To celebrate the country’s 250th birthday, the 150-year-old seed giant Burpee has been selling seed collections inspired by the gardens of Thomas Jefferson and Martha Washington, giving modern Americans the chance to grow hot peppers, cucumbers and watermelons based on seed varieties that date back to the American Revolution.

These seeds are thanks to George Ball, the 74-year-old chairman and owner of Burpee since 1991, who says “one of the most patriotic things you can do is plant a garden.”

Burpee, which was founded 100 years after the country, in 1876, is still a mail-order business with some 35% of its estimated more than $110 million in annual revenue coming from mail and online sales. Burpee still receives thousands of orders via post with physical order forms and checks every year through its annual catalog, which is “the lodestar of the company and an annual event for gardeners.” Its vegetable, herb and flower seeds are also sold at more than 24,000 locations in the U.S. and Canada including Walmart, Home Depot and Tractor Supply.

“We provide for people who want to have the catalog,” Ball tells Forbes. “We go to Mrs. McGillicuddy everywhere, all around the country, and we also go to the big and small chains and all the garden centers.”

For more than a century, Burpee has pioneered innovative seeds that have changed the way people around the world eat: In 1894, for instance, Burpee introduced iceberg lettuce to the American public so salad could be served all year long. Along the way, it also took the strings out of string beans and sweetened yellow corn so much that gardeners stopped growing white corn. New additions to Burpee’s 2026 mailed catalog include a personal-sized watermelon and easy-growing snacking peppers.

“We have to show the product in the catalog extremely dramatically. These days the drama is a big thing and we can do that because we have good photographers and we have a voice,” says Ball. “That's how you get through the mail........

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