So you think you’re  familiar with marigolds and zinnias? Well, it’s time to take another look, I think, as I have been longingly in the seed list from Oregon-based Peace Seedlings. 

Among their offerings are multi-toned zinnias in shades you won’t have seen before, with names like Day Glow mix, and Rainbow Eyes.

And there’s a selection of not just at any little old marigold, like the ones in the garden center cellpacks—but instead extravagant 3 and 4 and even 6-foot-high plants loaded with flowers for cutting, or shrubby ones like ‘Red Metamorph’ that could form a beautiful garden hedge if planted in a row, or even a 10-footer that’s also known as Mexican tarragon, whose leaves are harvested as a culinary herb. Who knew?

They’re all the work of The Peace Seedlings team, who are here today to talk about their anything-but-ordinary varieties. Dylana Kapuler (above) and her partner, Mario DiBenedetto, founded Peace Seedlings in 2009, after helping Dylana’s parents, Alan and Linda Kapuler, with their longtime seed-breeding project called Peace Seeds. They have built on the legacy of Alan’s decades of organic seed breeding, and I’m so glad they’re here today from Corvallis, Oregon, to talk about some of that continuing work. 

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