Contract and Custom Growing

For the majority of native plant species, Cardno provides contract growing services. We can also propagate seed materials when local genotype is important.

Cardno has provided contract growing for numerous clients, including the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Indiana Department of Transportation, Indiana Department of Natural Resources, and private clients.

Representative contract-growing projects:

Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie

Cardno assisted the U.S. Forest Service with restoring native prairies at this federally owned property. Cardno cleaned and processed native grass and wildflower seed that volunteers collected from the site. Cardno also stored the cleaned seed until Midewin staff installed it in restoration areas. Cardno continues to supply seed and plant materials for Midewin.

Chicago Botanic Garden

Cardno provided more than 40,000 native plants for the Chicago Botanic Garden's "Gardens of the Great Basin" exhibit. Plants installed for the lakeside aquatic portion of this exhibit included bulrush, sedges, iris, water lilies, and lotus. This installation created the largest aquatic display garden in the United States.

Wolf Lake

Cardno provided planting services to the dredging contractor, Luedtke Engineering of Frankfort, Michigan. We supplied seed and nearly 300,000 native plants and shrubs for more than 14 acres of these newly created islands. The plants were 38-sized wetland plugs, and the seed was local genotype, including many species with high conservation value.