Buying Vegetable Seeds Online

I get a lot of messages from people wondering where to buy vegetable seed. So I hope this list helps you find a seed company with the veggie seeds you’re looking for.

This list focuses on seed companies that have a good selection of vegetable seeds. Some have print catalogues—some sell seed online.

This list is a work in progress. If there’s a seed company or seed catalogue you recommend, please e-mail me so I can find out more about it.

Before you browse vegetable seed suppliers, get started with Tips When Shopping for Vegetable Seeds, below.

Canada Vegetable Seed

USA Vegetable Seed

Tips When Shopping for Vegetable Seed

Here are tips to keep in mind as you get ready to order vegetable seed.

You Don’t Always Have to Shop!

To start with, you don’t always have to buy seed.

Emma and I at a GVGO field day, finding out how experts in this club grow giant vegetables. Members get free seed.

Many gardeners save seed—and are often eager to share favourite varieties. (My three favourite tomato varieties came from friends who shared the seed with me, and now I save the seed and share it with my gardening friends every year.)
Seeds of Diversity is a Canadian organization focused on protecting seed diversity. It has an annual member seed exchange. You can also visit the website to find Seedy Saturday events across Canada. These events feature seed swaps and often include a retail component with seed vendors.
Seed Savers Exchange is an American organization focused on preserving biodiversity in food crops. It collects heirloom seed varieties to store in a large, nongovernmental seed bank, and operates an online seed exchange where members can search and swap seeds.
Seed Libraries operate in many areas. Sometimes they are hosted by municipalities—sometimes by other organizations. I’ve seen some hosted by libraries—libraries with books! The idea is that gardeners can “borrow” seeds, and at the end of the year, having saved seeds, “return” seeds to the library.
A garden club can be another way to get seed. For example, Giant Vegetable Growers of Ontario (GVGO) is a garden club focused on growing giant pumpkins and giant vegetables. Members get seed when they join.

Interested in the idea of seed libraries? Tune in to hear Ben Cohen, the author of Saving Our Seeds, talk about seed libraries on the Food Garden Life Show.

Grow a Container Vegetable Garden

And get an early harvest of crops that usually take too long!

More on Container Veg

About Seed Companies

Not all seed companies grow seed; some buy seed in bulk and repackage it. Some small companies grow everything they sell. Still others grow some of what they sell, and then get other producers to grow what they don’t produce.

Some seed companies have trial gardens to test and showcase varieties before selling them…a worthwhile trip if you have one nearby.

As you read seed catalogues and browse seed websites, you’ll see that different seed companies have different specialties:

A regional focus—only selling seed grown in a certain region
Untreated or organic seed
Heirloom or open-pollinated varieties
New hybrid varieties

Ordering Vegetable Seed

There’s often lots of seed-related lingo in seed catalogues. Here’s a glossary of seed terminology.

New seed catalogues start to show up in my mailbox (and e-mail inbox!) late in the year. Shipping usually begins in early in the year. The closer to planting season you leave your ordering, the more chance your order will get bogged down in the last-minute rush of orders.

Because I like to test crops and varieties, I often order from a lot of companies. But this is not a cost-effective way to seed shop, because there’s usually a minimum shipping fee for each seed company. So if you can find everything you want at one seed company, you might save money.

One more thing: Find out how the company you’re ordering from deals with out-of-stock items. Some companies will ship what they have and then keep a back-order for what’s not available; but some companies will substitute a similar variety.

Cross-Border Shipments

Some seed companies don’t ship out of country because of the extra paperwork to sell in another jurisdiction.

(The last time I tried to order my favourite sweet pea seeds from the UK, the seed company no longer shipped to Canada! But sometimes companies will have another company distribute seeds elsewhere…and this was how I got my hands on my favourite sweet pea variety—the one my late cousin Jill grew.)

When You Receive Your Seed Order

Unpack your order and check to make sure that you have everything.

See if there are any back orders.

Seed Company List

Canada Seed Companies

USA Seed Companies

Canada Vegetable Seed

Annapolis Seeds

Nictaux, Nova Scotia

Owner Owen Bridge started the business in 2008 as a high-school-aged seed saver. Great place to find unusual veg like Bolivian cucumber and Jamaican burr gherkin. Seeds are grown in the Maritimes by Owen and other small-scale growers.

Halifax Seed

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Canada's oldest continuously operating family-owned seed company, established in 1866.

Hawthorn Farm Organic Seeds

Mount Forest, Ontario

Organic vegetable, herb, and flower seeds.

Heritage Harvest Seed

Fisher Branch, Manitoba

Heirloom flower and vegetable seeds, and ancient grains.

Kitchen Table Seed House

Wolfe Island, Ontario

Organic vegetable, flower, and herb seeds.

Matchbox Garden and Seed Co.

Caledonia, Ontario

We see Hanna Jacobs, founder of Matchbox Garden and Seed Co., at Seedy Saturday events here in Southern Ontario and are fans of her heirloom and rare vegetable seed varieties.

OSC Seeds

Kitchener, Ontario

Ships garden seed from coast to coast across Canada.

Richters Herbs

Goodwood, Ontario

More than herbs, a great selection of unusual vegetable seed too. My daughter and I have given a number of gardening seminars at Richters over the years—and we’re big fans of this family business. (Don’t ask me about the time we came home with 18 varieties of mint!)

Prairie Garden Seeds

North Battledford, Saskatchewan

Small family-run (father-daughter) seed company. Veg, grains, and cereals.

Sage Garden Greenhouses

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Great selection of vegetable seed. Co-owner Dave Hanson is a CBS Radio gardening columnist—and we teach gardening courses together. This company leads the way in how horticulture of the future can look, with compost-based fertilizing, wood-fibre biodegradable pots, and geothermal heating in the greenhouses.

Stokes Seeds

Thorold, Ontario

Sells vegetable seed to commercial growers and home gardeners. It’s a family-run business, and I’ve visited the trial gardens and the seed-sorting facility as a member of a Garden Writers Association.

Sweet Rock Farm

Gabriola, British Columbia

Small, farm-based seed company recommended to me by some of my students.

T&T Seeds

Headingley, Manitoba

Seeds, accessories, and fruit plants by mail order. Also a garden centre if you’re in the area.

The Incredible Seed Co.

Bridgewater, Nova Scotia

Good mix of vegetable seed and other edibles.

Urban Harvest

Warkworth, Ontario

Great source for organic and heirloom veg seeds. We’ve hung out with founder Colette Murphy at many seed events. I credit her with helping to stoke my daughter’s seed addiction!

Veseys Seeds

Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

Usually the first glossy seed catalogue to arrive in my mailbox in December.

West Coast Seeds

Delta, British Columbia

Wide variety of untreated seeds.

William Dam Seeds

Dundas, Ontario

Long one of our favourite seed companies, with a broad selection of vegetable seeds. It’s in our neck of the woods, so we like to see what’s growing in the trial garden.