Burpee Seeds and Plants, officially W. Atlee Burpee & Co., is an American seed and plant company that was founded by Washington Atlee Burpee in Pennsylvania in 1876. History Early years (1876-1915) W. Atlee Burpee & Company was founded in 1876 by Washington Atlee Burpee in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after starting a mail-order chicken business in 1876. The company expanded to selling garden seeds, farm supplies, tools and hogs after customers began asking for seeds they had grown in their native farms. In 1888, the family farm, Fordhook Farm in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, was established as a family farm and crop field trials after Burpee began traveling to Europe to collect seeds which needed to be adapted to North American climates. The farm was likely the first experimental test field station in the United States. In 1900, distant cousin Luther Burbank visited the farm inspiring him to create his own experiments. He later created additional research stations, including in California in 1909, to test seeds. By the turn of the century, Burpee's had created one of the largest mail and freight businesses of the time. Expanding the company (1915-1970) The direction of the company began to change with the death of its founder in 1915, when his son, David Burpee, inherited the company. David was interested in victory gardens and was an early promoter of the concept during World War I. He also prioritized in flowers and initiated several flower hybridization breeding programs. Geneticists also began to modify the genes of seeds using x-rays and colchicine. Under his leadership, the advertising and catalog also improved. The advertisements began to include full-color advertising to include Burpee's strengths of reliability of seeds using the motto "Burpee's Seeds Grow" and leader in the industry while the catalog was compact, arranged by category, and easy to find the order form. Any information not included in the catalog was sent to the customer requesting it in a handwritten letter. The catalog's sales averaged $4 per order (equivalent to $ today). Various artists illustrated the catalog including Paul de Longpre and Alois Lunzer. After Burbank's death in 1926, Burpee acquired the rights to his experiments but no notable vegetables or flowers were to come from Burbank's work. In 1949, Burpee introduced its 'Big Boy' tomato hybrid which quickly became its best seller. New ownership (1970-current) In 1970, David Burpee sold the company to General Foods for $10 million.