Seed-Grown Trees & Shrubs

Trees and shrubs grown from seed instead of grafted. Every seedling is a little different from its parent and from its siblings, and that variation is the point. Seedlings grow on their own roots, adapt to tough sites and are how every cold-hardy variety got started in the first place.

More about seed-grown plants

A grafted tree is a clone. A seedling is a new individual, so you're planting a range of genetics instead of one bet. That's why most of these come in bundles. Plant several, see which ones do best on your ground, and keep the winners. It's how landraces get made.

For fruit, we grow seedlings out of parents that have already proven themselves in hard winters: Siberian C peach, Zard and Morden 604 apricots, Manchurian apricot, Spartan x Mac apple and Monongahela crabapple. Native fruit like native American plum, chokecherry, serviceberry, buffaloberry and golden currant is seed-grown too, the way it grows in the wild.

Our nut trees are mostly seedlings, including Purvis Hardy and Ultra Northern English walnuts, black walnut and Cortland and American hazelnut. So are the trial bundles of pawpaw and persimmon, where the whole idea is finding the few that make it here. Our growing fruit trees from seed video page explains the thinking.

Questions we get

Will a seedling fruit tree taste like its parent?

Not exactly. Each seedling is a new mix of genes, so fruit size and flavor vary. Most are good and some are better than the parent, which is how new varieties are found.

Why plant seedlings instead of grafted trees?

Seedlings grow on their own roots, adapt to your site and give you a range of genetics instead of one clone. In tough climates that variation is a big advantage.