When you're starting your homestead journey, choosing where to source all of your fruit trees, berry bushes, and garden seeds, can feel overwhelming. There are so, SO many suppliers to choose from.
I've known many new homesteaders that used their local Tractor Supply as a one-stop shop for everything, then ended up discouraged when their berry bushes and trees failed to thrive, or turned out to be completely unsuitable varieties for their climate.
Usually, you're not going to find the best versions of everything you need in one place--especially not at reasonable price.
Over the years, I've tried countless different suppliers myself. Some places I strongly recommend, while others I honestly encourage friends to stay away from. Here you'll find my top recommendations for where to get seeds, plants, trees, and cuttings. I hope it helps, as you get started!
Vegetable Seeds
Fedco
When I need vegetable seeds, Fedco is almost always the first place I look. I appreciate that they're so intentional in sourcing their seed, and I've never ever had a bad experience.
Do be sure to get on their mailing list. That black and white catalog they publish is packed with information, and the trialing notes that are often included are so helpful.
I find their new website design to be an exercise in frustration, to be honest. So I like to make my decisions based on the catalog, then just do a search for the varieties I want and place my order online.
Baker Creek
Where Fedco's catalog is all black and white, Baker Creek's feels like a circa 2011 Instagram account came to life and showed up in your mailbox. SO MUCH COLOR.
What I like about Baker Creek is their focus on obscure international varieties that can be hard to source elsewhere. This is a really fun site to shop if you're looking for say, authentic Italian tomato varieties, Japanese squashes, or Greek peppers.
The price per packet can be on the high side for the volume of seeds, but it's offset by free shipping, so when I'm trying to source just a couple specific varieties, Baker Creek is always a place I check.
Pinetree Garden Seeds
Pinetree can be a good place to order if you're looking for small quantities of seed. Beware when comparing prices for "a packet" of seeds, to those of say, Fedco. (The standard bean seed packet at Fedco is 2 ounces, for example, while it's 1 ounce at Pinetree.)
They've got a really good selection of varieties for both vegetable and flower seeds, and their website has come a LONG way over the years, so it's a pleasant shopping experience. They're very transparent about their shipping timetable as well, which I appreciate.
Cut Flower Seeds
Johnny's Selected Seeds
If you're growing cut flowers for market, or a roadside stand, Johnny's really needs to be on your radar. This is where I turn for things like the ProCut series of sunflower seeds, on-trend snapdragon and zinnia seeds, and things like this.
Their growing notes are the best of just about any company out there, which I really love, and they've also got a great selection of gardening tools and growers supplies, at reasonable prices.
Renee's Garden
Nobody does Sweet Peas and other whimsical "cottage garden" flowers like Renee's. If you've been on Pinterest, gathering inspiration for an English style garden of your very own, this is a great place to look for the seeds to bring that dream to life.
Packets of seeds from Renee always make me feel like I'm ordering from a real person, and it's always been a been a joy ordering from her.
Native Perennial Seeds
Vermont Wildflower Farm
There are many companies out there offering native perennial seeds, but few of them are as conscientious as Vermont Wildflower Farm, when it comes to ensuring the accuracy and purity of their seed offerings.
For example, here in Maine, there's only one variety of native lupins (Lupinus perennis), and it's not the big, showy Russell or Bigleaf varieties that everyone thinks of.
Non-native lupins are devastatingly disruptive to the eco-system, so many folks have started conscientiously seeking out seeds for the native lupins variety. However, a native perennials group I'm part of recently saw a thread of many growers showing photos of their clearly Bigleaf or Russell variety plants that had come from packets of "native Lupinus Perennis" seeds. It was disheartening to see how many companies had not done due diligence in sourcing their seed. Consistently, those who had ordered from Vermont Wildflower Farm had the correct, true native variety.
Live Plants & Berry Bushes
Bluegrass Blueberries
This is my favorite place to order blueberry bushes in bulk. There are significant price drops as you order higher numbers of bushes, so if you're looking for 50 or more blueberry bushes, this is a great place to go.
All of the bushes I've received have been healthy, strong, well-packed, and nicely-labeled. The few that haven't made it were due to my own mis-management and over-excited chickens.
Establishing a big blueberry patch can be prohibitively expensive if you're paying retail prices for each bush, so finding a quality wholesale place like this that lets you do moderate quantities of each variety is a real gift.
Bunch Grapes
Run by the Rombough family, this is my go-to place for grapevine cuttings. Grapevines are SO easy to root, and buying them as cuttings allows me to try multiple new grape varieties without breaking the bank.
The ordering process is little clunky but worth it. Ignore the popup on their site that's usually there from the previous year, make your choices from their extensive list of varieties, then fill out the printable order form and email it to them. Follow up by sending correct payment via PayPal, and you're all set. I've ordered multiple times, and always had a wonderful experience here.
Fruit & Nut Trees
Fedco
Fedco's tree division is my favorite place to order fruit or nut trees. The quality of their bare root trees puts nearly all others to shame.
They're not the cheapest, but they're absolutely the best, and they've got a really nice selection of varieties to choose from.
Trees of Antiquity
As a rule, I never recommend places I haven't ordered from personally. However, for this place I'm making an exception. I've heard from so many friends and readers who have had good experiences here, and have seen photos of the healthy young trees they've received. It makes me feel confident in offering them as a suggestion, especially for those who may be in more southern growing zones. It can be hard to source apples that thrive in Texas, for example, and I've heard this is a great place for apple varieties that require fewer chill days.
North American Scion Exchange Facebook Group
A great way to establish a home orchard without breaking the bank, is by grafting your own trees. Instead of spending about $40 per tree, it's much cheaper to order a bundle of rootstock, and get good grafting knife (I have thoughts about grafting knives that you can read here.) Then order scionwood for the different varieties of trees you'd like.
Now, Fedco does have a good selection of both scionwood and rootstock, but there are some other great places out there too. I've got a whole article on where to source rootstock.
For scionwood, one of my favorite places to check is actually a Facebook group. I detest Facebook, if we're being honest, but this group is a real gem. Orchardists offer scionwood from their trees for very affordable prices, or sometimes simply for the cost of shipping. The apple, pear, and peach varieties represented in that group are truly mind boggling. It's also a great place to find advice if you're just getting started in your grafting journey.
This list is by no means exhaustive, and I'm bound to keep coming back and updating it as I think of wonderful places I've missed.
I keep stopping myself from writing a list of places that I recommend avoiding, but honestly I'll probably come back and add that at some point here as well. The adage of "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" only goes so far. Feel free to leave a comment and let me know if this is something you'd find helpful.
The world of online sales has put some truly amazing companies within reach, and made it possible to quickly and easily order from folks who are just the absolute best at what they do. Finding "your people" as a homesteader really is a joy, and having great stock and high quality seeds makes all the difference when you're establishing your orchard and garden.
Cheering you on from Maine,
~ Anna
Anna Chesley
Anna Chesley is a freelance writer living a homestead lifestyle, with a special love for family travel, old books, vintage skills, and seaside living. In addition to founding Salt In My Coffee, she runs the website, New England Family Life, as well as The 1800's Housewife, a website devoted to re-creating authentic 1800's recipes.
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