Arvada, Colorado, USA
July 22, 2015

This year, Applewood Seed Company is celebrating 50 years in the seed industry.  The company was started by Gene Milstein in his parent's basement in 1965 in suburban Denver, Colorado, offering traditional flower and vegetable seed packets.  In 1967 Gene purchased 5 pounds of wild blue columbine seed which he offered in packets to the gift and garden markets. The columbine packets were so popular that Gene and some friends began collecting Indian paintbrush, penstemon and other wildflower seeds in the Colorado mountains which were sold in packets that were hand drawn by his mother. Gene's wife, Dee, joined the company in 1969, and together they developed new product lines which were exhibited at wholesale gift, garden and nursery shows throughout the country. During the 70’s and 80’s, new product lines included seeds for culinary herbs, herbal teas, edible flowers, indoor plants and sprouting as well as planter kits and other garden accessory products. 

In the mid-80's Applewood began its bulk seed division, selling wildflower seed to the highway and re-vegetation market during the era when Lady Bird Johnson was promoting the use of wildflower seed on highway rights-of-way. Applewood also sold bulk seed to city, state and federal governments, highway departments, parks, golf courses, commercial landscapers and other seed companies. Many new individual species, regional and special use mixtures were tested in Applewood's trial gardens as well as at universities and botanic gardens around the country. Applewood now offers over 400 species and 35 stock mixes.In 1997 the retail product division was sold when Dee wished to retire after 26 years of developing retail products, producing catalogs and writing a book on gardening. 

Applewood now sells wildflower, garden flower, native grass and herb seeds nationally and internationally to many different wholesale markets.  We specialize in small to large-scale production of open-pollinated flower seeds and work with over 100 seed growers in many different climates and geographical areas.  Careful seed production and post-harvest cleaning techniques are maintained for all of the species and varieties that we produce.   As a result, we can provide high quality seed for many specialty purposes and applications such special use and regional mixtures, conservation plantings, sustainable landscaping and development, pollinator conservation, custom mixtures, biomass feedstocks, green roofs, and vineyard plantings. 

Our facility consists of 18,000 square feet of office and warehouse space, a seed testing laboratory, and a test garden on 2 acres of land.   All seed arriving at our facility is sampled and tested by a Registered Seed Technologist, who performs seed identification, purity analyses, noxious weed exams, germination testing and seedling evaluation.  If seed meets our lab standards, we place it in our comprehensive field testing program to insure that it is true-to-type and performs well. 

Applewood also tests for adaptability, planting rates, site preparation, weed control, and long term maintenance.  We test many seed mixtures for aesthetic qualities and to insure that the proportion of each single species is appropriate for that assortment of species and varieties.  In addition, we perform seed production trials for new flowers to determine seed yield, production methods, and cleaning requirements prior to sending seed to our growers.  Results of our research can be found in the “Planting and Cultural Information” page on our website at www.applewoodseed.com/planting.html.

Applewood’s professional sales staff is available to provide telephone consultation on seed selection, planting times, soil preparation and seeding techniques.  If you have special questions about any aspects of planting our seeds, please call us at (303) 431-7333.

To honor Applewood’s 50th Anniversary the city of Arvada produced a video on the company:

Website: http://www.applewoodseed.com

Published: July 22, 2015