Columbine seeds for the garden that has decided it deserves better than the garden centre allows. Columbine self-hybridises so freely that each generation of seedlings is technically a new variety, which is either creative or unpredictable.

Columbine is a delicate perennial with distinctive spurred flowers that hummingbirds visit and which self-seeds with admirable independence. Each packet is hermetically vacuum-sealed -- removing the oxygen that causes standard paper seed packets to lose germination viability within approximately one year. State law requires a 3-year viability label on sealed packaging. NASA research on hermetic seed storage indicates viability of up to 10 years under proper conditions. Every packet is non-GMO and germination-tested at independent third-party labs before it earns its Japanese woodblock print artwork.

How to Grow Columbine from Seed

Sowing and Germination

Surface sow in spring or autumn. Cold stratification or autumn sowing improves germination.

Care and Harvest

Perennial. Self-seeds and hybridises freely. Attractive to hummingbirds. Distinctive spurred flowers.

Why Vacuum-Sealed Seeds Last Longer

Standard paper seed packets are permeable to oxygen and moisture -- the two primary causes of seed degradation. Most paper-packaged seeds begin losing germination viability after approximately one year, contributing to significant garden-industry waste: packets purchased, not planted, expired, discarded. Shido Seeds are hermetically vacuum-sealed. The packet does not expire quietly in a drawer. It waits.

About the Packaging

Every Shido seed packet is illustrated in the style of Japanese 1910s woodblock printing -- designed and drawn in-house by Chive, the Toronto ceramics studio that has been exhibiting at the Chelsea Flower Show in London every year and does not, as a matter of principle, sell to big-box retailers. Customers collect the packets as a series. This was not the original plan.