About Harris Seeds
The Harris Seeds company began its catalog operation in 1879. It evolved from the efforts of Joseph Harris, an English immigrant who became extremely successful in the selection of superior strains of vegetables and grains.
Joseph Harris settled in the Genesee Valley Region of Western New York in the 1850’s. His success as a seedsman led to the beginning of Harris Seeds in 1879. The company became widely popular because of his basic business philosophy – "offer my customers a quality product at a fair price and they will return."
Harris Seeds was managed by a succession of Harris family members for 100 years. Joe Harris, the last of the company managers, was chiefly responsible for an introduction of a wide selection of exceptional quality vegetable hybrids.
Many of these hybrids remain as leading cultivars in the professional and home garden marketplace. Excellence in plant breeding was a key factor for the company’s success during this century.
With no Harris family members to continue with the business, Joe Harris sold the company to a large corporation in 1979. It finally found its way back into private ownership in 1987 and continues today under the guidance of long time Harris employees.
Remaining in Rochester, New York since 1879, Harris Seeds markets vegetable and flower seeds as well as plants and growing supplies to gardeners and professional growers throughout the USA. Harris Seeds conducts extensive vegetable and flower variety trials in Rochester as well as many other areas of the Northeast. A germination lab inside its Rochester facility ensures that the seeds it sells are of the highest quality
Harris Seeds has been a staunch supporter of the organic seed movement in this country by introducing many market-leading varieties as organically grown seed. In addition, we offer many quality vegetable varieties as untreated seed. .
HARRIS SEEDS POLICY ON SEED DIVERSITY
We believe that it is essential to offer our customers a highly diversified and extensive product line for their unique growing and marketing conditions. This goal has molded our relationship with our customers since 1879. Because our customers have often very different requirements, we know that bringing you the best in variety development provides you the maximum opportunity for profitable crops, year after year. Our product line at Harris Seeds offers you treated and untreated seed varieties. In addition, we are rapidly developing our line of organically grown seeds. Regarding genetically modified seed products (GMOs), we remain alert and open-minded as to ongoing research on this subject. The seeds in our current catalogs and website are produced entirely by traditional cross-breeding methods. We will always strive to offer you the highest quality seed and customer service. |
