born at Haggerston, Northumberland, England in 1752. He is
credited with establishing the first American commercial seed company.
his family arrived in North America from England in 1780 and began a seed business in
Montréal, Canada. In 1784 David relocated to Philadelphia and
named the company David Landreth.
They began growing flowering shrubs and hothouse exotics in their
nursery and greenhouses and propagated seeds from the Lewis and
Clark expeditions. This introduced native plants
into the commercial trade. His brother Cuthbert joined the company
in 1789 and the name changed to David & Cuthbert Landreth in 1790.
The Landreths introduced the Mexican Zinnia
in 1798, the garden
tomato in 1820, followed by 'Landreths’ Extra Early' pea in 1822 and 'Bloomsdale'
spinach in 1826.
David's son, David Landreth, Jr.,
was dispatched to Charleston, South Carolina in 1818 to open a branch
there. He took over operation of the company upon his father's death in 1828.