About BotanyCa – a WildCrafted Seeds Catalogue

The idea of a Wild Crafted Seeds Catalogue originated from the desire to encourage everyone to learn more about the wild plants and also to cultivate them from SEEDS, as an act of faith in preserving plant biodiversity. Many species that you will find here are already cultivated but not readily available because the lack of seeds and/or the difficulty of propagation which have prevented their commercial mass production, like in the case of Hepatica species.

Hepatica americana

Hepatica americana

Increased use of vegetative propagation, which means cloning perpetually the same genotypes, has had and will always have a detrimental impact on the genetic diversity of plant populations and their ability to adapt to negative abiotic and biotic factors. All plants adapt better to new environments when grown from SEEDS, and this is also the best way to introduce new species into cultivation. Not to mention that some species cannot be or they are hard to propagate other than by SEEDS.

At times, SEEDS harvested from cultivated plants will also find their way into the Catalogue. This will be the case of: species with low populations in the wild, species that are already established into cultivation but otherwise are hard to grow or find, and finally, plants that I have propagated, grown myself, and I think would make excellent additions to any garden. They will be marked as – Cultivated.

ALL seeds, unless otherwise specified, are wild collected.

ALL the images are original but don’t necessarily represent the mother plants. The conditions that the species grow in the wild are indicated in Growing conditions – in the Catalogue. Understanding where a plant comes from and how it grows in the wild is fundamental to germinating and cultivating it successfully. For the same reason, their natural habitat and ecology are emphasized whenever possible through the Blog posts.

We are providing the native range of the species and the growing conditions of their natural habitats – these are valuable clues about their hardiness and how they can be best cultivated. Regarding the hardiness zone, we base our notes on the Canada Plant Hardiness Zones; you can also browse this official site for information and see an updated plan hardiness map – Click here. However, especially the survival of young seedlings is influenced by many other factors and everyone should do their homework before requesting certain species. Also the height of the species can be variable depending on the growing conditions; we are guiding mainly after the specimens growing in wild habitats.

This Seed Catalogue is a labour of love. Wild collecting fruits/seeds and cleaning are so laborious that by no means can constitute a for profit activity. Our intention is to stimulate more people to grow plants from seeds in order to encourage the conservation of plant biodiversity, which actually sustains all the other life forms.

For this reason, prices will reflect the easiness to collect, clean the seeds and the amount of seeds available at the time. Should a more valuable species set copious seeds one season the price will be lowered and vice-versa. Also, the shipping cost will be kept as low as possible– please read more on the Ordering Info and Shipping pages.