COMPANY OVERVIEW

WHAT WE DO

NATIVE SEEDS OF OREGON provides pure, live seed collected from Oregon’s Willamette Valley and western Coast Range. We carry a wide variety of both annual and perennial wildflower seeds from Oregon that also provide habitat connections for our native fauna.

Visit our "Habitat Zones" page for descriptions and information on Habitat zones.

See Annuals and Perennials page for descriptions and photos for each wildflower..

Shop Online and view our selection of native seeds and even more in-depth descriptions of each seed product.

Thank you, Tim

FOREST AND MEADOW WILDFLOWERS

All seeds and plants of forest and meadow wildflower have baked-in dormancy requirements to protect them from germinating before killing frosts or in times of drought. It is a survival thing that plants have evolved based on nature’s conditions. In natural conditions, seeds will lie dormant until several necessary conditions for germination, growth, and flowers and seeds occur. To be successful with these types of species grown from seed please understand that the conditions below must exist in the world of plants. Each species has a different method of naturally breaking dormancy. Wildflowers are not always instant garden flowers and can take some understanding and patience before they germinate and later bloom. Before germination, seeds must stratify. Before flowering, an existing perennial must go through an overwinter process to vernalize. Annuals are relatively quick and some perennials may require up to a few years.

To help better understand why they may not germinate the first year, we offer the following germination notes:

1. Some species germinate upon sowing in a warm location. They grow and leaf the first year to begin blooming the second and successive years.
2. Some species will even need a warm, moist period followed by a cold, moist period and will need 2-4 full years of these alternating conditions to germinate.
3. Most natives in northern climates need a cold, moist stratification followed by an extended cold period ie. Fall/Winter.
4. Very small seeds need light to break dormancy so they should be planted no deeper than 1/8th of an inch and under just a light layer of soil cover.
5. Annuals are less complex and can will complete the entire sequence in one growing season.