With so much herbalism information centred around America, it can be hard to find information about herb sources for Canada when you’re starting out!
Here are my top 3 favourite high quality places to order online for both dried herbs and seeds:
Dried Herbs
- Harmonic Arts Botanical Dispensary (BC) – Huge variety of high quality herbs and herbal products. I consider it the Canadian equivalent of Mountain Rose Herbs
- Organic Matters (BC) – A growing selection of bulk organic dried herbs at excellent prices
- Richters Herbs (Ontario) – Beyond being a good source for bulk herbs, they also sell a wide variety of live plants and seeds *print seed catalogue available*
Seeds
- Urban Harvest (Ontario) – Organic and heirloom seeds with lots of unique varieties of herbs, flowers, and vegetables to choose from
- William Dam Seeds (Ontario) – High quality, untreated seeds with a great selection of vegetables as well. *print seed catalogue available*
- Hawthorn Farm Organic Seeds (Ontario) – Organic, open pollinated, non-GMO seeds with a good selection of useful medicinals under herbs & flowers
- *bonus* Strictly Medicinal Seeds (US) – Deserves a mention due to their fabulous selection. If you can’t find a Canadian source for what you’re looking for, definitely try here!
Community Favourites for Seeds
- Ravensong Seeds & Herbals (BC)
- West Coast Seeds (BC)
- Salt Spring Seeds (BC)
- Veseys (PEI) *print seed catalogue available*
- Hope Seeds (Nova Scotia)
- The Incredible Seed Co. (Nova Scotia)
- Annapolis Seeds (Nova Scotia)
- Halifax Seed (Nova Scotia)
- Heritage Harvest Seed (Manitoba)
- Sage Garden (Manitoba)
- La Société des Plantes (Québec)
Community Gardens
If you’re interested in a community garden but don’t have one in your area, check out Herbalists Without Borders for resources on starting one! They also offer seed grant kits.
Final Tip
Be sure to send away for some seed catalogues because they’re beautiful sources of information and inspiration during the long winter months! I’ve already had a few arrive and it’s very exciting to look to spring possibilities. I’ve had catalogues arrive from Veseys Seeds and Richters already (beginning of January)!
Let us know in the comments about your favourite online herb sources for Canada! We’d also love guest posts about sources for other countries so get in touch with us if you’re interested in contributing
Richters also has great videos in their website worth watching.
I recently needed Deer Tongue Leaves but couldn’t find it any local shops. For specialty herbs I have been ordering from Elska Naturals. They’re located in the GTA and have a nice selection of dried herbs. I can find things that are harder to get in physical shops with them. Their selection is at https://www.elskanaturals.com/collections/bulk-herbs. I like Herbie’s Herbs in Toronto as well.