Why is it that no flower/seed catalogs will ship to Alaska?

Question

None of the company's, even the more well known and popular ones will ship to Alaska. They won't ship seeds, bulbs or live plants or trees. Anyone know of any place that will? Or am I just stuck with the small crappy selection that Wal Mart, Lowe's, Home Depot, Fred Meyers, Etc has. I'd like a bigger selection of flowers to choose from. And since those stores flowers can be shipped, why cant' I order from a seed catalog?

Answer 1

Try these

http://www.richters.com/source.cgi?sourc...

http://www.richters.com/newdisplay.cgi?p...

http://www.waysidegardens.com/webapp/wcs...

http://www.alaskahardy.com/index.php

This one I get and it sends catalogs to Alaska.

http://gurneys.com/catalog_request_qas.a...

I have burbees they may restrict some plants because they may be invasive.

http://www.burpee.com/ancillary/catalogr...

Answer 2

I would guess that possibly the state of Alaska has very tough restrictions on what can be imported into the state. A lot of Alaska is open wilderness and nature preserves. So, they might want to limit what comes into the state to avoid having non-native plants be introduced to the environment. Many non-native plants can become extremely invasive and damaging to native plants.

Another reason might be that the winters are so severe there that non-native plants would not survive over the winter, anyway. So, seed and plant suppliers don't even bother trying to sell their products to people in Alaska.

Answer 3

I live in Alaska and agree about the crappy selection at the local stores.  Try my old standby favs:

Thompson-Morgan ships to Alaska.

http://www.tmseeds.com/

I've had literally thousands of beautiful flowers (and veggies, too) from seeds I ordered there.  

Also try Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply:

http://www.groworganic.com/default.html

which have great prices and reliable seeds in various-sized packages.

and Raintree Nursery http://www.raintreenursery.com/catalog/i...

Raintree is my favorite for berry bushes and small hardy trees.  Try blueberries: Brunswick Maine, Chippewa, North Sky, and Patriot all do well here in our cold acidic soil, just remember they like a lot of water.  Also good are the red currants, black currants, and Blue Honeysuckle, which produces a pretty bush with lots of huge blueberry-like edible berries.

Answer 4

Some of it is also because if plants are shipped by ground then they will need a phytosanitary certificate to go through Canada, then another to enter into Alaska.