August 26, 2004

Stokes Seeds Ltd., Canada’s largest vegetable and flower seed distributor, recently welcomed All-America Selections to their facilities. Members of the prominent American-based organization toured Stokes farming facility located on Lakeshore Road in St. Catharines.

All-America Selections also held their national general meetings in the Niagara region. Members spent time at the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens and School of Horticulture.

The Stokes Seed trialing facility is a 35-acre farm that grows over 5,000 different varieties of flowers and vegetables as part of Stokes Seeds’ commitment to research on selecting varieties best suited for North America.

All-America Selections promotes new garden seed varieties with superior garden performance judged in impartial trials in North America. All-America Selections tests new, unsold cultivars and provides information on the winners. It continues to be the oldest, most established international testing organization in North America.

Above:
seed industry executives and representatives tour the trial
 

Left:
Wayne Gale, Stokes Seeds President, Nona Jeanne Svob (in blue) of Syngenta Flowers, President of AAS, and Nona Wolfram-Koivula (in pink),  Executive Director of AAS and a Past President of Garden Writers Association.
 

Stokes Seeds is Canada's largest distributor of vegetable and flower seeds and the third largest in North America. Stokes has become an international powerhouse in the seeds industry. According to Wayne Gale, they have focused on top-quality vegetable and flower seeds since 1881. Their seeds are specific to the climate and short growing season of northeastern North America, and their seeds equally accessible to both commercial growers and home gardeners. Roughly 200,000 of Stokes' customers are home gardeners, and approximately 35,000 are commercial growers. The company also has an office in Vineland, NJ, and a warehouse in Buffalo, NY. Since 1881, the Stokes Seeds catalogue has been the company's key sales tool. Today, more than 3,000 varieties of vegetable and flower seeds are featured in the 100-page colour catalogue, and each year, 10 per cent comprise new varieties. More than a half million-catalogue copies are produced in English, along with 20,000 French catalogues.