"Wildland native seed collections are the foundation for native plant materials development. Only by increasing the quality and quantity of available native plant materials can we restore healthy, resilient, and adaptive ecosystems. Healthy ecosystems in turn provide the essential ecological services upon which all life depends, including our own."

- US Bureau of Land Management

Basic Seed Collecting

and Cleaning Techniques

One of the most rewarding projects for us at the nursery is collecting native seed. Not only is it economical but it’s also educational in the observance of plants in their native habitat.  Collecting seed enhances our understanding of plant associations -- i.e. who’s mingling with whom.

Before collecting, know your plants! Learn which plants are common and which are rare. Never collect from a rare species unless authorized. Seed collection along roads generally does not require a permit, but you should get permission from the landowner if collecting on private property.

A rule of thumb when collecting seed from the wild is take no more than 10% of available seed. Doing so leaves a food  

source for small mammals who rely on this winter food and also ensures there’s enough viable seed for future generations of plants.

Knowing when to collect is critical to a successful strategy. Most plant stems and flower heads turn a straw/brown color when they mature. Other indicators are splits along seed capsules, overall dryness of the plants, and flower heads that have already released their seed.  Shaking the seed head (but not too vigorous) and listening for a rattle is also a good indicator that the seed is ripe for collection. Seed collected in capsules that still show color (typically green) will not germinate even though the plants have been pollinated.

The best approach to harvesting is to snip the seed heads and gently place in a paper bag for future cleaning. Don’t use plastic bags for storage as freshly collected seed can retain moisture in the capsule and mold can develop in the bag and ruin the seed.  Keep your seed in a paper bag and store in a cool, dry area. Seed usually takes a week or so to dry and become ready for cleaning. It’s always a good idea to write the location and date of your collection on the bag. Sometimes we’ll end up with unmarked bags and it becomes a real challenge to ID the seed.

There are several ways to clean seed but one of the most common is threshing; extracting seed from the seed head by pulling or shaking. This is a good method for large seed such as lupine, Cleome and Gaillardia. Using a rolling pin against a hard surface and crushing the capsules is an effective way to extract seed from penstemon, Oregon sunshine, and buckwheat species.  For fleshy fruits, soaking the fruit in a bowl and manually removing the seed from the pulp is quite effective. We use this technique on wax and golden currant, elderberry and serviceberry.

Once your seed is rough cleaned, using fine screens with different mesh sizes or lightly blowing over the seed in a bowl (winnowing) is effective for removing the chaff from the seed. We occasionally use a box fan to power the winnowing process for larger seed. Using a plastic tray or baking sheet and placing all seeds and material at the top of an inclined tray in front of the fan has proven very effective.

Growing plants from wild seed that you collected is one of the most gratifying endeavors that any gardener can perform. Bringing in adapted genetics and ensuring local pollinators can access these plants increases biodiversity and helps create an abundance of life in your yard.

By Karen Theodore,

WinterCreek Nursery founder

Asclepias speciosa (Showy milkweed) seed

Karen collecting Krascheninnikovia lanata

(winter fat) in Utah

WinterCreek's

wildflower seed mix

is here! 

Get yours quick -

it won't last long.

Bend Seed Extractory Field Trip

After weeks of gathering, sifting and winnowing, the nursery crew got to tour the next-level of native seed processing at the Bend Seed Extractory.  Located within a mile of the nursery at the edge of Pine Nursery Park, the facility run by the US Forest Service is one of just a handful around the country that  "provide locally adapted plants and seed for reforestation projects, provide an assured source of desirable species and stock types for restoring native ecosystems, and maintain the agency’s position as a conservation leader." (US Department of Agriculture)

The Bend Seed Extractory facility was established as a conifer nursery in 1948, operating as the last historic forest service nursery until 1999.  In 2000 it began operating as a seed extractory for a variety of government entities.  The largest customer is the Bureau of Land Management and their Seeds of Success program.  

Since 2000, BSE has processed over 3,000 distinct taxa, with an average of 1,500 seedlots (from hundreds of pounds to less than an ounce) annually.  Despite their employment of a variety of large and sophisticated machinery, the BSE team is astonishingly "hands on" as they troubleshoot the cleaning, testing and sorting of a wide variety of seed shapes, sizes, toughness, and conditions.  It's a fascinating process!

About Deschutes Basin Native Seed Bank

Deschutes Basin Native Plant Seedbank is a local non-profit organization that has been around Central Oregon for over 20 years. You say you never heard of us? I say we are the best kept secret in the local plant restoration world. What do we do? We collect, have grown, and sell native seed from the local High Desert area. We concentrate on the bunchgrasses that are the dominate species in our understory landscape. Occasionally we have some local flowers (forbs) as well.

Commercially available seeds are either not native to our area, or do not have the necessary diversity to be successful in our harsh environment. We formed a collaboration of over 20 partners, including WinterCreek Nursery, to increase the availability of genetically local, native seeds for revegetation and restoration within the Central Oregon Area.

The Seedbank will make site visits to recommend species, provide seeding guidelines, and project management to facilitate your successful landscape restoration. We are available May 1 through November 1. Email for a species/price list.

By Berta Youtie, DBNPS Founder & President

WinterCreek sources and sells grass seed from DBNBS

Berta examining seed field

Plant highlight: 

Scarlet Gilia (Ipomopsis aggregata)

Scarlet Gilia (Ipomopsis aggregata) is a beautiful and highly adaptable wildflower in the phlox family (Polemoniaceae). It is found in many different diverse habitats throughout western North America, and is equally at home in sagebrush steppe as in the understory of a dry mountain forest. The long, narrow tubes of its bright red flowers make it well adapted and extremely attractive to feeding hummingbirds, as you can see in this recent video from out at WinterCreek Nursery! It usually blooms for long periods throughout the summer and adds a wonderful pop of color to native plant gardens along with its interesting and finely fern-like foliage. Unfortunately the candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long - scarlet gilia usually dies after flowering and is generally considered a biennial or weak perennial plant living only a few years at most.  (See the Term(s) of the day below!)  Luckily for us the plant reseeds itself easily in well draining soils, so one or two plants can quickly turn into a self-sustaining hummingbird bonanza!

Term(s) of the day:

Semelparity vs iteroparity:  A species is considered semelparous if it is characterized by a single reproductive episode before death, and iteroparous if it is characterized by multiple reproductive cycles over the course of its lifetime.  - Wikipedia

Some plant species can shift from semelparous to iteroparous depending on conditions.  Scarlet Gilia (Ipomopsis aggregata) has been known to change depending on the availability of pollinators (Paige and Whitham, 1987)

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