Join OVLC's Native Plant Specialist, Sophie McLean, to learn all about native seeds. Sophie will discuss how to clean, collect, store, and treat seeds from your garden and the beauty and diversity of our native plants through their seeds. Sophie will discuss the process of ethical seed collection and how the anatomy of seeds reveals the evolutionary history of our plants. 

In the dry heat of summer, it is easy to assume that our native plants are inactive. However, in the scorching temperatures of the summer, new life is born: our native seeds. Seeds are at the core of understanding the personality and spirit of our native landscape.

In this workshop, you will learn the process of ethical seed collection that our team conducts on our preserves. You will delve into the ways in which the seeds' anatomy reveals the personality of each plant, their diversity, their evolution, and their environment. Lastly, you will learn how the OVLC processes native seeds so they stay viable until the winter planting season on our restoration projects and how you can apply this knowledge in your native garden. Though this workshop will teach about seeds, you will not be taking seeds home.