ST. BENEDICT, Sask. – For most people, the wildflowers that fill the ditches alongside prairie highways are a blur of color, glimpsed for a few seconds with a sidelong glance from a speeding automobile.
Not so for Leon and Mary Grilz.
“We drive down the road like old farmers,” Mary said with a laugh. “We go real slow and we watch the ditches.”
That’s because wildflowers are both a passion and a business for the husband and wife team.
Four years ago, they created Blazing Star Wildflower Seed Co., a business they hope will help preserve an important part of the province’s heritage.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
“One of the purposes of what we’re doing is to try to save our wildflowers because there are too many natural areas just disappearing,” Mary said.
They’re definitely not in it for the money, at least not yet.
“This year if we make our expenses, that would be good,” she said. “It’s certainly never going to be our main source of income.”
There’s a hint of missionary zeal as the couple talks about wildflowers. They describe their venture as a labor of love and talk about trying to preserve some of the province’s natural heritage.
But Leon quickly adds that he doesn’t want to be labeled a radical: “If a tree’s in my way, I’d cut it down,” he said.
Would he plow down a field of wildflowers to plant wheat or canola? So far, the answer is no. In a small corner of one quarter-section of land that he farms, there’s a small stand of lady’s slipper, a protected species in Saskatchewan.
“We’ve left it so far,” said Leon.
The Grilz’s main job is growing wheat and canola on three quarters of land in the rolling, wooded country about an hour’s drive northeast of Saskatoon. Leon and his father also operate a farm water and sewer business in nearby St. Benedict.
The seed for Blazing Star was planted by Leon’s brother, a plant ecologist with Ducks Unlimited, who urged Leon and Mary for years to pursue their interest in wildflowers. Finally they decided to take the plunge.
That first year, they planted a seed mix from the U.S. and had disappointing results. Since then, they’ve carefully harvested seeds from stands of wildflowers in the area, packaging some for sale and planting others on their own land. They only pick some of the available seed, never go to the same area two years in a row and never, ever dig up a plant.
They’ve seeded 37 varieties on seven acres of land, including asters, crocus, prairie smoke, bergamot, coneflower, giant hyssop, goldenrod, and of course blazing star. They hope to get that up to 20 acres eventually.
The seeds are sold at 14 retail outlets across the province, with 12 in the Saskatoon area, two in Regina, one in Tisdale and one in the Prince Albert area.
The work is labor intensive, with just about every aspect carried out by hand.
Five hours work
During a trip to the Kyle, Sask., area, they spent five hours in a field of prairie smoke and ended up with 13 ounces of seed.
And there’s no real off-season. Most evenings last winter, the couple worked in their living room, watching movies and putting together small burlap bags of wildflower seed for sale this year.
They prepared by hand nearly 7,000 packages, a process that includes cutting the burlap, putting the seeds inside a liner made of old newspaper, gluing it shut and stapling it all together with a printed label and instruction sheet.
As well, there are brochures to design, willow branch sales stands to build, trade shows to attend and agreements to negotiate with retailers. They also do some mail-order sales.
“We try to help the retail sales people but we’re not experts by any means,” said Mary. “Once you start really looking at it, it’s kind of overwhelming.”
