Dear Growing Friends:

Welcome to our 36th annual seed catalog!
One word can describe the 2025 season across most of the western states: drought. From west Texas to Washington state it looked like very little winter and spring moisture fell. There were many exceptions though. I was delighted to find that northern California and southern Oregon performed fairly well but even here I could tell the winter rains must have been below normal. I was especially shocked that central Washington was very dry, hardly any of the Lewisia tweedyi populations bloomed; I was unable to collect any seed from my preferred sites.  During my annual pilgrimage to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show in mid-February, I could see the mountains looked much drier compared to the spring of 2024. A drive into the Santa Catalina Mountains to the Arbutus arizonica site revealed these small trees failed to hold on to any seed like Arbutus texana does.
In late March, I decided I wanted to hike the entire 7-mile Primitive Loop trail at the Devil’s Garden in Arches National Park before the reservation system went into effect. The weather on March 25 was perfect for the hike, cool but sunny, little wind. Got lots of superb pictures of the hidden canyons, towers and arches prevalent along this trail. I’m just thankful that I can still accomplish a hike of this magnitude at my age. The shrubs were just starting to leaf out and the only color was the few scattered Lomatium latilobum plants blooming along the trail. They looked a bit stressed though, as did many of the shrubs and other perennials, foreshadowing the times ahead.

I decided I wanted to turn most of my greenhouse space into a rock garden so I spent much of April repairing or replacing panels and ripping out most of the benches. I scraped out most of the pea gravel so as to expose the bare soil underneath. Before bringing in any soil or rocks, the exposed concrete foundation and cinder block (32 inches high) had to be cleaned and coated with sealing asphalt, then covered with two layers of black plastic.  I then could start hauling in limestone rocks that I had ordered from Texas long ago. The first course or foundational layer is the most important because it has to support all of the higher layers. Texas limestone is a great stone to use for building rock or crevice gardens since they tend to be flattish and have jagged edges. I also ordered 8 yards of amended topsoil to blend with some of my native topsoil as well as 100 bags of compost. Amendments included a slow-release fertilizer, mineral supplements, bone meal and blood meal. Much of the removed pea gravel was folded back in for drainage. All this work would take all summer to accomplish because in the meantime I had to take a few trips if I was to collect some seed.

I took a break in mid-April to take advantage of the cool weather in the canyon lands. I headed out to the western slope in Colorado and hiked up Dominguez Canyon to see some petroglyphs. The main panel was right along the trail after 3.5 miles with smaller panels a bit further up. I was going to hike down the Honaker trail in southern Utah but I developed a bad cold and winter weather was threatening so I zoomed back home.
In early May, my wife Claudia and I took a trip to Taos and Las Cruces, New Mexico to do some touring and hiking at Bandelier National Monument. Near Taos, we saw the native American Pueblo, visited many art galleries, the Fechin Museum and the picturesque San Francisco de Asis Catholic Mission Church. Near Los Alamos we hiked Frijoles Canyon at Bandelier then toured the many museums displaying the Manhattan Project where the first atomic bomb was developed.

Meanwhile, the greenhouse plants were all greening up, the Japanese maples were leafing out and the outdoor lilies were budding up. Alas, on May 24 a big hailstorm hit the Denver area and wiped out all my lilies and shredded what few leaves were already present on the local trees and bushes. I’m glad I hadn’t planted all the geraniums out yet. The lilies recovered somewhat but the resulting blossom show was rather pathetic.

I was invited to sell seed at the annual NARGS convention held at the Botanic Gardens in Cheyenne, Wyoming this year. So I spent much of May preparing about a thousand seed packets which would be offered at their gift shop during the 4-day conference June 12-15. The wonderful staff there gave me a tour of the Gardens which was much larger than when I was last there 30 years ago. I was unable to attend the conference itself since I had already made plans for a seed collecting trip. The first day of the trip in early June, I spent some time around the Canyon City area where conditions looked pretty good. The Melampodium leucanthum plants were blooming and I discovered a population of Philadelphus microphyllus which I had looked for last year but couldn’t find probably due to the fact they were out of bloom already. Later, having gone over Wolf Creek Pass, I found a large patch of Iris missouriensis sporting many individual blooms in white surrounded by the usual blue flowers. Around Pagosa Springs, checking the local Townsendia glabella plants, they seemed a bit stressed and not as effulgent as usual. The next day, west of Cortez, Hymenoxys acaulis v. ivesiana was just coming into seed but I could see most of the local vegetation was even more stressed due to limited spring moisture. Heading down to Flagstaff, conditions only got drier and I could find no Calochortus flexuosus, Penstemon utahensis, Echinocactus, Amsonia or Mertensia macdougalii seeds. Only Baileya multiradiata managed a few blossoms along the highway near Cameron, Arizona. There were also a few seeds on the Agave parryi stalks left from last year south of Flagstaff. The next day I headed into the Mojave Desert and found only desolation. Some wild Asclepias subulata plants were trying to eke out a few blossoms but looked parched. Going over Walker Pass in southern California, however, I was pleasantly surprised to see that some of the Yucca brevifolia (Joshua tree) plants had bloomed and were in seed already. This was heartening news; maybe I would be able to find some seed in California after all. Indeed, driving into the western Sierra Nevada foothills yielded some good collections, including the rare Delphinium hansenii ssp. ewanianum, Calochortus albus and Triteleia montana. Driving through the Napa region the next day, I was delighted to find the local populations of Erythronium helenae had set a good amount of seed along with Calochortus tolmiei. Driving farther north along familiar routes yielded good amounts of Fritillaria pluriflora, Calochortus amabilis, Calochortus coeruleus, Allium hoffmanii and Erythronium citrinum v. roderickii. There were many disappointments too: the local Silene hookeri ssp. bolanderi and Balsamorhiza hookeri v. lanata populations were completely dried up. Southern Oregon is rich in flora and I managed to recollect many old favorites: Erythronium citrinum, Allium falcifolium, Lewisia oppositifolia, Phlox speciosa, Dodecatheon hendersonii, Pedicularis densiflora, Erythronium hendersonii and a new one—Arabis aculeolata. Up in southern Washington, I was hoping to find some Lomatium columbianum seeds and my preferred site north of Lyle yielded quite a bit. Northwest of Wenatchee, I was shocked to find the local Lewisia tweedyi populations had barely bloomed and set almost no seed. Driving home through Idaho and Wyoming I did not see any encouraging signs that this was going to be an abundant year.
Early July found me going up into the oil shales of northwest Colorado to see if I could get some more Astragalus lutosus seed and was shocked once again to find practically no winter or spring moisture had fallen. The oil shales were barren with only a few penstemons barely able to croak out a few stems. This area would be ablaze in about two weeks and would last a month before monsoon rains would put the fires out. So I hightailed it out of there and went back to the Canyon City area where abundant seeds of Melampodium leucanthum, Dalea jamesii, Leucocrinum montanum and Philadelphus microphyllus were ripe for the picking. Mid-July found me up in the Ferris Mountains of Wyoming hoping for some Physaria eburniflora seeds but the plants hadn’t even leafed out, let alone bloomed. However, I did manage to collect some Mertensia viridis, Dodecatheon conjugens and Lewisia rediviva seeds. Further west, along the Beaver Divide yielded some Astragalus simplicifolius and Oxytropis besseyi v. obnapiformis seeds. Near Opal, hoping to get some Astragalus jejunus seeds, I also found some A. purshii v. purshii plants had set a few seeds. Continuing on west across Nevada, which looked completely brown and dry, it was 103 degrees F. (40 degrees C.) by the time I reached Reno. The next day I headed up into the Sierra Nevadas and found a good amount of Erythronium purpurascens seed. Driving generally northward yielded various amounts of Fritillaria eastwoodiae, F. recurva and Ribes roezlii.  In the higher elevations of the Shasta region, Salvia sonomensis, Asarum hartwegii, Erythronium klamathense and Ceanothus prostratus provided some good amounts of seed. The iris in southern Oregon were productive, such as Iris bracteata and I. innominata. I tried to collect some Lewisia cotyledon varieties somewhere but the sparse seed was practically all gone. Up in northern Oregon, however, there were good amounts of Erythronium elegans and E. revolutum. I didn’t even bother going up into Washington after last month’s discouragement. Heading home again, at the higher elevations of southern Wyoming, I checked the local populations of Lewisia rediviva and discovered practically no blossoming had occurred. At least the Ferris Mountains yielded a small amount earlier. Closer to home, I was able to collect a few seeds of our local Lathyrus eucosmos population.
Late July and most of August found me working again on the greenhouse rock garden and other projects around our property, despite the heat. I did manage to get away for a couple of days in late August to collect in southwest Colorado where I managed to bag some Asclepias hallii, Trifolium brandegei, Erigeron pinnatisectus and Pedicularis groenlandica seeds, including some of the white-flowered Iris missouriensis I saw two months earlier. Shortly thereafter, rains rolled in, which helped firefighters in western Colorado extinguish the blazes still burning over a month since they started.
Right after Christmas last year (2024) we had to put our remaining cat (Abbey, a snowshoe) to sleep after a long period of decline involving severe weight loss and numerous tumors growing in her abdomen. We had lost our other cat (Ivy, a gray-colored DSH) some two years earlier, also from cancer. So now we were without any pets to care for but we decided to wait until late 2025 to look for cats to adopt again so that we could travel a couple of times and I could finish my collecting season. We visited a couple of local cat shows in April and June gathering information on local breeders and what types of cats we might want to adopt next. We decided a bonded pair of kittens would be the best way to start a new family and I would also like them to be pointed varieties. We visited many shelters off and on throughout July and August and on August 22, we found a pair of bonded lynx-point Siamese kittens at the Colorado Springs Humane shelter that had just been brought in and I knew immediately these would be “our” cats. The cute little furballs are both girls and weighed just 3 pounds each. We named the cream-colored one Lucy and the darker one Betty. As of early November, they have more than doubled their weight to over 6 pounds each and are rambunctious, active little youngsters that we love. We have furbabies back in our home again.
In late September, I took a short trip up to Wyoming to collect a few late-maturing species like Polemonium viscosum, Gentiana parryi and the biggest prize, Kelseya uniflora. I also managed to collect some Petrophyton caespitosum, Saxifraga oppositifolia, Aquilegia flavescens and Penstemon cyaneus. Finally, in late October, I decided to drive down to Texas and see if any yucca and/or agave seed might be available despite the drought. In northern Texas, conditions weren’t too bad, finding quite a bit of Yucca pallida seed. Farther south, the Cynanchum laeve vines had produced a few pods but the Yucca rupicola populations didn’t even bloom, nor did the Penstemon triflorus plants in this area south of Fredericksburg. Farther west in the Davis Mountains, I found just three Agave havardiana rosettes had bloomed but provided a good amount of seed. A little farther north, in the Guadalupe Mountains of southern New Mexico, I was overjoyed to find the local Agave gracilipes population had popped up a few stalks. I have been waiting for this species to bloom for years ever since my last collection in 2000. This is a lovely miniature agave thought to be a hybrid between A. neomexicana and A. lechuguilla and I am grateful I can offer seed once again.

Thus endeth the 2025 collecting season.

As noted last year, my seed inventory has become considerably depleted over the past few years due to my inability to collect enough quantity and variety to maintain that inventory because of the pervasive drought throughout the western states.  I have made considerable strides towards building that inventory back up with more travel and collections over the past two years but I still have a long ways to go, especially in the flora from the Pacific Northwest and California. I plan to re-evaluate year by year whether to continue with the seed business or not. I enjoy the exercise and travel opportunities this business provides, not to mention all of the friends I have made over the years talking about varied botanical subjects from seed germination to ecology of wild flora.

Eight seasons ago, I decided to discontinue publication of the printed catalog. I did issue a letter to all customers the year before and I think by now all of my customers have gotten the message. I’m grateful many customers have continued to follow me on the website alone and continue supporting me in my endeavors.

-- Alan D. Bradshaw, Proprietor

And in the interest of self-promotion, I would like to mention, mostly for the benefit of new customers, the following:

In late 2011, I had the great honor to receive the Marcel Le Piniec award from the North American Rock Garden Society for "enriching and extending the range of plant material available to American rock gardeners." It has been a privilege to collect seed and introduce to the horticultural public many new species of plants. My customers are the cognoscenti of the horticultural world and are a wonderful group of people who have shown me nothing but kindness and encouragement in my endeavors. Thank you sincerely for all of your patronage and support over the years!

We also continue to offer seed from the extensive cactus and Yucca collections of Jeff Thompson, an expert in this area for over 30 years. Now numbering nearly 200 different kinds, they can be identified by the "JRT" (field) and "TC" (cultured) numbers in the listings.

We also thank Donnie Barnett for a selection of Opuntia seeds, indicated by "DB".

-- Alan D. Bradshaw, Proprietor

NOTE:

The twelve main seed catalog pages list ALL collections that are available for sale. In the interest of saving myself considerable computer time, I am no longer maintaining the "New Items" pages and I apologize if this causes anyone some inconvenience.

Items listed on the "Archives" pages are NOT AVAILABLE but are listed there for your reference. When a collection sells out, it will be moved to the "Archives" pages.

The 2015 catalog was the last printed catalog issued by us. For the 2016 season, there was a mailing with a cover letter announcing the end of printed catalogs along with a synopsis of my travels and a list of new collections made in 2015. After this, there are no more general mailings. All collections will be maintained on the website only from now on.

For your reference, previous printed catalogs are available for $3.00 each. Issues available are: 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015.

Our Photo Gallery continues to grow. We will be uploading many more photos in the weeks and months to come. Stay tuned and watch our website grow!

To Contact Us:

Fax:       303-621-2864

E-mail:   alandean7@msn.com

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Last Update:   November 16, 2025