Iris seeds for the garden that has decided it deserves better than the garden centre allows. Iris takes 2-3 years from seed to first bloom, at which point it provides colour that justifies every month of waiting.

Iris is a perennial named for the Greek word for rainbow that requires patience before its first bloom. 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 Iris from Seed

Sowing and Germination

Sow in autumn for natural cold stratification, or stratify artificially for 4-6 weeks before spring sowing.

Care and Harvest

Perennial. Flowers in year 2-3 from seed. Diverse colours. Low maintenance once established.

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.