美国 Botanical Interests – 高品质种子与植物艺术包装品牌

创立背景与 Judy Seaborn、Curtis Jones 双人创业

Botanical Interests 是一家位于美国科罗拉多州 Broomfield 市的家族背景种子公司，由 Judy Seaborn 与 Curtis Jones 两位园艺爱好者于 1995 年在两人自家的车库中共同创立，至今仍由创始家族与 EPIC Gardening 联合持有品牌运营。公司创立之初仅推出 98 个种子品种和 1 名全职员工，但 Judy 与 Curtis 凭借对独立花园中心零售业态的深入了解，决定从种子包装的视觉设计入手，为家庭园艺爱好者提供兼具艺术性与实用性的产品。两位创始人最初的核心想法是把种子包装从单纯的塑料袋升级为彩色印刷的植物艺术插画包装，每包种子附带的种植说明、生长习性、采收建议与可剪下的植物标签都印在包装内侧，使种子包装本身成为一份微型园艺手册。这一产品定位奠定了 Botanical Interests 后来以植物艺术插画闻名的品牌基础，并使其在创立后短短几年内就赢得了美国独立花园中心渠道的稳定合作；公司的产品哲学沿用至今，包装、运营与渠道策略均以家庭园艺爱好者的实际使用体验为核心，至今公司总部仍位于 Broomfield 市 525 Burbank St., Unit 1。

EPIC Gardening 收购与 2023 后的内容电商体系

2023 年 1 月，Epic Gardening 创始人 Kevin Espiritu 宣布收购 Botanical Interests，ClearCreek Partners 担任独家财务顾问。Epic Gardening 是美国最具影响力的园艺内容创作者品牌，旗下 YouTube、Instagram、Facebook、TikTok 等社交渠道累计超过 1,030 万粉丝，播客下载量超过 1,100 万次，博客访问量突破 1.2 亿次；收购完成后 Botanical Interests 的品牌、科罗拉多州 Broomfield 总部与原有团队全部保留，并入 Epic Gardening 的内容电商体系。Kevin Espiritu 本人继续担任 Epic 的创始人兼 CEO，常驻加州 San Diego 的 Epic Homestead，他在收购声明中表示本次收购将 Epic 的内容影响力与 Botanical Interests 的实体种子供应链结合，形成从内容触达到种子零售的完整闭环。收购完成后 Botanical Interests 的在线业务在第一年实现了 65% 的同比增长，并陆续与 Petco 等大型零售渠道达成种子联营合作，将销售网络扩展至 750 至 1,000 家门店。

650 余款种子与植物艺术插画的产品线

Botanical Interests 目前在售品种超过 650 款，全部通过 Non-GMO Project 认证，覆盖蔬菜、香草、花卉、覆盖作物与微型种子等多个产品线，其中有机种子、传家宝种子与未处理种子构成公司产品的三个核心品质标签。在产品形态上，公司除了常规的种子包装外，还推出了 Seed Shakers 系列易撒播种子罐（覆盖蜜源植物、覆盖作物、宠物友好型草坪与替代草坪等多个子品类）以及 Live Plants 活体植物、Beds & Planters 园艺床与种植容器等延伸品类。公司最具辨识度的产品特征是种子包装正面全部由专业植物艺术家手绘完成，包装内页则附有种植深度、株距、生长周期、病虫害防治建议与采收食谱等百科式信息；2025 年 1 月至 5 月，Denver Botanic Gardens 在 Freyer–Newman Center 举办名为 Seeds of Inspiration 的植物艺术展览，集中展出了 Botanical Interests 收藏的 21 件当代植物艺术作品与 500 余幅种子包装插画藏品，使公司的植物艺术资产成为美国园艺文化的重要组成部分。

质量保证、安全种子承诺与种子实验室体系

Botanical Interests 是美国 Safe Seed Pledge 安全种子承诺的早期签署方，明确承诺不有意采购、销售或交易任何转基因工程种子或植株；所有种子均通过 Non-GMO Project 验证，并经过严格的非转基因污染筛查，以避免因风媒或虫媒异花授粉导致的转基因混入。公司在 Broomfield 总部设有独立的种子实验室，使用来自德国的精密种子计数与微剂量设备对每一批入库种子进行活力测试、发芽率检测与含水率控制；针对部分发芽寿命较短的种子品种，实验室还配备专门的低温冷藏保险库进行长期储存，避免高价值种子在常温仓储条件下出现活力衰减。包装环节同样延续公司创立时定下的高标准——每一份种子包装内不含任何填充物，包装袋的密封性、避光性与防潮性均经过专门设计，使家庭园艺爱好者在购买后可以保持种子的高发芽率；此外每一袋种子包装均印有唯一的批次识别码，可在公司客服系统中查询对应批次的检测数据，整个质量体系同时通过 USDA NOP 有机认证与州农业部门的种子标签合规审计，确保产品既符合 Non-GMO 与有机双重标准，也满足美国各州对零售种子标签的强制性披露要求；质量体系覆盖种子入库、检测、储存、包装与出库的全链路。

零售网络、园艺教育博客与社区互动

Botanical Interests 的种子现已通过 4,500 余家线下零售门店触达全美园艺消费者，渠道覆盖独立花园中心、有机食品超市（Whole Foods、Sprouts、Natural Grocer）、硬件连锁（ACE、True Value）与 Petco 等宠物零售门店内设置的 Feed and Seed 园艺角，是美国独立花园中心渠道中长期占有率最高的种子品牌之一。公司官网同步运营 Shopify 电商与 /blogs/learn 园艺教育博客，博客内容覆盖从入门播种、季节性花境、菜园规划到容器园艺、种子储存、宠物友好型植物等数十个主题文章，由 Lorin Nielsen（首席园艺师，加州认证园艺师与自然主义者）、Danielle Sherwood（执行编辑，太平洋西北部高海拔沙漠地区的玫瑰专家）与 Madison Moulton（内容策略编辑）等专职内容团队撰写，并通过电子邮件订阅、社交媒体与 Discord 社区触达全球家庭园艺爱好者。位于科罗拉多州 Broomfield 市的 525 Burbank St., Unit 1 总部承担批发、零售与内容运营三重职能，使 Botanical Interests 成为兼具实体种子供应链、内容生态与社区运营的现代园艺品牌。

官网：https://www.botanicalinterests.com/

Founding Story and Judy Seaborn & Curtis Jones Garage Launch

Botanical Interests is a family-rooted seed company headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, founded in 1995 in the garage of co-owners Judy Seaborn and Curtis Jones, two experienced gardeners who had firsthand knowledge of how independent garden centers operate, and who wanted to translate that retail-floor experience into a more useful, more beautiful seed product for the home gardener. The company’s first season offered only 98 seed varieties and one full-time employee, but Seaborn and Jones chose to differentiate themselves through seed-packet design rather than variety count alone, transforming the standard plastic sachet into a richly illustrated botanical-art packet that doubled as a mini-encyclopedia of growing information. Each packet carries the plant’s scientific name, sowing depth, spacing, days to germination, light requirements, harvest tips, and a detachable plant tag printed on the inside of the packet, so the gardener receives not only seeds but also a self-contained planting manual, and the company’s later product expansion into organic and heirloom categories was always framed around that same packet-as-textbook philosophy. Within a few years the company secured stable placement in independent garden centers across the United States, where its bright, artist-rendered packets stood out on retail racks and built the brand’s reputation for horticultural accuracy.

Acquisition by EPIC Gardening and the Post-2023 Content-to-Commerce Pivot

In January 2023, Kevin Espiritu, founder and CEO of Epic Gardening, announced the acquisition of Botanical Interests, with ClearCreek Partners serving as the exclusive financial advisor to the seller. Epic Gardening is the most-followed gardening creator brand in the United States, accumulating more than 10.3 million social media followers across YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, more than 11 million podcast downloads, and more than 120 million blog visits; the transaction retained the Botanical Interests brand, its Broomfield, Colorado headquarters, and all existing employees, folding them into Epic Gardening’s content-to-commerce operating system. Kevin Espiritu, who still lives at his Epic Homestead in San Diego, California, and continues to publish his Field Guide to Urban Gardening and Grow Bag Gardening books, said in the merger statement that Botanical Interests’ Marketmore cucumber was the first packet of seeds he ever planted, more than a decade earlier. Following the acquisition, the online side of Botanical Interests grew by 65% in the first year, and the company subsequently entered a multi-year partnership with Petco, placing Botanical Interests seed displays in roughly 200 Petco Feed and Seed rural stores in the first expansion phase, with a planned rollout to 750 to 1,000 stores in the following year.

650+ Varieties and the Botanical Art Illustration Catalog

Botanical Interests currently offers more than 650 varieties of certified organic, heirloom, untreated, and responsibly produced hybrid vegetable, herb, and flower seeds, every one of them verified through the Non-GMO Project, and the company’s product catalog is divided across Vegetables, Flowers, Herbs, Seed Shakers, Live Plants, and Beds & Planters collections, with dedicated organic and heirloom sub-categories inside each line. The Seed Shakers line covers pollinator mixes, cover crops, pet-friendly lawn alternatives, and ready-to-sow flower blends in shaker-style containers designed for homeowners without traditional seed-starting equipment. The company’s most recognizable product feature is the artist-illustrated front panel of every seed packet, drawn by professional botanical artists many of whom are graduates or instructors of the Denver Botanic Garden School of Botanical Art & Illustration, and each packet’s inside pages carry planting depth, spacing, days to maturity, integrated pest management guidance, harvest tips, and recipe suggestions. In January-May 2025, the Denver Botanic Gardens hosted the Seeds of Inspiration exhibition in the Freyer-Newman Center, displaying 21 contemporary botanical artworks alongside early-twentieth-century seed catalogs and more than 500 packet illustrations from the Botanical Interests archive.

Quality Assurance, Safe Seed Pledge, and the In-House Seed Lab

Botanical Interests was an early signer of the Safe Seed Pledge, formally committing not to knowingly buy, sell, or trade genetically engineered seeds or plants, and every variety in its catalog carries Non-GMO Project verification, an independent third-party audit that tests for genetically engineered contamination that can occur when plants cross-pollinate in field conditions. The company operates an in-house seed laboratory inside its Broomfield, Colorado warehouse, using precision German-engineered micro-dosing and seed-counting equipment to verify germination rates, moisture content, and seed viability for every inbound lot, while high-value and short-lifespan varieties are stored in a dedicated cold-storage seed vault that extends shelf life well beyond what ambient warehouse conditions would allow. The packaging line is designed to keep seeds viable after purchase: every packet contains zero fillers, the foil-lined inner pouch blocks light and moisture, and the outer paper wrap carries the botanical illustration plus the seed lot identifier, and every shipment is reviewed for state seed-label compliance under the relevant state departments of agriculture, so every packet shipped to a gardener meets the company’s organic, heirloom, and untreated standards.

Retail Footprint, /blogs/learn Education Hub, and Community Reach

Botanical Interests seeds reach gardeners through more than 4,500 retail stores across the United States, spanning independent garden centers, organic grocery chains (Whole Foods, Sprouts, Natural Grocer), hardware cooperatives (ACE, True Value), and the Feed and Seed rural-store program inside Petco locations, making the company one of the most widely distributed specialty seed brands in the independent garden center channel. The company’s Shopify-hosted website at botanicalinterests.com runs in parallel with the /blogs/learn education hub, where horticulturist Lorin Nielsen (a California Master Naturalist), managing editor Danielle Sherwood (a Pacific Northwest high-desert rose specialist), and staff writer Madison Moulton publish weekly articles covering beginner seed-starting, seasonal flower borders, vegetable garden planning, container gardening, seed storage, pollinator habitat, and pet-friendly plant selection. Customer service operates out of 525 Burbank St., Unit 1, Broomfield, Colorado 80020, with separate retail, wholesale, and general phone lines plus a customer-desk portal that handles order tracking, shipping questions, returns, and wholesale login via biorders.com, so Botanical Interests functions simultaneously as a physical seed distributor, a content publisher, and a community hub for American home gardeners.

Official Site: https://www.botanicalinterests.com/