Planters Seed & Spice Co.

Planters Seed & Spice Co. is a century-old seed, garden-supply, and bulk-spice store at 513 Walnut Street in the City Market, in the River Market. German immigrant Henry Wertheim took over a Walnut Street commission house in 1924, rebranded it Planters Seed Company, and moved it to 513 Walnut — a building Thomas Swope put up in 1880 — in 1927. It has traded from that address for a century, expanding through the walls into neighbouring storefronts, and still runs on its original wood floors, seed drawers, and scales. Sells garden and farm seed in bulk, lawn and garden supplies, hardware, and more than 300 varieties of spice.

Description

Planters Seed & Spice Co. is a seed, garden-supply, and bulk-spice merchant at 513 Walnut Street, on the block of original nineteenth-century row buildings facing the City Market in Kansas City’s River Market. It is among the oldest continuously operating retail businesses in the district.

The company traces to Henry Wertheim, born in Lambsheim, Germany in 1886, who emigrated to the United States in 1905 and worked his way to Independence as a clerk for the S. Bryson Ayers Flower and Seed Company. Ayers opened a second location at 503 Walnut Street in 1920, across from the market, and made Wertheim its manager. In 1924 the store moved down the block to 523 Walnut — the former premises of a competitor, the William F. Helm Commission Company — and shortly afterward the owners sold out to Wertheim, who rebranded it the Planters Seed Company. Short of stock and short of capital, he is said to have stuffed burlap sacks with paper to make the shelves look full. In 1927 he moved again, to the larger building at 513 Walnut where the store still trades. That building had been put up in 1880 by real-estate magnate and philanthropist Thomas Swope, and had housed a saloon, a restaurant, and an oyster market, with rooming-house floors above.¹

Planters began as a commission house: it processed and sold seed brought in by area farmers and shared the proceeds. Wertheim’s staff, led by his son-in-law and general manager Clifton Hall, cleaned the bulk of the raw seed on site, and the store built a reputation for filling any order, from an ounce to a truckload. As Kansas City’s suburbs grew, the customer base inverted — from roughly ninety percent farmers in the 1920s to roughly ninety percent suburban gardeners by mid-century — and the stock followed, adding fertilisers, pesticides, tools, pots, and eventually a hardware section. Spices, always carried in small quantity for farmers who lived too far from a grocer to shop often, expanded on customer demand to more than 300 varieties, and are now as much a draw as the seed. To make room, Planters took over adjoining storefronts and cut openings through the party walls.¹²

Wertheim sold the business in 1980 and retired at the age of 94. The buyers, by their own account, knew little about the seed trade but were determined to keep Planters a family-run company; the store has continued under that footing.¹ “ — no first-party or press source consulted for this draft names the current owners.

The interior is largely unaltered: original wood plank floors, the wall of wooden seed drawers, the scales used to weigh seed by the ounce, and an antique cash register kept on display. The store sits a few doors from City Market Coffee Roasters and Murmuration, and trades alongside the market’s weekend produce vendors.

Goods and services

• Seed — vegetable, herb, flower, grass, and bird seed, sold loose from bulk and by the packet; farm-scale bulk orders; microgreen growing kits.¹³⁴
• Garden and lawn — plants and shrubs, fertiliser, pest control, gardening tools, pots and planters.¹
• Hardware — a tools section added over the decades in response to customer demand.¹
• Spices — more than 300 varieties in bulk, including specialty stock (whole green cardamom pods, anise oil, ground and flaked ghost chile, saffron sold by the gram).¹²⁵
• Pantry and gift — teas, coffees, soup mixes, candies, nuts, trail mixes, dried fruits, vinegars, and custom-built gift baskets.⁴
• Online — a Shopify storefront at plantersseedspice.com ships spices and pantry goods.³

History

Year	Event	Source
1886	Henry Wertheim born, Lambsheim, Germany	1
1905	Wertheim emigrates to the United States; later clerks for the S. Bryson Ayers Flower and Seed Company in Independence	1
1920	Ayers opens a second store at 503 Walnut St, opposite the City Market; Wertheim made manager	1
1924	Store moves to 523 Walnut (former William F. Helm Commission Company); owners sell to Wertheim, who renames it Planters Seed Company	1
1927	Wertheim relocates to 513 Walnut, a Thomas Swope building of 1880 — the present address	1
mid-century	Customer base shifts from ~90% farmers to ~90% suburban gardeners; lawn, garden, hardware, and spice lines added; store expands through the walls into neighbouring buildings	1
1980	Wertheim sells the business and retires at 94; new owners keep it family-run	1
2024–2026	Store operating at 513 Walnut with Jeff Myer as general manager; online storefront active	32

Sources

Links

• Online store: https://www.plantersseedspice.com/
• Legacy site: https://plantersseed.com/
• About (legacy site): https://plantersseed.com/about-us/
• River Market merchant listing: https://kcrivermarket.com/member/planters-seed-spice-co/
• Clio history entry: https://theclio.com/entry/190292

Footnotes

1. Clio — “Planters Seed Company,” entry by Chris Wolff (created 2025-03-10; last updated 2025-03-11) — asserts: founding by German immigrant Henry Wertheim; Wertheim born Lambsheim, Germany 1886 and emigrated 1905; employment with S. Bryson Ayers Flower and Seed Company; 1920 Ayers second location at 503 Walnut with Wertheim as manager; 1924 move to 523 Walnut, former William F. Helm Commission Company premises, and sale to Wertheim who rebranded it Planters Seed Company; burlap-sacks-stuffed-with-paper anecdote; 1927 move to 513 Walnut; 513 Walnut built 1880 by Thomas Swope and previously a saloon, restaurant, oyster market with rooming house above; commission-house model; son-in-law Clifton Hall as general manager; any-size order reputation; ~90% farmer customer base in the 1920s shifting to ~90% suburban by mid-century; addition of fertiliser, pesticide, tools, pots, hardware; expansion into neighbouring buildings by cutting through walls; 300+ spice varieties; Wertheim sold in 1980 and retired at 94, buyers kept it family-run; original wood floors, fixtures, ounce scales, antique cash register on display. The entry cites Kansas City Star coverage of 1928-06-10, 1966-05-29, 1973-07-29, 1986-10-29, and 2003-12-02. (Accessed 2026-08-13.) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴

2. KSHB 41 Kansas City — “Uniquely Kansas City: Digging up history at Planters seeds, feed, spices” — asserts: general manager Jeff Myer; store near Walnut and E. 5th St in the River Market; founded roughly a century ago by a German immigrant who came to the Kansas City area in the early 1900s; name chosen in a nod to farmers; Myer’s account that farmers could not stray far from their fields and so shopped a long list in one visit; shift from a farm to an urban customer base; specialty stock including saffron at $25 per gram and Carolina reaper peppers. (Accessed 2026-08-13.) ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. Planters Seed & Spice Co. — official online store — asserts: 513 Walnut Street, Kansas City, MO 64106; phone (816) 842-3651; “Kansas City has been growing with us since 1924”; original wood floors and seed drawers; seeds, spices, coffee, tea, garden supplies in stock; published hours Mon–Fri 8:00 a.m.–5:30 p.m., Sat 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., Sun 9:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.; site notes a new website is coming. Live Shopify storefront serving a logo asset dated 2026, establishing current operation. (Accessed 2026-08-13.) ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. The Planters Seed & Spice Company — legacy official site — asserts: 513 Walnut Street, Kansas City, MO 64106; phone (816) 842-3651, toll free 1-877-397-0566, fax (816) 842-1422; email plantersseed@swbell.net; published hours Mon–Fri 7:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m., Sat 7:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.; product lines spices, teas, coffees, soup mixes, candies, nuts, trail mixes, dried fruits, vinegars, garden gifts, custom gift baskets; describes itself as a nostalgic general store with original wood floors and seed drawers in the Historic City Market. (Accessed 2026-08-13.) ↩ ↩²

5. Feast Magazine — “Planters Seed & Spice Co. Combines Hardware with Gardening in KC’s River Market” — asserts: founded 1924 by German immigrant Henry Wertheim; 513 Walnut St, River Market; phone 816.842.3651; original hardwood floors and wooden shelves; stock including vegetable, herb, flower and bird seed, microgreen kits, dried and ground spices, and specialty items (anise oil, whole green pod cardamom, ground and flaked ghost chile); customer mix of farmers buying seed before market, home cooks, and urban gardeners. (Accessed 2026-08-13.) ↩