Arizona is home to a wide variety of seed libraries, seed cooperatives and seed exchanges - places where native seed is available to try and trade. Although many of these opportunities focus on food plants (for humans!), many native non-food plant seeds are often typically available.
Seed libraries are institutions that lend or share seeds. Hundreds have popped up around the world. Often, these libraries are associated with book libraries. Some seed libraries can be found in:
- Ajo
- Bisbee
- Clifton
- Duncan
- Flagstaff
- Mesa
- Oro Valley
- Patagonia
- Payson
- Peoria
- Phoenix
- Scottsdale
- Sierra Vista
- Tempe
- Tempe
- Tucon
- Tucson
- White Tank
A seed cooperative is a community owned seed company that is often developed to provide a wide variety of seed and seed varieties for low cost to community members. Some existing seed cooperatives can be found in Cottonwood and northern Arizona.
Seed exchanges are opportunities to swap seeds with other people. These events are often infrequent, so check in with local farmers markets, libraries, community gardens, master gardener offices and cooperative extension offices to find dates and locations. You can also conduct seed exchanges online.