Autumn is coming and that means time for your Seedex donations!
The ORG&HPS seed exchange is a major activity for our society, and the Seedex depends completely on our members sending in seeds. By donating 5 items, you get preferred status when it comes to ordering, and you then get the pick of the crop which becomes a real bonus with some of the seeds that are in short supply.
We welcome all kinds of seeds except vegetables, recalcitrant species and noxious weeds.
STRATEGY FOR POSTAL STRIKE
The postal strike will complicate getting the seed donations in and also getting the seed orders out. We are working on ways to facilitate moving all those seeds about, without the help of the postal service.
Please email
Here are some options to get your seed donations to the Seedex team:
1. Bring your seeds to our meetings at Toronto Botanical Garden on October 5th and November 9th.
2. You can drop your seeds at some member's homes. Please check the member directory for exact addresses and phone numbers. You must be logged in to the website to use the link for the directory :
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , Toronto This is a convenient place, very close to TBG, whenever you are in the area.This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , StouffvilleThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , BurlingtonThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , Toronto
SUBMIT A DONATION SHEET BY OCTOBER 31
Note that there will be no extension of this deadline past October 31.
Download your donation form here as an Excel file - you will find it in your "Downloads".
OR
Open the donation form as a PDF file. You can print this, fill it in by hand and mail it. If the mail is not happening, you can copy your list into an email and send it to Lucille.
We prefer the sheets to be filled in and submitted electronically, if possible.
For the Excel file, first click on the box which says "Enable editing" and begin your entries on line 4.
For both the PDF and the Excel file,
• Fill in the genus and species or hybrid columns.
• Put a “w” in the next column if the seed was wild collected.
• For the colour and type columns, in the Excel file there are dropdown menus from which you can select the relevant information. There are two columns for colour; you can enter a colour in both if needed. The height is in cm. For the PDF file, the choices are Annual, Biennial, Bulb, Grass Perennial, Shrub, Tree, Vine.
• Please use the notes column ONLY if the mother plant has a unique characteristic. Examples: “Hardy in zone 5 for 20 yrs.” or “From ORG&HPS seed”. Notes are limited to 40 characters.
Donation sheets can be emailed to Lucille Yates. You can send these before you send your seeds, so we can get started on all of the background tasks that happen to work the magic of Seedex.
Printed donation forms can be mailed to:
Lucille Yates
33 Springbank Avenue
Toronto, Ontario M1N 1G2
PREPARE YOUR DONATIONS
Please ensure that the seed is as clean as possible, free of contaminants and chaff, dried well, and properly labelled. They should be packaged in paper, preferably in glassine envelopes. No plastic! Free glassines will be available at the October meeting, or you can order up to 100 glassines from
Here are some links to information on how to collect seeds:
https://www.rhs.org.uk/propagation/seed-collecting-storing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azo5GdgAA7s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlVJ9ICR-Lc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAk8eG3h5bU
DELIVER YOUR DONATIONS
The deadline is November 12 except for late ripening seeds which must be received by November 30.
Drop them off at our October or November meeting or mail to: Lucille Yates, 33 Springbank Avenue, Toronto, ON M1N 1G2
We look forward to your participation!
Lucille Yates, Seedex Coordinator
