Burpee’s newest seeds celebrate 250 years of American history
To celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday, Burpee partnered with the Museum of the American Revolution to offer a Declaration Bouquet collection, which features seeds for five new flowers.
The morning glory flower can take months to blossom, but seeing their stunning trumpet-shape blooms finally pop from their spindly tendrils is so worth the wait.
“We call the morning glory ‘happiness,’ because it’s cheerful. It’s blue with a glowing pink center, and it makes you feel like life is good,” said Burpee president and CEO Jamie Mattikow.
To celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday, the Warminster company is partnering with the Museum of the American Revolution to offer a Declaration Bouquet collection, which features seeds for five new flowers inspired by words plucked from the Declaration of Independence and the national anthem.
The collection debuted Dec. 1, and, besides the “happiness” morning glory, includes a “star-spangled” marigold, whose white layered petals signify Old Glory’s stars; the drought-tolerant, butter yellow “independence” gaillardia; the fiery orange “liberty” cosmos; and the calming purple “freedom” verbena that can be started indoors or out, as long as it has full sun.
“We wanted to bring the words to life in a flower that embodied them,” Mattikow said of the full collection, which is available in the museum’s gift shop and via Burpee for $34.95 (you can also get each Declaration Bouquet seed packet individually via burpee.com). The collection contains five seed packets, eight labels, a Declaration of Independence keepsake card, and growing instructions.
“The Declaration Bouquet was part of a larger effort of making America’s 250th special for gardeners,” said Mattikow, who became an avid gardener himself after he joined the company in 2019.
The idea to partner with the Museum of the American Revolution came from Maureen Heffernan, horticulturist and wife of Burpee owner George Bell, after a visit to the Old City institution.
“They were percolating this idea of collaborations for 2026, so she reached out,” said Allegra Burnette, the museum’s chief strategy and growth officer.
They talked through ideas, and the company came up with the flower collection.
“It’s a way for them to showcase new flowers — and the Declaration of Independence spawned a lot of new things, as well,” Burnette said. “It’s also a nice way to come out of our ‘Declaration’s Journey’ exhibit when you are in a thoughtful but celebratory frame of mind. We hope it’s a way to plant a seed and keep something going forward.”
The collaboration was a no-brainer for Burpee. “We recognize the importance of Philadelphia to the birth of the country, and we wanted to partner with somebody who could help us think of a great way to do this,” Mattikow said.
Along with celebrating the nation’s milestone birthday, Burpee has a big one of its own, marking 150 years in business in 2026. One way it’s ringing in the anniversary is with a Historic Breakthroughs collection of heirloom seeds.
“The founding of W. Atlee Burpee has always been about innovation, even today,” Mattikow said. “[Our story] has been largely told in products that were firsts to gardeners and farmers at the time. There are histories behind them that some people aren’t aware of, so we thought it’d be a wonderful opportunity to bundle it together in a collection of historic gardening firsts.”
The Historic Breakthroughs collection includes nine seed packets and is priced at $29.95, available through Burpee’s website and catalog. This includes iceberg lettuce (first bred in 1894), the first yellow sweet corn (1902), and snowbird sugar snap peas (1978). The collection’s packaging features a nostalgic recreation of a Burpee catalog cover from 1888.
In addition to the Declaration Bouquet, Burpee also launched three other heirloom seed collections for 2026 that tell stories from the iconic gardens of the Monticello Museum, George Washington’s Mount Vernon, and the American Horticultural Society. Each collection contains eight packets of seeds and is available at the respective institutions, as well as via Burpee for $49.95.
“Over the years there’s been a lot of choiceful introduction of products that would succeed in the climates of the U.S.,” said Mattikow. “They’re wonderful if you want a little slice of history from a gardener’s standpoint.”