About Our Seed Mixes

Spence Restoration Nursery continues to expand its local genotype seed availability. Our seed nursery is now producing over 140 species of various woodland, wetland, and prairie seeds in commercial quantities. All of these seeds are produced on our four seed production properties totaling around 180 acres. We continue to expand our production of prairie and wetland grasses, sedges, and forbs to increase availability of our eastern Midwest genotype seed. We are particularly focusing on increasing the availability of wetland sedge and forb seed to meet the increasing demand for wetland restoration. All of our seed production plots have been developed from seed originally collected from native remnants primarily across central and north Indiana. Many of our prairie species originate in northwest Indiana, about 75 miles southeast of Chicago, providing appropriate genotypes for restoration in the Chicago land region. We are happy to share information about the origin of any of our seeds.

Source Identified Local Seed

We have been working with the Indiana Crop Improvement Association for several years to establish guidelines for Source Identified Indiana Genotype native seed. We have always maintained detailed records of the locations of all of our foundation seed collections. We have used these records along with site visits accompanied by Crop Improvement personnel to establish a database of source identified collection sites.

This database has been used to produce the first Source Identified Seed Labels from the Indiana Crop Improvement Association. We continue to work together to provide a greater diversity of Indiana Source Identified Seed.

Why is local genotype seed important?

• Adaptation to local soil conditions
• Adaptation to local climate including temperature extremes and growing season length
• Prevent non-local genotypes from invading natural areas adjacent to plantings
• Assurance that species are locally native
• Preservation of the local genetic material of declining native species
• Support the local seed production industry

High Quality Native Seed

Spence Restoration Nursery strives to produce the finest quality native seed available. We have recently expanded our seed cleaning facility to include eight different types of seed cleaning equipment. Our new mechanized prairie grass seed cleaning facility assures that we can produce high quality prairie grass seed at a price competitive with other large producers.

All of our seed is tested by an independent seed laboratory for purity & noxious, germination, and dormant seed, ensuring that the customer is receiving a high quality product free of noxious weed seed and excessive chaff. Our seed is stored in climate-controlled conditions that maximize viability.

If you are interested in large quantities of seed, please call us at (765) 286-7154 or email us for availability and wholesale discounts.