“Seed provenance” – a lovely phrase that rolls off the tongue effortlessly, yet makes you sound knowledgeable!
What does ‘seed provenance’ mean?
In a nut shell… seed provenance is ‘where the seed comes from’. In other words, where – geographically – the parent trees grow and the seed is collected (rather than e.g. coming from the DIY store, or a supplier). It is our ‘bio-geographic habitat region’! This separates the UK into different regions in a different way to local authority regions.
The map below shows how Scotland is split up into seed zones. Here in Dumfries we are Seed Zone 109. The seed zone for Galloway is 108.
You can see that zone 109 also includes the Western Scottish Borders, parts of Northumbria and the North Cumbria coast.
The Woodland Trust suggests that when seed of local provenance is selected, it promotes “adaptation and resilience”. They also make the point that it, “reduces the pest and disease risk from imported seeds, saplings and trees”.
We collect from trees of local provenance as much as we can ourselves, because it also tends to be better adapted to our particular geographic area. It is more likely that our seeds, collected from trees of local provenance, will survive to grow strong and healthy. This is because the seed is already well acclimatised, adjusted and adapted to the conditions and habitat of this seed zone.
Happy seeds means happy customers!
To find out a bit more about how our seeds are selected, click to read the blog of the same title!
And to see some of Our Seed Trees, click on the link in green <<<!
