Home Gardening Industry Enjoys Another Banner Year; Burpee Reveals Top Three Veggies and Flowers for 2010

WARMINSTER, Pa., Sept. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- While most American industries are experiencing slowdowns and at best stagnant sales and profits, the home gardening industry is enjoying another record year as Americans increasingly opt to grow their own vegetables for a variety of reasons.

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Led by W. Atlee Burpee & Co, in Warminster, PA, the home gardening industry has had sales increases for the last three years, according to Burpee Chairman, George Ball.

"The boom in vegetable gardening started three years ago when people realized there were significant cost savings associated with homegrown produce," Mr. Ball says, "now we see sales being impacted by people who also want to control what they put on their table for both quality and security."

Mr. Ball, past president of The American Horticultural Society, in Washington, D.C., reports huge increases in Burpee's organic seed line, which the company plans to expand for 2011.

So far as which flowers and vegetables were the most popular, Burpee reports sunflowers and tomatoes took top honors just as they did the last three years.  Zinnias took over the number two slot among flowers, replacing marigolds which this year slipped to third. Tomatoes, Mr. Ball notes, are always the most popular vegetable, and in 2010 summer squash came in second replacing parsley which fell to third.

The company has greatly increased its trial gardens at Fordhook Farm, according to Mr. Ball, and sales forecasts for Burpee and its sister companies, Heronswood and The Cook's Garden, are once again set for a record year in 2011.

SOURCE W. Atlee Burpee & Co.