America\'s oldest seed company goes out of business

Text from Barbara Melera and the Facebook page of the historical D. Landreth Seed Company
( https://www.facebook.com/LandrethSeedCo/posts?ref=page_internal ):


June 26, 2016

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Dear Friends of Landreth

This is my final Facebook post as the owner of Landreth.

As many of you know, several years ago I and Landreth were sued by a creditor, Stephen L. Brucker, a retired businessman who had been an entrepreneur that my former firm had invested in. I was never able to successfully conclude the suit.

In early March, Brucker seized the assets of Landreth, forbid me and the company from selling Landreth seeds and any Landreth assets and forbid Landreth from attending any of the spring shows the company often attended.

In May, the assets of the company were auctioned off. This past Friday, the assets that were not purchased in the auction were loaded into a storage container and, presumably, hauled off to a storage site.

At Brucker’s direction, the seed packed for 2016 was trashed along with other items deemed not to have value.

I apologize to all of you who have supported my efforts over the past 13 years to save this historic American company. I let you down.

I want all of you to know that guiding Landreth over these 13 years has been the greatest experience of my professional life.

Meeting so many of America’s gardeners, sharing your experiences, learning from you, laughing with you, crying with you – has enriched my life like no other circumstances in my past.

Landreth was and is America’s Company. No other corporation in the history of this country has touched more American lives for so many years. It is a company that was founded near the birth of our nation and has grown with this nation through its ups and its downs for over 2 centuries.

It was founded by men and women of principle who brought to this country in 1784 more than 400 years of horticultural experience. What a gift for our newly formed nation!

These men and women then took their knowledge and shared it with the families coming to America to build a new life. Landreth taught generations of Americans how to use preservation and conservation, innovation and exploration to live off the land and to live with the land.

Few families and few companies have done as much for this nation.

It was my great honor to have been a part of Landreth.
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Quite a shame. From what i am reading, one of the owners named Barbara built a massive amount of debt up for the company and never did pay back any of it, and one attempt at cashing one of their checks didnt clear through the bank. That certainly is one way to drive yourself out of business quickly. Although trashing the seeds themselves was quite unnecessary since they were a packed for 2016 lot, and most seed have a storage life of several years.

I do see where one of the staff / owners does say that he intends to try to give it a whole new fresh start, so perhaps all hope is not lost after all.