On a beautiful spring morning a few years ago, Randy Evans, director of Three Valley Conservation Trust in Oxford, was walking through a wooded area with the owner of the property, admiring the stunning array of wildflowers in bloom.
The woman, whose land is protected by a conservation easement secured through 3VCT, remarked how wonderful it would be if more people could enjoy the beauty of wildflowers firsthand. Suddenly, an idea began to germinate.
Teri Wickham, a staff member of the Three Valley Conservation Trust, restocks one of the organization’s wildflower seed libraries in Butler County.
Evans thought of all the Little Free Libraries that were springing up at the time, offering books for anyone to take, and thought that maybe a similar program might encourage more people to plant wildflowers. It was a project, he figured, that would fit right in with 3VCT’s mission.
Three Valley Conservation Trust is a nonprofit group that promotes conservation measures in Butler, Preble, and Montgomery Counties. Its 250 members mainly work to secure land conservation easements and raise awareness of the importance of protecting natural habitats and resources.
Evans and the 3VCT staff immediately jumped into some research and applied for a grant, which was approved in 2022, and “seed libraries” started springing up at various locations around Butler County in early 2023.
Members of the public may take seeds from the libraries, free of charge, to plant in their backyards or wherever they choose.
“We’re creating and growing pollinator habitats throughout the community,” Evans says. “Native plants are terrific because they take less water and are more likely to survive long-term.”
In turn, he says, those plants are a source of food and shelter for native bees and caterpillars. “If you’ve never planted native wildflowers, you’ll be surprised at the diversity of the pollinators they attract and how easy they are to maintain.”
The 3VCT seed libraries offer seed for 44 varieties of native Ohio wildflowers. Evans says the most popular seeds are for butterfly milkweed and other types of milkweed, cardinal flower, and blue lobelia. Other seeds available include purple coneflower, indigo, evening primrose, and columbine — stocked on a rotating basis depending on what’s available and what’s in season.
3VCT buys wildflower seeds in bulk from a seed supplier. It also receives donations of milkweed seed from the Butler County Soil and Conservation District. And now, thanks to a new Ohio law that has removed previous restrictions on collecting and sharing wildflower seeds as long as it’s for noncommercial purposes, local gardeners can also donate seeds to the cause.
Volunteers for the nonprofit divide the seeds into smaller, labeled packets and stock the libraries during the first week of every month from March until October or November.
Six 3VCD seed libraries are located in West Chester Township (at Keehner Park, Christ the King Lutheran Church, and Voice of America Park). The others are at Cherokee Park in Liberty Township, Ruder Preserve in Oxford, and Timberman Ridge in Hamilton. The MidPointe public libraries in Monroe, Trenton, Middletown, West Chester Township, and Liberty Township also have wildflower seed libraries.
Color photographs of the wildflowers in bloom are displayed on Three Valley Conservation District’s website along with planting instructions and directions to each of the seed libraries maintained by the trust.
Evans says that increased financial donations and more volunteers would allow the nonprofit to establish additional wildflower seed libraries. “So many people call us up and thank us for doing this,” Evans says.
Find a seed library near you
It’s likely enough there’s a free wildflower seed library near you. Some good places to find them include public libraries, local gardening clubs and Facebook groups, local chapters of Wild Ones (focuses on native plants), Soil and Water Conservation Districts, and county horticulture extension agents. A few others we found include:
- Watershed Stewardship Center, Parma
- Cleveland Public Library
- Holden Forests and Gardens, Kirtland
- Avondale Community Garden at Franklinton Farms, Columbus
- Nature Center at Shaker Lakes, Cleveland
- Westerville Public Library
- West Creek Conservancy, Parma
- Seed Vault, Annehurst
