Stark Bro's: Two Centuries of Backyard Orchards

Stark Bro's: Two Centuries of Backyard Orchards

The Red Delicious apple traveled from an Iowa farmstead to backyard orchards across the country through the catalogs of Stark Bro's, a nursery that has been shipping trees directly to American growers since 1816. When Clarence Stark encountered a chance seedling grown by Iowa farmer Jesse Hiatt in the 1890s, the meeting produced one of American agriculture's most storied brand moments — Stark tasted the fruit, declared it delicious, and Stark Bro's acquired propagation rights to what would become the most widely grown apple variety in the United States for much of the twentieth century. That single variety's commercial ascent carried Stark Bro's from a regional Missouri operation to a national name, though the nursery had already been shipping trees from Louisiana, Missouri for nearly eight decades before Hiatt's seedling entered the picture.

The catalog tradition at Stark Bro's stretches to the early nineteenth century, when mail-order fruit trees represented the practical path for settlers and homesteaders to establish home orchards without access to a local nursery. Founded in 1816, Stark Bro's built its business on the principle that a verified, grafted, named variety outperforms an unknown open-pollinated seedling — a claim that became the foundation of American commercial fruit tree marketing. The catalog at https://starkbros.com carries that premise forward today, offering named, grafted varieties that deliver predictable flavor, size, and harvest timing rather than the variable outcomes of seedling-grown stock, with cold-hardiness zones and pollination requirements spelled out for each selection.

Stark Bro's also maintained a working relationship with plant breeder Luther Burbank, whose introductions from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries brought new fruit and berry varieties into the nursery's lineup. That tradition of collaborating with breeders to bring proven selections to home orchardists is visible in the current catalog at https://starkbros.com, where the assortment pairs long-established heirloom varieties with newer disease-resistant introductions developed through formal breeding programs. Growers deciding between a classic heirloom and a modern low-spray selection can find both at https://starkbros.com, with variety notes addressing spacing, rootstock size, and expected harvest windows so an order can be matched to a specific site before purchase.

What Stark Bro's Offers

• Apple trees — Named heirloom and modern varieties on standard, semi-dwarf, and dwarf rootstocks suited to yards of varying size
• Peach and nectarine trees — Freestone and clingstone selections covering a range of cold-hardiness zones and ripening dates
• Cherry trees — Sweet and tart varieties including self-pollinating selections suited to single-tree planting
• Pear and plum trees — European and Asian varieties for fresh eating and home preserving
• Berry plants — Blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, and grape selections for home fruit gardens
• Nut trees — Walnut, pecan, chestnut, and almond selections for longer-term orchard and shade planting

Contact Information

How to Order

Browse the Stark Bro's catalog at https://starkbros.com to shop the full assortment of fruit trees, berry plants, and nut trees. Stark Bro's ships orders nationwide; each variety listing includes cold-hardiness zone guidance and pollination requirements to help match a selection to a specific planting site before an order is placed.