A Pot of Patience

Though challenging, it’s best to grow native plants from seed, says one expert; here’s why and how

I've always preferred starting my garden plants from seed, and a recent conversation with Anna Fialkoff on my Growing Greener podcast has opened up new horizons in that respect. Anna is the Ecological Programs Manager of the Wild Seed Project in North Yarmouth, Maine. She described to me her organization's program to make it easy for gardeners to sow native plants for their gardens.

This is important because so many of the native plants we find at local garden centers are propagated vegetatively. That is, they have been raised from cuttings or divisions of a parent plant, or even from tiny pieces of tissue cultivated in a laboratory setting.

The advantage of plants raised this way, from the seller' perspective, are many. When vegetatively propagated, each plant is genetically identical to its fellows, so they will all grow alike and mature into a closely similar look. Such predictability makes the plants easier to cultivate on an industrial scale.

Vegetative propagation also perpetuates from parent to offspring characteristics-such as a compact growth or larger, more colorful flowers that the seller believes will appeal to customers. Typically, these propagation methods also produce faster-maturing plants, and so they maximize profits.