نویسنده: Melissa Reese

I first learned about Grand Prismatic Seed when researching dye plants to add to our garden. I have always been fascinated by the art of natural dyeing and was on the hunt for suitable flower varieties that could be grown from seed.

Owners and farmers, James and Guy have put a tremendous amount of work into their website—it’s super informative, filled with great photos, and I love their seed descriptions. All of the seeds I have ordered from them (which is a lot!) have done exceptionally well–their quality is top-notch.

Grand Prismatic is located in the mountain foothills of Utah, so the varieties that they offer can withstand the stresses of growing in a desert climate. They focus on plants that thrive in harsh conditions, including hot dry summers and cold snowy winters. If you’re a gardener in this type of climate, they are a wonderful resource!

James and Guy, I’m so happy to be able to interview you both for the blog and for more people to find out about what you’re up to. You each bring a unique perspective to Grand Prismatic Seed. James, you previously worked with Frank Morton at Wild Garden Seed in Oregon, and Guy, you have such wide-ranging experience, including ethnobotany and habitat restoration. Can you share a little more about each of your backgrounds and how they’ve influenced your business?

James: If you had asked me in my twenties what I would be doing in my thirties, I would never have predicted seed farming or owning a business! My background isn’t rooted in botany, horticulture, or agriculture. I studied Anthropology and International Studies in college. After graduation, I went on to work for the International Rescue Committee, first as a youth program coordinator, and later as a special needs case worker assisting refugee families being resettled in the Salt Lake Valley.

After Guy got a job that moved us from Salt Lake City to Corvallis, Oregon a string of serendipitous events landed me at Wild Garden Seed. It didn’t take long for Frank Morton’s extraordinary passion for seed farming and plant breeding to rub off on me. Within a few months on the job, I was hooked on the art and science of seed saving. My 5 years at Wild Garden Seed influenced Grand Prismatic in so many ways, from our method of precision winnowing to our brand loyalty toward the storage totes we buy.

Other factors of my background that have influenced Grand Prismatic are my love of fiber arts and dye plants (which we feature prominently in our catalog), and my capacity to enjoy extremely tedious tasks like hand-filling thousands of seed packets at a time, winnowing for days on end, and what can feel like endless weeding projects.

Guy: I have been involved in a variety of ethnobotanical projects through work, study, and my personal life, and experiencing communities with deep-rooted, thriving relationships with plants and ecosystems has been very impactful. This has inspired me to look more deeply at how I engage with plants and the received knowledge and perspectives gained from my own cultural upbringing and schooling.

The deep relationship with place and the intimate knowledge of how to live with your surroundings are constant messages in ethnobotany. Our modern lifeways and global economy have obscured and abstracted that sense of immediate connection with nature in many of our daily lives.

Through Grand Prismatic Seed, I hope to introduce people to plants and ways to interact with them that provide meaningful connections to the natural world.

My work in field botany, habitat restoration, and native plant and seed production has developed my knowledge of plant ecology of various regions in the western U.S. That knowledge gives me insight into underutilized plant species. I also learned many skills, techniques, and perspectives that are transferable to seed farming and provide additional avenues for us to explore, such as seed production for ecological restoration efforts.

Similarly, my current work in water conservation gardening at Red Butte Garden and Arboretum has exposed me to a huge diversity of plants used in many styles of gardening, especially plants that support sustainable gardening practices.

I believe that through my time spent in each of these disciplines, I have developed a holistic viewpoint that gives Grand Prismatic Seed a multi-faceted nature and the ability to offer customers the opportunity to explore and develop their gardens in exciting ways.

In the U.S., seed companies are often located on the west or east coast. What led you to start Grand Prismatic in Utah? 

We were both raised in Utah and when we decided to take the leap and start our own seed farm, the idea of being close to family again felt really grounding and comforting. After 5 years of living and farming in Oregon, we also missed the landscapes and flora of Utah, and the idea of offering many of our favorite Utah native plants alongside domesticated crops in our seed catalog was really exciting for us both.

The opportunity to make plant selections in an environment that has fewer seed growers and plant breeders also appealed to us. As climate change continues to make growing conditions less predictable, having adaptable seeds selected under diverse environmental pressures will become increasingly important. 

Compared to our mild climate here in the Pacific Northwest, the Intermountain West seems to experience more extreme temperatures and weather. How have those conditions impacted the varieties that you choose to grow, and has this changed over time?

The Intermountain West is definitely a harsh environment for seed production. The silver lining is that our plants end up having LOTS of selection pressures like intense hail storms in the spring, early and late frosts, and large thunderstorms with strong winds fueled by monsoon moisture in late summer. Over time these selection events will produce increasingly resilient plant seeds. 

Each season we grow a handful of varieties that we know are unlikely to produce seeds before frost, but we love pushing the envelope to see what we can and cannot grow here in the high desert. Sometimes it takes years of experimentation to get things to work just right, especially with how variable our growing season is year to year. 

An example of this longer-term experimentation with varieties is our time spent with Japanese indigo (pictured above). The first 2 years that we planted it were pretty demoralizing, and we questioned whether or not it was a viable seed crop in our region. The plants grew beautifully here, but they weren’t able to produce seeds before frosty autumn weather set in.

Instead of throwing in the towel, we saved seeds from the few individuals that bloomed a tad earlier and were slightly more frost hardy, and then we grew those seeds out with a mix of other Japanese indigo varieties with a similar leaf shape.

The result of this mixture of genetics and lots of natural selection via extreme Utah weather events has been a beautiful population of robust plants that are a very reliable dye and seed crop for us year after year.  

I would say that our method for selecting varieties hasn’t changed too much over time, but the harsh conditions of our climate have definitely brought us more respect for the rugged native plants that we grow.  

In the early years of Floret, I rented land from a neighbor and I was interested to read that you also lease some of your growing area. Can you tell us a little more about how you came to find your current location?

After losing our original leased land to the expansion of a nearby highway in 2019, we were having a difficult time finding more land to grow on. Luckily, Rikki Longino, who is now a dear friend, came across a post we had on Instagram regarding our land search and reached out to us about extra growing space that they had available at the Mobile Moon Co-op (MMC). We’ve now been growing crops at the MMC for four seasons and love working alongside them.  

In addition to land leased at the MMC, we plant high-maintenance seed crops in the yard of the house we rent and have an ever-growing diversity of seed crops at Top Crops farm in downtown Salt Lake City. Having three different growing locations can be a lot to juggle, but this allows us to have multiple isolation plots for plants of the same species. 

There are definitely constraints that come with leasing land, and in many cases, like our first lease, you may end up losing all the work you have invested, but the financial commitment of leasing property is far less burdensome than having large land debts. 

Most farmland being sold in our area is priced for future subdivisions and not agriculture, which has prevented us from being able to afford a permanent home for Grand Prismatic Seed. We love our current growing locations but look forward to the security that would come from a future forever farm. (If you are reading this, and happen to have any leads on a little house in Utah with land priced for agriculture, send us an e-mail!) 

Your online shop features an extensive collection of varieties that can be used for natural dyeing. What drew you to this special group of plants, and how do you go about selecting the seeds that you offer?

James: I became interested in dye plants as a teenager shortly after my sister and grandma taught me to knit. Knitting exposed me to a whole new world of fiber arts, and natural dyeing quickly caught my attention. After getting my first books on natural dyes, I became completely mesmerized by the process of coaxing color from plants. My fascination with this process has only grown as I’ve become a more experienced dyer. 

When we started selecting the first dye plants we wanted to grow for our catalog, we were surprised by how difficult it was to source seeds, and even more surprised by the extremely low seed counts (and germination rates) of the varieties that were on the market.

An example would be Japanese indigo where many packets offered in the U.S. contain as few as 10 to 25 seeds per packet, and most of those seeds aren’t viable. (Japanese indigo seed doesn’t have a very long shelf life.) 

Through a lot of research, tedious seed sourcing, plant trialing, dye experiments, and crop successes and failures, we’ve been able to curate a beautiful lineup of seeds for dye plants, and we add varieties to that list each season. We are also happy to be offering seed counts that give customers a greater chance of success with their dye gardens. 

Many of the varieties you grow at Grand Prismatic are open-pollinated. Can you tell our readers a little more about what distinguishes open-pollinated plants from other varieties and why you’ve chosen to focus on them?

We believe a cornerstone of food sovereignty is the ability of farmers and gardeners to save their own seed and adapt varieties to meet the needs of their environment and community. Because of this core tenet, we grow open-pollinated varieties that will produce true-to-type seeds when saved by their new stewards.

Open-pollinated plants are allowed to naturally pollinate within their variety, while hybrids are created by controlling the pollination of two inbred lines to produce a new uniform variety with specific attributes. If you save seeds from hybrid parents, it’s unlikely that their progeny will have the traits you originally desired. Because of this, gardeners and farmers relying on hybrid varieties must return to the hybrid growers year after year to buy more seeds.

You talk a lot about the importance of farmers and gardeners being able to save their own seeds, which is something I’m passionate about as well. Do you have any advice or tips for those of our readers who haven’t tried their hand at seed saving yet?

Definitely! We have two main tips:

First off, we recommend that readers interested in seed saving start by saving seeds from large-seeded domesticated crops like sunflowers, safflower, peas, and beans. Many generations of people across the world have spent thousands of years building relationships with these plants, and that’s resulted in traits that make their seed harvest and cultivation intuitive and straightforward. 

Large-seeded domesticated crops no longer have intricate seed dispersal mechanisms that can make the seeds difficult to collect (like milkweed seeds floating away in the wind, or lupine pods exploding to propel seeds). Many of these plants have also lost their built-in dormancy, which allows them to germinate more quickly, easily, and uniformly when we plant them. 

The seeds of many non-domesticated plants retain innate physical and chemical mechanisms that prevent the seeds from germinating all at once or without special environmental signals that are tied to survival in the plant’s natural surroundings. These signals are often connected to patterns of temperature, moisture, decomposition, wildfire, or other phenomena of the natural world that the plants have evolved with and adapted to. Because of this, undomesticated crops can be quite frustrating for beginning gardeners or seed savers. 

Domesticated plants with large seeds are also much easier to clean without professional tools. A box fan or heavy breeze can easily remove much of the chaff, and when the seeds are clean of debris, the large size makes them easy to inspect for maturity and health.  

By saving seeds from large-seeded domesticated plants, you get to benefit from the brilliance of our ancestors’ work who have made the job so much easier, while also joining a chain of seed savers that will connect you to the next generation of growers.

Our second recommendation is to focus on plants that are self-fertile, meaning that their own flowers can pollinate themselves. With self-fertile plants, you are more likely to end up saving seed for a plant that will produce the vegetables, flowers, etc. that you expect. With outcrossing plants, you’ll need to be much more aware of nearby plants of the same species that may cross with your crop. 

Winter or summer squash are examples of commonly grown plants that can take special care to maintain the characteristics desired by the seed saver. This is due to the fact that one of their main pollinators is a very widespread native bee species that can cover significant distances while pollinating almost exclusively squash plants. What can result is a seed carrying very different genetics than what you are expecting. 

As you get more familiar with seed saving and seed cleaning, smaller seeded crops and native plants will quickly become more approachable!   

I’m impressed by the number of unique and hard-to-find varieties that are included in your catalog. What criteria do you use when selecting the seeds that you offer each year?

Thank you! We hope to inspire people to explore plants by catering to a wide diversity of gardening interests and goals, including food, medicine, dye, natives, habitat enrichment, soil building, and beauty. Some selections come down to personal preference for flavor, aesthetics, and other traits.

We generally try not to use our limited growing spaces for plants that can be sourced easily from large producers unless it is something we have worked to adapt to our local growing conditions, and we always aim to identify plants that we can grow well and that will produce healthy seed crops.

Many heirloom varieties have fallen out of cultivation or have gone extinct. When we identify an heirloom variety that we want to steward, we like to get those seeds out to people and practice conservation through dissemination.

Another goal for our selections is to highlight less commonly known and grown native flora from different regions. We want to provide plants that offer something special to gardeners, whether it is a chance to enhance/support the local ecology by including local wildflowers in their growing space, propagate uncommon wild food and medicine plants, or to incorporate tough, adaptable plants in their garden that create beauty while using fewer resources.

Lastly but importantly, we strive to avoid plants that are known to become invasive and do damage to ecosystems in different areas. If we grow a plant with this kind of potential, we do our best to warn people of the risk and always encourage customers to consult their local state noxious weed lists before ordering seeds.

Last year you offered a few varieties that were part of the Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI). Can you tell us a little more about OSSI and its benefits?  

OSSI was developed to provide plant breeders with a way to identify their varieties as “open source” and protect them from future patents. The goal of this is to expand and maintain access to germplasm at a time when farmers worldwide are increasingly dependent on patented seeds that they can’t legally save or share. 

After a plant breeder has submitted a variety to OSSI, seeds of that variety are then sold with the following pledge on each packet:

OSSI PLEDGE: You have the freedom to use these OSSI-Pledged seeds in any way you choose. In return, you pledge not to restrict others’ use of these seeds or their derivatives by patents or other means, and to include this Pledge with any transfer of these seeds or their derivatives.

OSSI also lays out four seed freedoms, which helps to summarize their stance on what an “open source” seed is:

1. The freedom to save or grow seed for replanting or for any other purpose. 
2. The freedom to share, trade, or sell seed to others.
3. The freedom to trial and study seed and to share or publish information about it.
4. The freedom to select or adapt the seed, make crosses with it, or use it to breed new lines and varieties.

What are you most excited about for the upcoming growing season, and what is the best way for people to stay up to date with your current offerings? 

We are excited about all the new varieties coming to our 2024 catalog, but two that we’re most enthusiastic about are ‘Prairie Sun’ Rudbeckia which is a stunning cut flower and dye plant, and a bicolor Coreopsis that will be the fourth variety of dyer’s Coreopsis that we have available. We’ll also have fresh Japanese indigo back in stock! 

One of the things that surprises us and delights us most each season is seeing customer photos on Instagram or sent to our email that show their happy plants or incredible dye projects featuring plants grown from Grand Prismatic Seed. People are SO creative! 

We are also pretty excited about a handful of educational blog posts that we have in the pipeline for 2024. 

The best way to stay up to date with our offerings is to sign up for our newsletter.

Thank you both so much for taking the time to tell Floret readers about Grand Prismatic. I’m really excited to grow more of your offerings this year. 

Grand Prismatic is offering a generous giveaway of five $100 gift cards to their online shop. For a chance to win, simply post a comment below telling us about your favorite dye plant, or one that you’re interested in trying. Winners will be announced on January 16. Please note: This giveaway is open to U.S. and Canadian residents only.

Update: A huge congratulations to our winners Rebecca, Alina, Alex, Sarah Aumsbaugh and Julianna.

To learn more and connect with Grand Prismatic Seed, be sure to visit their website and follow them on Instagram.

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This spring when I was researching clematis varieties for the cutting garden, I stumbled upon an interview on Grace Alexander’s blog with a Ukrainian grower named Alla Olkhovska. I then started following Alla on Instagram and was completely taken aback by her beautiful photography, her unusual seed offerings, and most of all her story. 

Alla, her husband Vitaliy, and her family live in the eastern part of Ukraine, about 20 miles south of the Russia-Ukraine border. When the war started in February of 2022, Alla was unable to leave the country due to Vitaliy’s severe health issues and being the primary caregiver for her elderly grandmother and mother-in-law. 

After learning about Alla and continuing to follow her journey, I realized just how special her story was and knew it needed to be shared with the world. Over the past few months, Alla sat for numerous interviews, shared hundreds of photographs, filmed nearly 200 videos with her old iPhone, and we even found a talented local cinematographer to spend a few days with her in the garden. It’s a bit of a miracle that it all came together like it did, and it feels very much meant to be. 

All of this footage came together in the most beautiful and poignant documentary film called Gardening in a War Zone. I highly encourage you to set aside some time in the next few days to watch this special story rooted in beauty, inspiration, and hope. 

For more of the backstory on how I came to know Alla, her passion for sharing beauty, and why this project matters so much, be sure to watch this special First Look. I recommend starting with this video first before watching the full film. 

We also had the opportunity to interview Alla (which you can read below) about her garden, her love of clematis, and her new book, Clematis, which dives deep into this special group of plants. At the bottom of this interview, you’ll find all the ways to support Alla and enter a wonderful giveaway to win a copy of her book and some of her magical clematis seeds.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

 Alla, thank you so much for taking the time to share more about your flower journey. You live in Kharkiv in the Eastern part of Ukraine, and your garden is located in the heart of the city. Can you tell us what it’s like? What kind of plants do you grow? 

My garden is my lifelong love. 

It’s imperfect, but I’m constantly thinking whether I really would like it to be perfect and I think the answer is no. 

When you enter through the very old wooden gate made by my great-grandfather 50 years ago you will see the first half of the garden. It is divided into two almost equal parts. The first part is somewhat lower and has standing water in the spring. As a result, it can be dangerous for many rare plants. So, in this space, I grow easy-care plants that will withstand the conditions. 

In the place where the water doesn’t reach, I made a big peony flower bed. There are lots of modern varieties which I managed to get from other gardeners, and old varieties which were planted by my great grandmother! They are the biggest treasures for me. The bushes were old and weak, so I divided them and took care of them and now they are covered with big double, scented flowers every year—what a joy!

Walking along the house you enter the second part of the garden which is much more exquisite. I tried to follow a natural planting style so my clematis are often vining over the bushes and up into the trees, and there are rare perennials growing under several old apple trees that were planted by my great-grandfather. I’m especially proud of the pine trees which I grew from seed and now they are twice as tall as me! I can say that my garden is a paradise for me. It’s an oasis of serenity and positive emotions in a desert of hostilities and missile attacks. When I work in the garden and there are no terrible air alert sounds, I forget for a while all the horrors of the war in which we live.

You have so many rare and interesting plants growing in your garden, but your specialty is clematis. What do you love about these plants in particular?

Oh, clematis is my special love! This is no ordinary flower; it is a vast and intricate genus comprised of lots of species from all over the world! Of course, it is composed of mostly vigorous, woody, climbing vines. But some varieties like Clematis integrifolia are shrubby, like an herbaceous perennial.

The sizes vary tremendously as well, starting from dwarfs such as creeping Clematis marmoraria or Clematis columbiana var. tenuiloba ‘Ylva’ and finishing with the gigantic vines such as Clematis montana or Clematis armandii, which easily reach 7 m (23 ft) high or more! 

If you plant species and cultivars of various groups, you will receive continuous clematis flowering from mid-spring up until frosts, which is really impressive!

Another fascinating aspect is the intricate dance of colors and shapes that clematis exhibit. The flowers range from delicate bells to impressive big starbursts, and the color palette spans the entire spectrum. It’s a living kaleidoscope that transforms the garden into a captivating work of art. I am absolutely amazed by the versatility and adaptability of clematis.

There are nearly 400 unique species of clematis but as I understand from your book, they fall into three main groups. Can you talk a bit more about the different groups, their bloom time, and their pruning needs? 

Clematis are subdivided into three main groups which have similar characteristics and requirements, so when you buy your clematis you should pay attention to what botanical group it belongs to. By knowing the group, you will be able to determine the conditions the plant needs, including planting and growing tips, and you will be able to determine its habit and approximate height.

There are three main groups—Group 1, Group 2, and Group 3—and each one is pruned differently: 

Group 1: No Pruning or Light Pruning. This group includes early-flowering clematis varieties that bloom on the previous season’s growth and typically flower in spring. Pruning needs are minimal, usually limited to the removal of dead or damaged wood and light shaping. The primary objective is to maintain the plant’s natural form and remove any unwanted growth. Pruning is typically done after flowering, around late spring or early summer.

Group 2: Light Pruning. This group consists of large-flowered hybrids that bloom both on the previous season’s growth and on new growth. These clematis produce an initial flush of flowers in late spring or early summer on old wood, followed by a second flush in summer on new growth. Usually, if the variety is double, the first flowering on old wood will be double while the second wave of flowering on new growth will be single. Pruning in this group involves removing dead or weak stems, controlling size, and shaping the plant. The best time to prune is in late winter or early spring before new growth starts, but you can also do light pruning after the first flush of flowers to encourage more blooms later.

Group 3: Hard Pruning. This group is comprised of late-flowering clematis that bloom exclusively on new growth. These clematis varieties flower from mid- to late summer. Pruning for Group 3 clematis involves more drastic measures to stimulate vigorous growth and abundant flowering. In late winter or early spring, cut all the stems back to a pair of strong buds around 30 cm (12 in) above ground level. This severe pruning promotes new growth and ensures the best display of flowers during the summer. The shoots of some varieties may die down to their base during winter, in this case, you can completely remove them in early spring. 

If people are interested in growing clematis, what do they need to know? Are there any varieties that you’d recommend for beginners? 

First of all, gardeners shouldn’t be anxious about planting clematis because there are lots of varieties that will grow with little care. The most common mistake many new gardeners make is planting large-flowered varieties from Group 2. I have very few of these varieties in the garden because they are difficult and inclined to wilt. 

If you plant varieties from Group 1 and Group 3, you will be able to enjoy your plants without struggling with them constantly. I just adore the bell-shaped varieties, which have turned out to be very stable in the garden. 

I also highly recommend all Clematis integrifolia varieties and deriving hybrids (‘Fascination’, ‘Jan Fopma’ (pictured above), ‘Josie’s Midnight Blue’, and many others), and bushy clematis such as Clematis stans, Clematis heracleifolia, and their hybrids. Atragene is my early spring love which I just can’t imagine my garden without!

Until very recently, I was unaware that so many clematis varieties could be started from seed. Can you share more about this process? 

My favourite way of sowing clematis seeds is the natural way. I do not like sowing in pots because it requires too much time and additional care, and you need to constantly check if they are too wet or too dry. Since I do not live where the garden is located, sticking to all these procedures is next to impossible, so I normally sow them directly into the garden. Of course, in this way, they take longer to germinate, but for me, this method remains the most effective.

You can also start seeds in small pots using a stimulant called gibberellic acid (GA3). This acid is a natural growth hormone, and since it promotes seed germination, it is used to increase the percentage of germination. Here are instructions on how to sow clematis seeds using gibberellic acid:

1. Place the seeds in a tea bag. 
2. Optional: Treat the seeds with a fungicide for 24 hours (I use Bayer, Syngenta, etc.). 
3. Rinse the seeds with water 3 to 4 times. 
4. Soak the seeds in water for 1 to 2 days. 
5. Carefully peel off the outer hard shell of the seeds (you can use, for example, nail scissors). Treat the seeds with a solution of 125–250 ppm gibberellic acid (I found that 1 ppm = 1 mg/kg). If you use a concentration of 250 ppm treat them for 6 hours or if you use a concentration of 125 ppm treat them for 12 hours at room temperature. 
6. Wrap the seeds in a damp paper tea towel and place them in a ziplock bag.
7. Store the bag at room temperature from 2 weeks to 2 months.
8. Check the contents of the package every 3 days.
9. As soon as you notice the appearance of the root, plant the seeds in pots or a small container. 
10. Do not forget to water the planted seeds regularly. Shoots in pots will appear approximately 2 months after planting. The percentage of seed germination when using gibberellic acid ranges from 40 to 100%.
11. Once the seedlings have developed several true leaves, they can be transplanted into larger containers. Be sure to handle the seedlings carefully to avoid damaging the delicate roots. 
12. Clematis vines need a support structure to climb on from the very beginning of their life, so be sure to provide a trellis or other support for the seedlings as they grow. 

You have a huge offering of seeds that you grow and also sell. How many varieties of clematis do you currently have in your garden, and can you share some favorites? 

You know, I never counted the exact number of the clematis I grow, but my collection continues to expand because I sow more and more seeds every year. I definitely have more than 80 clematis varieties in the garden now.

Naming my favourite varieties is a really challenging task, as I love them all! If we talk about vining clematis, I just adore all the bell-shaped varieties. Clematis ‘Princess Red’ (pictured above, top left), which has a pleasant fragrance, Clematis glaucophylla (pictured above, top right), Clematis viorna, Clematis viorna ‘Liviana’, Clematis pitcheri, Clematis versicolor, Clematis ‘Peveril Peach’ (also known as ‘Sonnette’), Clematis ‘Fascination’, Clematis ‘Jan Fopma’, Clematis ‘Josie’s Midnight Blue’, Clematis crispa, Clematis crispa ‘Titipu’ … I just can’t stop listing them. The main thing is that all of these varieties flower throughout the summer, and some even bloom up until the first frosts. 

If we talk about non-vining, bushy varieties, I just adore Clematis stans and Clematis ‘I am Stanislaus’. Both of them flower abundantly in autumn with blue flowers. They are extremely easy to grow—you just plant them and forget, but in autumn you have all this beauty!

Clematis ‘Sundance’ (pictured above, bottom) is also my autumn favorite! It’s so abundant, but the main beauty is its seed heads, which are just extra gorgeous.

I love incorporating clematis vines into arrangements, especially larger statement pieces. What are your favorite varieties for arranging with? Do you have any tricks for maximizing vase life? 

I just adore garden arrangements and I make them all the time as soon as the first flowers start blooming in the garden! The only thing I do to prolong the vase life is regularly changing the water. 

Using clematis as a cut flower is a very interesting topic! Bell-shaped clematis are among the best for arranging as they have a very good vase life. Clematis versicolor, Clematis texensis, Clematis viorna, Clematis viorna ‘Liviana’, and Clematis ‘Kaiu’ are all good performers as cut flowers.

It may be surprising, but I love using clematis seed heads in my arrangements. They always add a touch of elegance and look so good with other flowers!

When incorporating clematis seed heads into floral designs, it is important to consider their placement and complementing elements. Their delicate nature requires careful handling to prevent damage, and they should be positioned in a way that highlights their unique forms and textures. Pairing them with other dried elements, such as branches, berries, or dried flowers, can create a harmonious composition that evokes a sense of timeless beauty.

By the way, the most beautiful seed heads are on Clematis ‘Sundance’ (pictured above, bottom), they are just amazing and a staple in any arrangement!

You are such a talented photographer and clearly have a passion for this work. How did you get your start?

It all started in childhood with my father’s old Zenith camera. I wanted to take a picture of every flower and every grass, but due to the limitations that the film imposed, I had to take only family shots. It was an old Soviet camera and all the settings were manual, so it was really difficult to use and I didn’t always get beautiful photos.

I will never forget the delight that I experienced when my friend brought back from her internship in the U.S. the first digital camera with an LCD and an unlimited ability to shoot anything and everything—and even instantly see the result on the screen—just miraculously wonderful and unbelievable! 

And soon such a camera was gifted to me by my father. Though it was a cheap point-and-shoot camera, it was an extremely expensive purchase for our family and my happiness had no limits! I was inspired so much! 

At the same time, I had started gardening and someone told me about Facebook, and I started sharing my flower photos there and received many warm comments. Then I learned about Instagram and immediately liked it, photography was at its core. I started posting photos there and received more and more wonderful comments.

Because of this, my husband Vitaliy (pictured above) encouraged me to buy a better camera. I was against it for a long time as the purchase was too expensive for us and would make a hole in our budget, but finally, we took a loan and bought a Nikon D750 with a 105mm macro lens. Oh those wonderful peaceful times before the war when you could take a loan for a camera! 

The new camera was difficult for me to use because it was really heavy and it had lots of settings which I didn’t understand easily. But when I saw the results and the photos were of such amazing quality, I decided I would learn how to take photos with this camera, and eventually, I succeeded! You can do anything when you have a strict aim and are inspired!

My Instagram followers ask me all the time to make a course on flower photography. So right now I’m working on a series of workshops dedicated to flower photography for those eager to take beautiful flower photos. As soon as I’m ready, I will make an announcement on my Instagram account. 

Ukraine is a very young country when it comes to gardening and has only recently been influenced by the Western world. What do you see for the future of Ukrainian gardens? 

I believe that the evolution and the future of Ukrainian gardening will be marked by a harmonious blend of both local traditions and influences from Western gardening culture. 

When I started growing rare plants, I was among the first Ukrainian gardeners to explore and introduce new species. I’m sure that rare plants and beautiful landscape design will develop as soon as the war finishes and people are able to live in peace and enjoy gardening again. 

Many foreign gardeners just adore sowing seeds while my compatriots weren’t even aware that such a possibility existed until recently! I think the trend of growing plants from seeds will definitely become stronger. Growing from seeds is a journey that involves patience and care, and there is so much joy in witnessing life unfold. It adds a whole new dimension to the gardening experience, helps to preserve rare endangered species, and makes gardening more cost-effective, as seeds are generally more affordable than buying mature plants.

Thank you Alla for sharing your story and love for clematis with us. I am so excited for people to learn about your important work and sow your beautiful seeds in their gardens. 

To honor Alla’s story and encourage more gardeners to try their hand at growing clematis from seed, we’re giving away 12 special collections that we ordered from her. Each collection includes seeds from seven of her favorite varieties, a note from Alla, and a copy of her wonderful new e-book, Clematis. 

For a chance to win, please share what part of Alla’s story impacted you the most. Winners will be announced on Thursday, December 21. Please note: This giveaway is open to residents in the U.S. and Canada only. 

Update: A huge congratulations to our winners: Katrina Scala, Kate Hollander, Joanna Glud, Erin Jenkins, Mary Holowach, Katherine Ball, Suzanne H.,  Kim Finger, Colleen Martin, Katelyn Wissinger, April Whiston and Debra

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If you’re interested in learning more about Alla and supporting her work, here are all of the important details: 

Purchase a copy of Alla’s book

If you want to learn all about clematis, Alla wrote a wonderful e-book all about them. This 124-page book includes her beautiful photography, growing advice based on her personal experience, plus her favorite varieties (organized by bloom time), and instructions on how to propagate clematis through cuttings and layering, and from seed. 

We’ve just added Alla’s new e-book all about clematis to the Floret Shop if you would like to order a copy. Since it is a digital product, it will be delivered by email right away. 100% of the proceeds from Alla’s book sales through our shop will go directly to her—purchase your copy here.

Make a donation 

If you’re not interested in seeds or a book and would like another way to help, you can simply send money. The exchange rate is very much in Alla’s favor, and what might seem like a small amount will go a long way for her and her family. 

Funds can be sent via PayPal to (email protected). All donations go directly to Alla, and if you enter HUMANITARIAN AID into the “What’s this payment for” field, fees and taxes will be waived.

Subscribe to Patreon

Alla just started a Patreon account with three monthly subscription levels: snowdrop ($5 USD/month) clematis ($10 USD/month), and peony ($25 USD/month). These subscriptions will allow Alla to continue her seed-saving efforts and will support her family during the upcoming winter months. For more information, click here.

Order seeds

Please note: Alla is currently sold out of seeds because of your incredible support. After she processes all of the orders, she may be able to restock a few varieties. She will be posting updates on her Instagram account. 

Alla sells seeds for clematis, peonies, phlox, and rare plants and ships worldwide. To place an order, visit her online catalogs here and here.

Follow Alla on social media

Alla has a wonderful Instagram account where she shares beautiful pictures from the garden, interesting videos of her work, and updates from Ukraine. She also has a Facebook page that you can follow and a YouTube channel that you can subscribe to. Be sure to leave her a comment and some encouraging words.

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