The Shakers Pioneered the Sale of Garden Seeds

Last week I visited  Shaker Village in Canterbury, New Hampshire.

My intention was to explore the Shaker connection with the seed industry in the early nineteenth century.

Though I knew that the Shakers had invented the popular seed packet as a handy method to sell their seeds, on my visit to Canterbuy I learned about another marketing strategy from the Shakers.

In the museum I saw a nineteenth century wooden box which was about 2 1/2 feet tall by 18 inches wide that had small seed-packet sized compartments, each listing an available flower, herb, or vegetable seed for that season. The customer would write down the type of seed and number of seed packers needed and leave that order in that seed’s compartment on the wooden rack.

Later after he had picked up the orders, the Shaker seedsman would return to the store and leave the required number of seed packets for each customer.

I thought the box was another clever idea that the Shakers came up with for their seed business.

Later in the century large commercial businesses like Landreth and Comstock would also leave seed packets in a similar rack in the hardware store or grocery store as a marketing strategy.

Perhaps such companies borrowed that marketing strategy from the Shakers who had earlier developed both the wooden rack as well as the popular seed packet.

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