Annapolis Seeds, based in the Annapolis Valley, NS are…
…growers and stewards of heirloom and open pollinated seed. Our goal is to cultivate the greatest possible diversity of seeds for our region. Our collection acts as a living seed bank for the Maritimes and Eastern Canada. All our seeds are open-pollinated, untreated, regionally adapted and grown with love. Although organic in both spirit and practice, we’re not currently certified as such.
They have just announced that their 18th annual catalogue, and their “biggest yet with 850+ varieties” is now available, and it’s online.
A few excerpts from their Jan message to gardening friends:
“For much of Nova Scotia the 2025 growing season was a challenging one. The Annapolis Valley saw the driest summer on record, with almost no rain from June to October. Here at the farm, we have four garden spaces where we grow our seeds, and only our main one is set up for irrigation. Thankfully our water supply held up, and those plants we could irrigate did really well. In fact the dry conditions were perfect for seeds to ripen. But our other three gardens had to fend for themselves, with mixed results. You’ll notice some old favourite varieties missing from the collection this year, we’ll try to have them back next season.”
“Peas were one of the year’s biggest successes. A little counter intuitive, given how peas love moisture. It was their timing that worked out perfectly;…Squash were another success. We observed this summer where on the land soil moisture persists for the longest, and one of those spots is the field we planted most of our squash.”
“I’m especially excited for our new perennials. Each year we start more perennial gardens here at the farm. Quite a few of our plantings reached maturity in 2025, which means we now have seeds to share. Rudbeckia triloba and Great Coneflower both formed tall walls of yellow blooms. Halberd-leaf Rose Mallow really stood out too. It’s a cold hardy hibiscus that looks too tropical for our climate but is in fact native to eastern North America. All three of these attracted an abundance of pollinators, including a variety of native bee species…The ones I mentioned above are native to North America, although not to Nova Scotia specifically. I found it really neat that our local native pollinators and birds know just what to do with them!”