"He hath made every thing beautiful in His time: also He hath set the world in their heart,
so that no man can find out the work that
God maketh from the beginning to the end."
Everwilde is a family owned and operated farm located in Northwestern Wisconsin that is dedicated to producing and selling
the best native seeds available, with an emphasis on rare or unusual species. Our success in this endeavor is rooted in the methods
we employ from start to finish. First of all, we grow as much seed as we can right here at Everwilde Farms. This allows us to control
the quality of what we sell, rather than just buying and selling "who-knows-what". We are not content to simply grow seed in a conventional
manner, but are continually innovating better ways to grow high quality seed. Also, almost all of the seed that we grow is hand harvested,
resulting in high purity seed with a superior germination rate. After harvest, samples of all our seed (except our smallest lots)
are sent to an independent testing lab for purity and germination tests. All of our tested seed is then sold either on a "Pure Live
Seed" (PLS) basis or a ratio. PLS simply means that the foreign matter and inviable seed is deducted from the bulk weight of the seed,
to ensure that our customers pay only for the live seed. This combination of standards enables us to offer you only the best in native
wildflower seed. We hope that you will find Everwilde Farms to be a great source of native species... direct from the grower.
The Sykora Family in
Aster dumosus
Sept 2006
Everwilde Farms began as Jubilee Nursery in 1997 when Steve Sykora began growing a few species of native plants for seed.
Things grew from there. Here is Steve telling his story...
A New Planting In 2005
"I found a nursery in MN that was looking for growers to grow native wildflowers for seed. The idea of having fields
of flowers intrigued me, and so I began growing 4 or 5 different native species on 1/10th of an acre. In 1999 I experimented with
about 20 species on about ¼ acre.
"In the spring of 2000, I was ready to leave my day job at an agricultural engineering
office, and launch out into the wildflower field. I began by building a greenhouse to start the seedlings in. That year I started
about 25,000 seedlings of about 15 species and planted them out on 2 acres. The next year I had 30 species on 4 acres. That year I
faced some challenges as my greenhouse blew down in a windstorm. It was fall before I was able to rebuild it.
"I married my
dear wife Janelle in the summer of 2002. Together we were able to keep up with the weeds and harvesting. The spring of
2003 saw 50,000 more seedlings go out of the greenhouse and into the fields, bringing us up to 70 species on 6 acres. We nearly
doubled in size in 2005, putting out another 100,000 seedlings. Doing that many seedlings required us to purchase some more
machinery like a rotary transplanter and to hire some help. It seems like we are continually growing into new fields.
Overall, we have very much enjoyed the work that we do... there is something new almost every day."
The farm currently consists of over 12 acres and 100 species of intensively farmed field plots.
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