Whenever one of Janie Sanchez’s plants isn’t happy, she walks it four blocks to her mother’s house in Windsor.
Maria Segura is 73 and can still grow, revive or resurrect anything green, even plants that have no business sprouting in our cold, arid climate. She once grew sugar cane using buckets of ditch water near her family’s farmhouse between Greeley and Windsor to keep it happy. She now has a garden in her backyard that attracts fuzzy bees and fierce dragonflies, plus family who gather every Sunday to soak in the sun and sniff all the therapeutic fragrances drifting from the vegetables, herbs and flowers.
“It’s just always been a part of who Mom is,” Sanchez says of her mother’s green thumb. “I’m always asking, ‘How did you get that to grow?’”
Sanchez’s daughter, Noelani, affectionately calls Segura “Wela,” short for abuela, the Spanish term for grandmother. Noelani is putting everything she learned from her Wela to use through her business, The Wildflower Project CO, which she started in 2023. Noelani, 33, of Fort Collins, bundles up wildflower seeds and encourages people she meets to toss them in a park, in a vacant lot that could use a little love or maybe their own backyard.
She also sells the seeds at farmers markets and through her website. But making a profit isn’t the main goal: She remembers the joy her grandmother’s garden gives her and wants others to experience it. One way she does that is by hiding dozens of tiny “seed bombs” throughout Northern Colorado for others to discover. You might find them, say, on the bulletin board of a coffee shop or tied to trees and tagged with her business name.
“They’re for anyone who wants to take care of the Earth and our local pollinators,” she says. “You throw and let the seeds do the work.”
Scattering them is enough, Noelani says, as wildflowers don’t necessarily need to be planted to thrive. Most everything else is fair game, even the parks in Fort Collins, as the city has approved her seed scattering. The seeds have a higher chance of working themselves into the ground after a rain, when the soil is soggy. The only rule, Noelani says, is to spread them only in Northern Colorado, as they are native to our area and could be considered an invasive species in other places.
The seed bombs are placed in pretty, almost glittery mesh bags, the kind you’d imagine a fairy would use. Each bag contains a half-dozen or so bombs, or seeds wrapped in recycled, biodegradable paper Noelani “mushes up” to envelop them in a quasi-cocoon. Though the paper starts breaking down as soon as it hits open air, it offers the seeds a little protection and a way to soak in some water so that they can start growing.
Noelani was working as an office manager for Trees, Water & People in Fort Collins, an organization that helps communities protect and manage their natural resources, when she came up with the idea for The Wildflower Project CO. She’d seen a social media post from a dude dressed up as a bumblebee scattering wildflower seeds, and it inspired her.
Wildflower seed bundles left in a tree for a person to find and plant.
“I wanted to bring the community together,” she says. “I wanted something bigger than myself.”
She’s surprised at how well the project has been received. She’s even seen signs that her seeds are being scattered by supporters, as some wildflowers have sprouted near a movie theater in Fort Collins that used to be pretty bare. It makes her feel good about doing something small to help the Earth at a time when it needs it, she says.
Noelani buys the wildflower seeds from local businesses, but she also likes gathering them straight from the source. She learned how to gather seeds from her grandmother, of course.
Segura started working on her garden as soon as she and her husband moved to their Windsor home in 1990. A decade after her husband passed away, the Sanchez family, including Noelani, moved to a home a few blocks away.
Sanchez says she’s proud of the way Noelani is honoring her grandmother.
“I think it’s nice she’s putting the time and energy into something positive,” she says.
But she’s also not too surprised at the way the garden has influenced her daughter. Spring is here, and once again, Segura’s garden is sprouting with life, attracting pollinators and her beloved family for Sundays together in the sun.
