Amanda's Garden grows most our plants from seed or spores. What does this mean to you? Plants grown from local seed are adapted to survive in the Northeast. Using seed keeps the local gene pool strong. Individual plants grown from seed each have a slightly different genetic makeup. Cross pollination results in a larger gene pool and gives species the ability to change in response to the environment.
Plants from cutting or tissue culture use the same set of genes over and over again. If a new disease attacks a particular species and all the plants of that species are from the same parent plant, then they all will be susceptible to infection. If they are grown from seed then there may be plants that are not susceptible. These plants will survive, passing on their resistant genes to future generations. Using seeds does give you plants with other genetic variations such as flower color and plant height, but rather than detracting from the beauty of your garden, this adds interest. Sometimes we are surprised by what we get, but that is half the fun.
Where do we get our seed? We have two sources from which we harvest seed: stock beds and our eight acre research woodland. In addition, some seed is given to us by those with an interest in preserving native plant diversity. We also purchase seeds from native plant seed suppliers.
Amanda's Garden does not sell seed but sometimes we will collect it for our clients. We do have sources of seed that we would be happy to recommend.
