How We Grow

We carefully harvest seeds from native Ontario plants at just the right time, ensuring each tiny seed has the best chance of life. We try to get a healthy representation of species genetics by collecting from several wild polulations.

Plant the Seed Babies

Each seed is planted with care in the Greenhouse, given the perfect conditions to germinate and begin its journey. For many species, we can't sustainably harvest enough seeds for the demand, so we need to build up their numbers over time. When the seed lab began in 2009, we relied heavily on roadside collection to establish our local native seed banks. Over the last decade, that has become challenging due to outdated roadside management. Many of the once-abundant roadsides native populations are now gone and overrun by invasives. THIS IS HABITAT LOSS. 

Over the years, we have established our own Seed Orchards. This enables collecting without negative impacts on wild populations.