Our native plant seed company is now open for business!
Opening a native seed selling business has been an interesting adventure to say the least. At this point, there are many resources to draw from for setting up a legal business structure and website-building platforms with loads of templates to choose from, but that's a really big part of the work in the early stages of an endeavor like this one: making hundreds of small decisions. Hopefully those decisions add up to something good and useful to gardeners and plant people (and insects and birds, too!).
Even if you've had planting setbacks (haven't we all?), maybe killed some from over- or underwatering (we've definitely been there), seed planting is a fundamentally hopeful activity. There with all of their latent potential, the possibility not only of years of life (perennials) for the plant, but for pollinators, birds, butterflies, and moths that depend on them as well.
Our seeds are open-pollinated, meaning that they are pollinated naturally (generally by insects) rather than by human intervention. We never use chemicals in growing our plants and seeds and we never will. Because we are advocates of ecological gardening - guided by an interest in the health of the myriad interactions between plants, animals, soil, and microorganisms - we take this chemical-free stance extremely seriously. Modern insecticides like neonicotinoids (neonics) have been used widely in agriculture and are devastating to pollinator populations. In gardening contexts with enough plant diversity, beneficial predator insects like ladybugs, lacewings, and mantids can be counted on to keep pest populations in check.
By this point, much has been said about the benefits of native planting in gardens and meadows, especially through research done by Douglas Tallamy pointing to the real world positive effects on local ecosystems and the non-profit he helped build that advocates for growing natives in home gardens called Homegrown National Park. We want to help our customers put these insights into action by planting for both ecological and visual impact. Truly, some of the most beautiful native wildflowers are also the most important for pollinators. Rose Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa), and the various Bonesets including Late Boneset leap to mind here.
My own academic training was actually in anthropological archaeology, which is where I got the idea for the name of our blog, in situ, meaning something akin to "in its original place" or the more biology-related concept "natural habitat". We don't need to be absolute purists in terms of only planting plants known to be native to our area. We view 'natives' a bit more broadly - as those that are native to North America. Some, like Blanket Flower, perform really well here in the northeast well outside their native range, blooming for a long period and providing excellent forage for native bees. For others historically known from adjacent regions, you may well be bringing them back to an area they once inhabited.
Over time we'll try to add more pages on tips for successful native plant gardening and seed starting. One of our most recent additions to this site is native plant range maps from The Biota of North America Program (BONAP). These maps serve as a guide for which counties in the United States host each plant we offer and whether they're known as historically native, introduced, have become locally extinct, or are rare. For those that are considered rare in your area, you can help bolster their populations in your garden, ensuring that they continue to be available as host plants for butterflies and moths and as pollen and nectar resources for many many species.
We would love to put the knowledge we have gained in our own garden to work for you and welcome questions sent to our email address at info@graysgardenastoria.com.
In the meantime, happy planting!
-Andrew