Swansons Nursery Seeds & Supplies :: Seattle's Favorite Garden Center since 1924

A wise person once said, “Happiness held is the seed; Happiness shared is the flower.” At Swanson’s Nursery, you’ll find all the seeds you need to grow an exceptional flower or vegetable garden.

We carry a smaller selection of seeds during the fall season for fall and winter crops. Our main seed selection arrives by early January. Winter is a great time to start planning for your spring vegetable and flower gardens. Swanson’s offers a wonderful selection of seeds from Territorial Seed, Burpee, Renee’s Garden, Botanical Interests and Seeds of Change. We have everything you need to get started, from seed starting supplies to seedling mix. Hands holding seed grown starter.

We carry flower, vegetable and herb seeds from Territorial Seed Company, Renee’s Garden, Botanical Interests, Seeds of Change, and Burpee Seeds.

These companies provide the highest quality of seed with varieties perfect for home gardeners. You’ll find great flavor, easy culture and exceptional garden performance with each packet. Swanson’s carries no GMO (genetically modified) seed in an effort to promote healthy, natural gardens.

We proudly offer seeds from these fine sources:

• Territorial Seed Company is local to the pacific northwest, based out of Cottage Grove, OR. Their .25 Spring/Fall catalogs are filled with invaluable growing information, plant descriptions and tips of how to sow, grow and harvest as well as insects to look out for.

• Renee’s Garden is perfect for gardeners who like to try multiple varieties of vegetables or flowers from just one packet of seeds, like California Spicy Greens, tasty Beet Trio and an Asian or Italian Eggplant Trio. Great selection of unusual annual vines too! Renee Shepard is an avid chef and gardener and has perfected many recipes for home grown produce in her collection of cook books.

• Botanical Interests is a family owned company out of Colorado and has a strong company ethic: To inspire and educate gardeners; to provide high quality seed to their customers; and to create an enjoyable work place for employees. Their seed packets contain high quality, untreated seeds with helpful information for your success on every packet!

• Seeds of Change are all certified organic, with lots of rare and heirloom varieties. Based out of Gila, New Mexico, Seeds of Changes’ mission is to preserve biodiversity and promote sustainable agriculture through researching, cultivating and producing over 600 varieties of seed. Another plus is that each seed packet is re-sealable.

• Burpee seeds have the longest history of any of these companies, starting back in 1876 by plant pioneer W. Atlee Burpee. It was this man who brought the first hybridized seed to market; Burpee essentially created seeds that had the best characteristics for growers: better tasting, disease resistance, and fruit production. The same perfect stringless green beans that your grandparents grew are as tried and true now as they were then.

Fall is Garlic Planting Time!

September & October is the best time to plant garlic and shallots, to ensure a bountiful harvest next summer. Swansons offers two basic types of garlic: hardneck and softneck. Softneck garlic is the easiest to grow (the one you see in supermarkets). This type produces an abundance of cloves and is a good keeper. Choose from 'Inchelium Red', 'Nootka Rose', 'Silver Rose', a silverskin garlic, which is rose-colored and easy to braid; 'Early Italian Purple', which produces a large bulb with white skin and purple stripes, and 'Italian Late', a popular and easy-to-braid variety that produces fat round cloves.
Hardneck varieties when growing, create a distinctive coil at the top of the stalk. They develop fewer but larger cloves than softneck varieties, and the flavor will be much stronger. However, hardneck garlic usually does not have the protective outer "skin" like softneck types, which can make for a shorter shelf life. We offer 'Spanish Roja', a purple-streaked heirloom with a nice hot flavor; and 'German Red,' which is light purple with brownish cloves that are large and easy to peel and a very robust flavor.
Garlic is best grown with full sun, in well-draining soil that is rich in organic matter. Plant each clove separately, pointed end up, about 1 – 2 inches deep and 2 – 3 inches apart. Fertilize in the spring with an organic vegetable food, and keep well tended – garlic grows poorly with weed competition. Removing the flower when it appears will help put more energy back into clove production. Harvest when the leafy tops start to die back (usually in July). Hang to dry, remove the tops or braid them together, and store them in a cool dry place until ready to use.

Seeds & Seed Starting Supplies

We proudly offer seeds from these fine sources: