Wild West Seed sees flower interest rising

Wild West Seed Inc. has a quiet but substantial presence in southwest Idaho, where it grows some of its flower seeds and most of its vegetable seed. The Treasure Valley is far and away our biggest production region by acres,” Business Development Manager Matt Hilbert said. “On the vegetable side, most is grown in the Treasure Valley.”

The 20-year-old Wild West Seed, a family-owned company based in Albany, Ore., produces open-pollinated flower, vegetable and herb seed, and wildflower mixes for other seed companies that sell primarily to home gardeners. With 10 full-time employees, it does business nationally and to an extent internationally — competing with big-name, merger-enlarged agribusinesses, among others.

Those big companies participate in the same market. We are definitely small,” Hilbert said. “We will be faced with our challenges, but we enjoy what we are doing. Mother Nature can throw you the challenge, but the real challenge is overcoming. Between us in the group, we usually come up with some pretty good solutions.”

Wild West grows echinacea and perennial blue flax flower seed in the Treasure Valley of southwestern Idaho and southeastern Oregon, and has tried to grow some other flower seed in the region. It’s one of the company’s smaller flower-seed production areas, “but we have had growers in the area express interest in growing flower seed for us,” he said.

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