[MR] Variety of Heirloom seed sites

[ATOC]

 The oldest dating I can find is 1794, but it's a good collection.
 
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Nobody would grow them if they didn't stand up to time. But many seed houses
specializing in such plants are small and difficult to find — unless you
visit the Web. Here's a selection of them.

• HYPERLINK
"http://www.care2.com/channels/solutions/outdoors/415"www.care2.com/channels
/solutions/outdoors/415; Care2, based in Redwood City, Calif. The online
network of people interested in humanitarian causes and healthful living
offers a brief rundown of seed types. Heirloom seeds remain strong because
of genetic diversity due to open pollination — sort of like being the mutts
of the plant world.

• HYPERLINK "http://www.seedsavers.org/"www.seedsavers.org; Seed Savers
Exchange, Decorah, Iowa. This membership organization, founded in 1975 when
a grandfather passed on old-world seeds to his grandson, saves and shares
garden seeds. You'll find more than 35 categories of vegetables and fruits,
as well as flowers and herbs. Here we found the wonderberry (originally bred
as the sunberry by Luther Burbank, horticulturist extraordinaire of the last
century), said to rival blueberries in all ways.

• HYPERLINK "http://www.heirloomseeds.com/"www.heirloomseeds.com; Heirloom
Seeds, West Elizabeth, Pa. The site looks homemade — packed with text in a
crazy quilt of fonts — but the company is quite serious about providing
organic and nonorganic seeds with stories behind them from North America,
Europe, Mexico, the Caribbean and elsewhere.

Look for a United Nations of cucumber varieties, including Russian, Mexican
and Japanese. Complete garden packages are available; one offers 123
vegetables, 27 flowers and 21 herbs packaged for use this year or to be
stored up to three years. A Western wildflower mix also is offered.

• HYPERLINK "http://www.abundantlifeseed.com/"www.abundantlifeseed.com;
Abundant Life Seed Co., Saginaw, Ore. Customers contribute to the seed
inventories, which come from open-pollinated types of flowers, vegetables
and herbs rather than hybrids. Check out the oldest named variety of sweet
corn — no hints about which of the four corn varieties it is.

• HYPERLINK "http://www.nativeseeds.org/"www.nativeseeds.org; Native
Seeds/SEARCH, Tucson, Ariz. This organization has collected about 2,000
varieties of traditional crops grown by Native Americans of the West, with
the "three sisters" of beans, squash and corn accounting for more than half.
Some grow best in an arid climate, but others tolerate considerable
rainfall. Look for tomatillos, the stuff of green salsa; cotton; amaranth, a
grain attractive to birds; onions; and melons. 

• HYPERLINK "http://www.victoryseeds.com/"www.victoryseeds.com; Victory Seed
Co., Molalla, Ore. Open-pollinated, organic and heirloom seeds find homes
here — and there are plenty to outfit the garden.

The site includes tips on growing and what germination rate to expect. Each
plant description includes a small history of the variety. Tomatoes can be
called up by color, such as pink and purple, or orange and white, with about
40 listed in the "pink/purple" category alone. Each description includes a
photo, a glaring absence at other Web sites.

• HYPERLINK "http://www.vegetableseed.net/"www.vegetableseed.net; Anioleka
Seeds Co., Grants Pass, Ore. Using imported source seed, Anioleka says it
tries several strains of the same variety before settling on the best. Among
the fruits: a 19th-century exhibition-quality watermelon, a melon Thomas
Jefferson mentioned growing at Monticello in 1794 and a banana-shaped
cantaloupe popular before 1900.

• HYPERLINK "http://www.rareseeds.com/"www.rareseeds.com; Baker Creek
Heirloom Seeds, Mansfield, Mo. This supplier offers a forum in which
visitors can pose questions and comments on heirloom gardening. We peeked
into the herb-seed listings and found edible chrysanthemums; basils in
lemon, licorice and lime varieties; and Thai coriander for authentic
flavoring. If you want to see them, however, you'll have to grow them,
because illustration is rare at this site.


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