Hildale woman cherishes Utah wildflowers

HILDALE, Washington County — While most people think of retirement as a time to rest and relax, one southern Utah gardener has turned her retirement into an interesting niche business: harvesting wildflower seeds.

By design, the business keeps Virginia Markham active and excited about some of the wonderful native plants in our area. Markham, who makes her home in Hildale, Utah, said she wanted to do something as a retirement hobby.

"Plants are a part of my family history," she said, "We always had a vegetable garden and grew fruit trees."

Markham credits her sister, Janett Warner, for helping launch the business. "Janett took a trip to Alaska, and when she came back, she brought some packages of some wildflower seeds. She told me that this is what I should do for my business."

Markham then got some help from Susan Meyers, a native-plant specialist with the USDA Forest Service in Provo. "She helped me get some seeds and taught me how to harvest some others that grow in my area," Markham said. "My sister also has a great interest in native plants and helped me get started."

"I also love to take pictures and feature some of those I have taken on my Web site (www.wildflowersunltd.com) and packages. I usually go shoot the pictures, and then six weeks later, I go back and collect the seed."

Markham works with the Utah Native Plant Society and others to keep up on what plants are popular and which ones are easiest to grow from seed.

She also works with the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food to make certain she complies with their rules and regulations.

Her home business operates out of a seed-filled room. In it, she has a scale to weigh the seeds and various screens and other cleaning equipment. Her seed-storage boxes are cardboard, so the seeds stay dry and viable and don't mold like those stored in plastic.

"To qualify to sell my seed in the state, I have to meet the requirement of viability of the seed so customers will know it will germinate," she said. "I have to list the year it was tested, and if it does not sell that year, I have to retest it before I sell it."

Markham does her own germination testing, and she also lists the source of the seed. "Of course, the seeds all have to be labeled correctly, and Susan Meyers helped me with that," she said.

Seed collection is hard work and not without its perils. Markham sometimes locates a collection area only to return and find the plants did not set a good crop of seed that year, or that insects, deer, rabbits or other animals have eaten the seed crop for that year.