Friday, March 4, 2022
CapitalPress.com
11
SymbiOp Garden Shop
Willamette Wildlings sells non-hybridized Oregon wildfl ower seed sourced from the
Willamette Valley. Owner Shari Cappo-Fisher said she wanted to provide seeds for
gardeners without them having to meet a large minimum.
Willamette Wildlings: Nursery
sells native wildfl ower seed, plants
By ALIYA HALL
For the Capital Press
CRESWELL, Ore. —
Before Shari Cappo-Fisher
opened her seed and plant
nursery, she worked as a
technician at the City of
Eugene’s native plant nurs-
ery, where she routinely had
to turn down members of the
public who wanted to buy
their plants.
“We didn’t sell to the pub-
lic, but it made me realize
there is a hunger out there
for people who want to grow
their own natives,” Cap-
po-Fisher said. “I was think-
ing it would be really nice if
more of the retail nurseries in
town had a better off ering of
native plants.”
In 2011, Cappo-Fisher
opened her nursery, Willa-
mette Wildlings, which pro-
duces both containerized
native plants derived from
Oregon seed sources and
non-hybridized Oregon wild-
fl ower seed sourced from the
Willamette Valley.
Cappo-Fisher said she
started with selling plants,
but received inquiries about
seed, too. She said that at
the time there weren’t many
local sources for people to
get seeds without having to
meet a large minimum.
“I decided that I could
absorb that minimum and
package them and off er
seeds to the home gardener
that way,” she said.
Although Cappo-Fisher
doesn’t collect the seeds her-
self, she tests them for purity
and germination before sell-
ing them. She said that she
wants to keep the plants as
local as possible because
they’re adapted to the area.
“They tend to do better
for our home gardeners and
it’s also better for the local
ecology,” she said. “You’re
not swapping out the local
genetics with something out-
side the area.”
There’s also overlap
between the plant and seed
sections of the business.
Cappo-Fisher explained that
some of her native plants are
grown from the seeds she
sells.
Beyond genetics, Wil-
lamette Wildlings started
the seed line with beauty in
mind.
“I want to have things
that stand up and compete
with the pollinator industry,
because there’s more peo-
ple out there getting into
natives,” Cappo-Fisher said.
“I wanted to off er things that
could be easier to grow and
a bit more showy while also
supporting pollinators.”
The biggest challenge that
Cappo-Fisher overcame over
the years is learning which
natives lend themselves to
being cultivated in a nursery
setting.
“As much as I think
that’s a really cool plant and
I’d love to off er that one, it
doesn’t do well in contain-
ers,” she said, adding that she
also had to learn which soil
certain natives prefer and dif-
ferent tricks to make seeds
germinate faster.
Looking ahead, Cap-
po-Fisher wants to lean fur-
ther toward growing the
seed side of the company.
In 2021, she started to sell
seeds wholesale as well as
in three retail nurseries in
the Portland area, but seeds
are still available to purchase
through the Willamette Wild-
lings online store.
With
Cappo-Fisher’s
background in wildlife man-
agement with a botany focus,
she said she always enjoyed
growing plants but Willa-
mette Wildlings is the perfect
mix of growing plants and
supporting the ecology.
“I love the idea of getting
these plants out into peo-
ple’s yards and having them
experience the benefi ts that
these plants bring,” she said.
“I just really enjoy know-
ing that I’m contributing to
that.”
Come by and check out our new Seed processing plant!
As always, we provide Quality Turf, Forage & Grain
seed products.
With the new plant, we’ll be adding certified organic
and human consumption seed option
Seed cleaning includes:
We offer the following:
• Clovers
• Custom blending
• Grasses
• Treating
• Brassica
• Rail car loading
• Oats
• Marketing of seed
• Wheat
• Palletizing
• Barley
• Transloading
• Triticale
• Crop Production
• Peas
• Custom packaging from
• Specialty crops
1# bags to bulk hopper
truckloads
541-928-1923
30685 Highway 34 SW, Albany, OR 97321
S282015-1