From the Club

Throw something, grow something.

You can't fix the year. You can't fix the news. You can put these in a patch of dirt and trust the bees to do their part. That's not nothing.

Eighteen seed balls rolled from recycled paper, which sprouts faster than the clay kind, and a wildflower mix the bees and butterflies actually want. For the days you keep showing up when it would be reasonable not to. You toss them somewhere that’s yours and needs more flowers, and a month or two later, bees and butterflies show up to the chaos you started.

Functional rage. Productive spite. A small act of stubbornness in the direction of life.

How to use them

Throw. That's it. Bare soil is best, spring or fall is best, but honestly the point is the throwing. Plants have been doing this without you for millions of years.

Gifting

This is the gift for the friend who just got the diagnosis, the divorce papers, the layoff email, the text she wasn't expecting. It says I know, and it gives her something to do with her hands.

Hand-rolled in Cleveland with seeds, paper pulp, and more personal investment than is probably healthy. I sit on the board of a nature center and wildlife rehab. It's where my passion for pollinators grew. These are my way of planting some goddamn hope for them.

Good for:

Your friend who’s been having a year.

The mom who’s been holding it all together.

The person you don’t know how to comfort.

Anyone whose vibe is “I’d like to channel my rage constructively for once.”

Yourself, because yelling into a pillow doesn’t grow anything.

Details

18 seed balls, hand-rolled from recycled paper pulp

Packed in a brown kraft container, topped with butterfly and bee stickers

Pollinator-friendly wildflower mix

Recycled paper sprouts faster than the clay kind

Hand-rolled in Cleveland

Free US shipping

Every order ships with a card from the Club

Planting for monarchs? Behind Every Monarch is here. October through January is the time.

Behind every monarch is a weed nobody thanked. Milkweed is the only thing a monarch caterpillar can eat, and it gets called a weed for its trouble. Plant it anyway.

These are handmade recycled-paper seed balls packed with common milkweed seed. Orange and black, because the monarchs set the dress code. Twelve to a carton, each one packed with the one plant a monarch can’t live without. Throw them somewhere sunny that’s yours, October through January, and let winter do the rest. Milkweed seed needs a cold, wet season before it will wake up, so those are the right months to plant. That makes you the rare person whose timing is perfect.

Nothing will happen for months. That's not failure, that's the plan. Come spring, you get green. By the second or third summer you get flowers. If you're lucky, you get a striped caterpillar eating the whole thing down to the stem. That's also the plan.

You don't have to fix the planet. You can plant one thing a butterfly actually needs. That counts.

How to plant

Plant October through January. Pick a sunny spot with bare soil, somewhere a tall plant is allowed to spread. Press each ball halfway into the soil. Don't bury it. Water once. Walk away. Look for sprouts when the soil warms in spring.

Planting in spring instead? Put the balls in a bag with a damp paper towel and leave them in the fridge for 30 days first. That fakes the winter.

Details

12 handmade seed balls, smaller than the wildflower ones on purpose. Also 6 in a box. Six or more seeds in every ball, from seed that tested at 84% germination. Five live seeds per spot, for a plant that needs one. Carton comes with monarchs on the lid, ready to hand to someone. Carton is the gift you don’t have to wrap. Recycled paper, made by hand in Fairview Park, Ohio. Common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), native to the eastern and central US. Perennial. Full sun. Grows 3 to 5 feet and spreads by underground runners, so give it room. Free US shipping. We ship these east of the Rockies, where common milkweed belongs.

Good to know

Milkweed sap is toxic if eaten and irritates eyes. Plant it away from pets that chew and animals that graze, and wash your hands after handling broken stems. The monarchs don't mind. It's how they became poisonous too.

Good for

The friend who needs to throw something and would like it to matter. The gardener who has everything except caterpillars. Teachers, grandparents, and the kid who won't stop talking about butterflies. Anyone who wants proof by next summer that they did one good thing.

Want flowers by summer instead? The wildflower pollinator mix is here.