Denver Life Magazine – April 2019

DEE | KEVIN | MATT

BOTANICAL INTERESTS

Find their seeds at garden centers, Whole Foods,

Sprouts, and Natural Grocers.

botanicalinterests.com

How it all began
z “My husband and I found that there was
this whole generation of kids growing up
whose parents weren’t passing on the
gardening love,” says Seaborn, “and these
people wanted to know, ‘How do I garden?
How do I do this by seed?’ We realized that
small garden centers needed a niche prod-
uct to help set them apart.”

From then until now
z “That first year, we had 75 varieties, a
smattering of herbs, a smattering of veg-
etables, a smattering of flowers. We’ve
always done all three. Now we have 700
varieties. What can I say? I’m a bit of a
plant geek. I am going to make California
bluebells popular here if it kills me; they are
so pretty and easy to grow.”

How they find their seeds
z “We work with a lot of growers, many
of whom we’ve known for 26 years now,
and they give me the inside scoop on
what they’re doing. They put things in the
ground for me, and we work together to
come up with plants that will work well for
the home gardener. I like to cook, so I’m all
about the food aspect of vegetables, and I
also want tall flowers that I can do easily by
seed and that look great in fresh, cut bou-
quets. I like color in my house.”

Making those seeds grow
z “We look for a good germination rate,
so if someone puts in 100 seeds, 95 of
them will come up. And we provide a lot of
information on the inside of our packets.
So many seed packets will just say, ‘It’s a
squash. Plant the seeds this far apart.’ But
we try to give very specific information.
Like our chocolate flower. My artist said,
‘Make sure you say not to water it in the
afternoon when it looks wilted, because
that is the plant’s personal mechanism to
deal with heat and drought.’ It perks right
back up when it gets cool outside, and if
you water it, it will drown.”

Bonus points
z “We also have recipes inside our packets,
occasional little bits of poetry, historical
information about the plants. If you get a
seed, there is a whole story behind each
little one.” DLM

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