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In 1780, David Landreth
and his family left England for Montreal, Canada where he intended
to establish a seed business. Four years later, the harsh Canadian
climate forced him to relocate to Philadelphia. On January 7, 1784,
David Landreth started his first garden center on High Street, which
is now 1210 Market Street. He chose Pennsylvania because people appeared
to have more free time there, and Philadelphia was the center of wealth
and sophistication in the United States.
Initially, he sold seeds to the City of Philadelphia and several nearby
estates, but his business and his reputation grew steadily and soon
he numbered George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Joseph Bonaparte
(Napoleon’s brother) among his customers. In 1798, he introduced
the Zinnia into the United States from Mexico. In 1811, he introduced
the first truly white potato. Prior to this introduction, potatoes
had been yellow. In 1820, he introduced the tomato, known then as
The Love Apple, and later perfected the first variety of yellow tomato.
In 1826, the Company introduced a new kind of spinach. The spinach
eventually became known as Bloomsdale Spinach, one of the most popular
vegetables ever grown and a favorite of gardeners even today. His
son, David Landreth II, joined the firm in Philadelphia in the early
1820s. Together with his father,David Landreth II founded the Pennsylvania
Horticultural Society in 1828. The PHS is the father of all horticultural
societies in the United States and sponsor of the Philadelphia Flower
Show, the oldest flower show in the country; an event that has continued
in existence for nearly 175 years.
David Landreth II had a consuming interest in international horticulture
and imported many rare conifers and deciduous trees, including the
giant rhododendron, kalmias and azaleas. During his long life, he
introduced many new plants and shrubs, from all over the world and
devoted much of his time to promoting the art and science of plant
breeding. One of his greatest international adventures occurred in
1852 when, under his direction, Landreth’s prepared thousands
of pounds of American vegetable seeds and put them in glass for Commodore
Perry’s historic expedition to Japan.
When Commodore Perry returned to the United States, he brought to
the Landreth Nurseries the first Japanese shrubs and plants ever to
be imported into this country. In 1881, Burnet Landreth, the son of
David Landreth II, supplied General Greeley of the Lady Franklin Bay
Expedition to the North Pole with a variety of seeds. The expedition
was ill-fated, but in 1899 when Commodore Perry’s expedition
rescued some of the Lady Franklin’s seeds, a mere 490 miles
from the North Pole, they found that 50 percent of the radishes germinated
after being in the Polar region for 16 years.
The Landreth family treasured America’s and the world’s
agricultural and horticultural heritage. For more than 200 years,
the Landreth Catalogues, Rural Registers and Almanacs introduced and
chronicled the development of seeds, many of which are now heirlooms.
Bloomsdale, the Landreth family home, had the best collection of trees
in the United States – only Judge Field of Princeton and the
Sargent family of Boston were in the same class. At one time, there
were over 1200 species of deciduous and evergreen trees, some of which
are still living.
Today, the D. Landreth Seed Company is the fifth oldest corporation
in America. Among its many historic claims is the fact that the company
sold seed to every American president from George Washington to Franklin
D. Roosevelt. The Landreth story is the story of an American family
business which was born near the time of America’s birth and
grew with America over three centuries. It is a story of strong minded
men and women of principle, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters
who pursued a path of innovation and exploration with the pioneering
spirit that will always be the essence of what makes this country
great.
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