Beautiful VanDusen Botanical Gardens was the site of Vancouver's first annual Heirloom Seed Swap on March 16th, 1990. The landmark event was sponsored by HANS in cooperation with VanDusen Gardens and facilitated by long-time organic gardener Sharon Rempel.

Rempel, a director of the Canadian Heritage Seed Program, places special importance on the value of open-pollinated, non-hybrid varieties of seeds, knowing that hundreds of small seed houses that specialized in non-hybrid varieties have either gone out of business or have been bought out by large multi-national interests. The new hybrids are controlled by the plant breeders who develop them (mostly multi-nationals) and have to be bought anew each year because hybrid seeds don't reproduce true.

The tone of the evening was sent by "I wish I had a garden," a poem written and recited by Vancouver's Sheila Weaver. Participants were treated to Sharon Rempel's educational and entertaining slide presentation on Heritage Gardens and Heirloom Seeds, which illustrated the importance of protecting the often rare open-pollinated varieties of flower and vegetable seeds.

Afterwards, gardeners were invited to share some of their treasured seeds with other gardeners and adopt a new variety or two of their own. "This way," claims Rempel, "instead of keeping these special seeds in their tight little family unites, we share them with others and that way increase seed diversity." She goes on to say, "I'd eventually like to see a Seed Bank developed here in BC to save some of these rare seeds from extinction."

Participants at the event included representatives from Abundant Life Seed Foundation of Port Townsend, Washington; Salt Spring Seeds; and VanDusen Garden's own seed saving program.

Smiling gardeners went home with protective fingers clutching tiny seeds entrusted to them to nurture and grow, satisfied in knowing that they were doing their part to save and increase heirloom seed stocks.

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