Resistant mixes, for example.

Best Place to Buy in Bulk: Johnny’s Selected Seeds

Most companies sell seeds in small packets, often containing 10 to 100 seeds. But if you’re hoping to buy in bulk, Johnny’s Selected Seeds makes it easy to buy hundreds or thousands of seeds at a time. A popular supplier for farmers and other large-scale growers, Johnny’s carries lots of vegetable, fruits, herbs and flower seeds.

Best for Heirloom Garden Seeds: True Leaf Market

Heirloom or heritage seeds are open-pollinated strains passed down for multiple generations. True Leaf Market offers 750 types of heirloom garden seeds, including vegetables, herbs, microgreens and fruits. All their heirloom strains are at least 30 years old, and the company offers fast, free shipping on orders of more than $45.

Best for Award-Winning Garden Seeds: Harris Seeds

If you’re searching for the best of the best, Harris Seeds carries a line of All-American Selection (AAS) winners. These seeds are identified as high-quality and reliable by an independent testing organization. The retailer carries vegetables and flower varieties with this distinction, and you can easily find them by looking for the AAS Winner badge on product photos.

Best for Organic Garden Seeds: Back to the Roots

For seeds to be labeled as certified organic, they must be gathered from plants grown in a healthy environment with limited chemical treatment.

If you’re hoping to buy organic seeds, Back to the Roots offers a good selection of vegetable, herb and flower seeds. They also sell seed bundles that cost less than if you purchased packets individually — ideal if you’re planning to grow a large garden. P.S. We also recommend the Spade to Fork Organic Seed Starter Kit.

Best Garden Seed Exchange: Seed Savers Exchange

Seed Savers Exchange sells a small selection of vegetable seeds. But it also facilitates the world’s largest seed exchange program, where you can buy and sell seeds from other gardeners and farmers. Through the program, you can purchase all types of vegetable, fruit, grain, herb and flower seeds, including some rare varieties you might not find elsewhere.

Best Garden Seed Packaging: Hudson Valley Seed Co.

Most seed packages are unmemorable, but not the ones from Hudson Valley Seed Co. Each year the company commissions contemporary artists from around the country to design one-of-a-kind packaging for its seeds, and the artwork is reproduced on the brand’s Art Packs.

There are hundreds of beautiful designs available. The packages are so pretty you’ll want to display them.