The Cottage Gardener Heirloom Seedhouse

General information

About The Cottage Gardener

The Cottage Gardener Heirloom Seedhouse is a family owned and operated business. Dan and Mary started it in 1996, and their daughter Rachel joined the company in 2012.

With almost 700 rare and endangered varieties of seed, The Cottage Gardener has grown to become one of the largest heirloom seed companies in Canada.

"Our property, located just west of Port Hope, Ontario is a lovely, secluded 10 acres surrounded by evergreens. This provides us with a unique micro-climate especially conducive to growing and saving seed. We have always grown organically and formalized this several years ago by becoming Certified Organic producers and processors. We feel it’s important, especially with a mail order business like a seedhouse, for customers to know that when you say you’re organic, you can verify that.

We are dedicated to searching out traditional species, varieties and cultivars that grew in gardens of old and re-introducing them to you. Browse through our site and we believe that, like us, you will fall in love with the plants that have all but disappeared from modern nurseries and gardens - flowers with delicate beauty and intoxicating fragrance, vegetables with intense flavour and colourful character and herbs grown for thousands of years for medicinal, culinary and household uses.

Best of all, heirloom plants have stories to tell - stories that relate to their uses, their discovery or the "magical" powers ascribed to them. We hope you enjoy the stories told here and that you decide to add a little "history" to your garden!

Sincerely,
Mary & Dan"