Talk of Honey Girl melons and Straight Eight cucumbers might lead to lurid quips, but venerable W. Atlee Burpee prefers you keep the dirt in your garden. Seed seller to the home gardener since 1876, today the company cultivates and distributes fruit, flower, herb, and vegetable seeds and plants for sale through retail partners and directly through catalogs and online (it plucked wilted Garden.com's site). The company also sells gardening tools and accessories. Burpee has closed its four retail outlets to focus on catalog and Internet sales. The family of third-generation seedsman and CEO George Ball Jr. has owned Burpee since 1991.