I was born into the world of wildflower seeds. We collected them on the roadside on family vacations. Stuffed envelopes with catalogs and brochures around a cleared-off dinner table, knew the Latin name for many wildflowers by the time I was entering elementary school. At five years old my dad put me to work filling mail orders for native California wildflowers, one packet at a time. After several hours of work, I received my first paycheck: the choice between a shiny fifty-cent piece or a whole ream of paper. I took the paper. (I had a pretty serious coloring habit)
My grandfather started Clyde Robin Seed Company in 1959 selling rare wildflower seeds he would collect by hand on many trips throughout the state of California. About a decade later my dad graduated university and joined him, expanding the business to include products like the Survival Garden and Meadow in a Can. I appeared in the 1974-76 catalog admiring the California poppies in our backyard and over the next fifteen years, spent summers and every school holiday that was more than three days working in my dad's warehouse creating seed products for sale throughout the US.
Now, I continue the tradition, a third-generation wildflower seed seller.