How to get native plant seeds — for free!

By Ryan Godfrey and Ellen Jakubowski

If you love working in your garden, winter may not be your favourite time of year. But just because you’re not out digging, planting, weeding and watering doesn’t mean you can’t get started on next season’s garden right now by getting your hands on some seeds.

While vegetable gardeners can order seeds online or from catalogues, native-plant gardeners have other ways to track down seeds that are native to their specific area and therefore especially helpful to local wildlife.

Best of all, you can usually get them for free!

Seed swaps and giveaways

Community events for exchanging seeds, often called Seedy Saturdays, happen over winter months — so keep an eye out for ones in your area. These usually include seeds from a variety of plant types (e.g., vegetables, herbs, native and non-native flowers) and are often free to attend. Seed swap-style events are based on the idea that each participant will bring seeds to share in exchange for the ones that they take home.

But there are also giveaway-style event with no expectation that you’ll bring seeds to exchange. These events can be a focal point in the year for the local gardening community to gather, and go beyond the seed swap to include food and craft vendors, educational workshops, children’s activities and more.

If you’re interested in participating in seed swaps but don’t yet have seeds to offer, check out our blogs on how to start a seed garden, so you can produce some, and how to harvest, clean and store your native plant seeds.

Organize your own event

Can’t find an event near you? Want to unite your community and help more native plant habitat take root? Anyone can host a Seedy Saturday, and Seeds of Diversity has excellent resources to help you do it.

Seed libraries

Another free way to get seeds is through seed libraries, which are just what they sound like: you “borrow” a package of seeds at your convenience and then “return” seeds later when the plants that you grow have produced some. These may be found at a local library branch or run independently by community members or groups.

Online groups and exchanges

Most seeds are lightweight and easy to ship, and online communities have sprung up to connect people who want to exchange them. These can be as simple as Facebook groups where people post what they have and what they’re looking for, or more sophisticated with searchable online plant lists like the North American Native Plant Seed Exchange. Remember to look for seed sources in or near your community to help ensure that they will grow into plants that thrive in local conditions and deliver maximum benefits for local wildlife.

Give the gift of seeds

If you have more native plant seeds than you can plant or exchange, they make great gifts during the holidays or other occasions for friends and loved ones who live nearby. Not only is it a gift for the person who receives them, the resulting plants will be a gift to local wildlife thanks to the food and shelter they provide.

How to package your seeds

A rule of thumb is to package and store seeds in a cool, dark and dry environment to prevent them from germinating and trying to grow before you want them to. Paper packaging, like coin envelopes for small amounts or paper lunch bags for larger amounts, works best.

Label each package with:

• Plant species name
• Where you harvested the seed from
• Any additional information you have on the seed’s history (i.e. the nursery or wild source of the plant that you harvested from)
• Date that you collected the seed

It’s also common, but not necessary, for the seed collector to include their name on the label so that the people who end up with the seeds know who to contact for more information on their history.

Tell us about your seed sharing efforts for a chance to win prizes

Our team at WWF-Canada wants to know how many people across Canada are sharing and receiving native plant seeds to help habitats flourish. Plus, when you sign up to our free re:grow platform and record that you’ve shared native plant seeds (or taken other wildlife-friendly actions) by June 15, 2026, you could win beautiful prizes crafted by Indigenous artists. Learn more on our contest page.