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Inside Explore Us:
Features
Prairie Gardening
Butterfly Gardening
Friends of LPM
Volunteer
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Most prairie plants can be cultivated as garden ornamentals, and each species has its
special decorative virtues - in the perennial border, in formal bedding, for cut flowers,
or for dried arrangements. When used with understanding and taste, these native species
provide a remarkable variety of colours and shapes throughout the growing season. They
offer interesting fall colours and textures that enhance the garden well into winter.
You can take pride in their beauty and the natural heritage they represent.
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Growing Prairie Plants
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Many prairie grasses, flowers and shrubs are now available in the nursery trade, so
digging prairie plants from the wild should be avoided, unless the plants are in imminent
peril in the ground where they stand. Even when such transplanting is justified, the prairie
plants often do not fare well in a garden setting. Growing plants from seed or purchasing
seedlings from a nursery to place in your garden will provide better results.
Certain species are difficult to grow from seed. Others grow almost too well in the
garden, becoming abnormally large and requiring staking. This is because they are adapted
to the severe competition of the natural prairie community; and most prairie plants do grow
best in a mixture with other prairie species. Once established, a "prairie garden" is
usually self-perpetuating and requires very little care.
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Preferred Growth Conditions
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Prairie plants prefer full sunshine with well drained soils. If you have a site that
receives sunshine less than 1/2 of the day you probably shouldn't try growing prairie
plants there. However, some of the plants we offer
can tolerate part shade (see plant
descriptions).
Prairie plants do well in soils with fairly low fertility. It is usually not necessary
to fertilize them, unless phosphorus (P) levels are very low. Abundant nitrogen (N)
promotes the growth of weeds over the slower growing prairie plants.
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Slow Growth
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Patience is an important part of growing prairie plants from seed. Most species require
two or more years before they grow large enough to bloom. Much of their efforts in the
first year goes into establishing a large root system. There will often be little above
ground growth. As a consequence of this, prairie plants are most susceptible to competition
from weeds during their first year. Careful weeding should be undertaken. If seeds do not
germinate the first year, don't despair. Germination may occur the second year or even later.
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Seed Dormancy
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The seeds of most prairie plants experience some degree of dormancy (a period after ripening
when they are incapable of germinating). Spring to early summer is the optimum time for the
growth of seedlings. Most plants use seed dormancy to ensure that seeds do not germinate
before the spring following the year in which the seeds ripened. Treatments that have been
found to be successful in breaking seed dormancy reflect the conditions that the seeds
would be exposed to over winter. A list of suggested pre-sowing treatments that help to
break seed dormancy is provided. Each plant species has been designated with a letter
(A through D) on the seed package that corresponds to the appropriate pre-sowing treatment.
Pre-sowing information is also available in our seed store.
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General Sowing Instructions
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If you sow your seeds in containers before setting them out in your garden, use a "soil-less"
potting mixture of peat moss, perlite and vermiculite, available from most garden centres.
These mixtures are free of competing weeds and damaging diseases or pests. Standard potting
trays or flats are acceptable, just remember that prairie plants will develop deep, extensive
root systems quickly, so avoid using containers less than
5 cm deep. Fill them with the
soil-less mixture, pressing it firmly, then water well. It is better to sow the treated seeds
onto a moist surface, then press them in firmly. Do not cover them with the mixture. Light
helps most prairie plant seeds to germinate. Cover the container with plastic or a light
cloth and place in a warm spot. If the surface begins to dry, mist with a sprayer, do not
water heavily. Too much water promotes the growth of damaging fungi. Once a number of
seedlings have appeared, uncover the containers and water as required until the plants are
large enough to transplant into the garden.
If you plan to sow seeds directly into the garden you must prepare the site ahead of time.
Be sure to choose a sunny spot and take time in the spring to remove competing weeds. You can
remove weeds by hand. Do not till or
turn the soil. Prairie plants prefer a well packed seed bed and tillage brings additional
weed seeds to the surface where they will germinate. Allow several weeks to prepare the seed
bed, letting new batches of weeds germinate, then remove them. Sprinkle the prairie seeds
evenly over the seed bed and lightly rake them into the soil surface. Water the site gently.
You can cover the seeds with burlap or apply a weed free mulch. This will help to maintain
adequate soil moisture. Do not let the seed bed dry out! Water as necessary, until you have
plenty of seedlings established. Then remove any covering over the seedlings. After this
point water less frequently, so the soil surface begins to dry out between watering. This
helps to prevent more weed germination. Do not be alarmed if your plants seem to grow slowly,
that is their nature. They are worth the wait though, for their beauty and vigour will please
you for years to come.
To grow prairie plants in a container, you should choose a large container, no less than 45
cm (18 inches) wide by 35 cm (15 inches) deep. Germinate the seeds as above, but remember
that any plants grown in a container will require more water than those grown in a garden.
It is also important to protect the containers from excessive desiccation in winter. In late
autumn store the container out of direct sunshine and cover it with a heavy mulch. Heap snow
onto the container as soon as possible.
For information on specific sowing instructions for a plant, visit our
seed store.
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What do we harvest?
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We harvest seeds from over 50 species of wildflowers, shrubs and grasses. Most of these
plants are from tall grass prairie habitats in the aspen parkland ecoregion of southern
Manitoba.
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How and where do we harvest?
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All our seeds are collected (and processed) by hand from remnant tracts of native
prairie in and around Winnipeg, Manitoba. Some seeds are from
nursery or garden reared plants that are themselves grown from wild-harvested seed.
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Why do we harvest?
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We harvest seeds and provide them for sale for a number of reasons. Firstly, it helps
us raise funds to offset some of The Living Prairie Museum's operating costs. Secondly,
and more importantly, it helps to bring more people into closer contact with our native
prairie heritage. Growing their own prairie plants helps people appreciate a wild prairie
ecosystem. It gives us a chance to educate them about this precious, and dwindling
resource. And, lastly, it may help to preserve some of the unique genetic resources that
wild prairie plants represent. Less than 1/20th of 1% of Manitoba's tall grass prairie
remains! Many of the remaining tracts of prairie around Winnipeg are under threat from
development. Harvesting seeds from these threatened sites and encouraging people to grow
these plants will help to preserve the genetic diversity of our native flora.
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Does Harvesting Seed from the Wild Hurt Our Prairies?
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Most of the plants we harvest seed from are perennials, so the plants at any given site are not
dependent on each year's seed crop to produce the next year's plants. Still, we are careful
not to take more than 10-20% of the seed of any plant species at any site in a given year.
And we try to concentrate our efforts on different patches or sites for collecting each
species in successive years. While we can't say for sure that we have no effect on the
prairies we harvest, we feel our impact is minimal, probably far less than the insects,
birds and small mammals that regularly feed on the seeds of prairie plants. And if the
seeds we harvest help to instil in people a greater interest in preserving our native
prairies then our efforts could have very positive results indeed.
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Number of Seeds per Packet?
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The number of seeds you will receive in an individual species packet will vary by the
species. For large-seeded (and hard-to-acquire) plants such as Indian breadroot we may
only be able to provide 10-15 seeds. A packet of a small-seeded species such as closed
gentian may contain 1000's of seeds. We always try to provide enough seeds to ensure you
good success.
Our packets of seed mixtures
(Prairie
Wildflowers, Tall Grass Prairie
and Easy-to-Grow Wildflowers) contain enough seed to cover an area of
3 square metres (about 32 square feet).
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Our Guarantee! (well, sort of ...)
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With wild-harvested seeds no one can say "Guaranteed to grow!" Germination rates will vary
greatly among the plant species. With wild harvested seeds, low germination rates (often
less than 20%) is normal! What we do guarantee is to provide the freshest possible seeds,
in quantities that ensure you of an excellent chance of successfully raising your own prairie
plants. Together with the information we provide on growing prairie plants you should be
well on your way to a beautiful prairie garden.
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Shipping Bookstore (and seedstore) Items
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We ship all our bookstore items through Canada Post.
Once we receive your order request we will calculate shipping fees based on current Canada Post postal fees.
Expedited delivery is available upon request. Visit the Canada Post website for up to date postal fees.
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Should You Buy Our Seeds?
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Now there's an odd question to pose to a potential customer. "Should you buy
our seeds?" But there's a very real reason for us to ask that question and
it involves the concept of "ecological ethics". The seeds we sell are from
plants occurring in, and adapted to, the north-central Great Plains region
of North America. This is the part of the world where these plants grow
best, and some might say this is where they belong. We try to promote the
use of local native plants in gardening and landscaping to preserve this
natural heritage. For us, these plants are local plants. For an area beyond
a 500 km (300 mile) radius from Winnipeg, these are no longer "local"
plants. We encourage you to look for, and support, your own "local"
wildflower seed suppliers.
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| Modified: Wednesday, October 15, 2008 Top |
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