Meet The Parks Seed Seekers Who Cultivate Spring In The Cold

By Haidee Chu, The City

Dec. 31, 2025, 5:00 a.m.

Patrick Over reached for two white sacks in his bag as he ducked into a city Department of Parks and Recreation seed lab on Staten Island, letting in a rush of low-40-degree cold as he entered on a late-November day.

“How’d it go?” asked Lucy Rubino, 44, director of the Plant Ecology Center and Nursery, located at an old flower farm in Travis.

“Good! There’s so much of it out there, but there was plenty more to get,” Over responded, pulling open a drawstring bag to reveal the hackberries he’d spent the morning collecting at Conference House Park on the island’s southern tip.

He showed off a cluster of three small seeds, each no bigger than half his thumbnail, their typical dark plum color wrinkling into brown but still attached to their leaves. “They’re like little dried fruits. But they’re not fleshy, they’re not like berries,” he said.

Patrick Over foraged hackberries at the Parks Department’s Plant Ecology Center and Nursery on Staten Island, Nov. 18, 2025. Credit: Alex Krales/THE CITY

Over, 39 is the seed collector for the Parks Department. He’s based at the department’s Staten Island nursery, open to the public only by appointment.

The center specializes in native plant species like the hackberry tree, which the Society of Municipal Arborists named the 2020 “Urban Tree of the Year”. Over uses its scientific name: celtis.

Like many of the center’s staffers, Over started as an intern — he collected seeds by the coasts post-Hurricane Sandy — before moving into a full-time position. Others start as volunteers and obtain horticultural certificates along the way.

Staff are especially busy in the fall and winter months because the two seasons are key times for collecting, cleaning and treating seeds — crucial steps for cultivating native plants needed across the city’s parks come spring.

Plants sprout at the Parks Department’s Plant Ecology Center and Nursery on Staten Island, Nov. 18, 2025. Credit: Alex Krales/THE CITY

This year alone, the center has distributed 110,088 plants to 94 parks across the five boroughs, with Central Park, Governors Island and Brooklyn Bridge Park their most common destinations.

Many of the nursery’s plants support conservation and restoration projects, including those in Pelham Bay and Van Cortlandt parks in The Bronx, Marine Park in Brooklyn, Inwood Park in Manhattan, and Kissena Park and the Rockaways in Queens.

That work is done to the end of preserving and increasing biodiversity in New York City’s urban ecosystem, said the center’s deputy director, Samantha Bachert, 33.

Samantha Bachert spoke about her work at the Parks Department’s Plant Ecology Center and Nursery on Staten Island, Nov. 18, 2025. Credit: Alex Krales/THE CITY

“We’re always discovering new species, collecting them and growing them,” said Bachert, noting how the center offers a much wider variety of plants than commercial growers. “We can grow weird, niche species and get to experiment. We can take those risks.”

Foraging seeds to keep up with demand has kept Over on the move: When seeds ripen and fall in autumn, he is out in parks and forests and hiking trails four days a week, typically foraging for three to six hours at a time.

Those efforts can take him west to Bucks County in Pennsylvania, south to Ocean County in New Jersey, north to Harriman State Park and east out to Long Island, Bachert said, describing the boundaries of what is considered native to the region.

Most memorable among Over’s adventures this year was a visit to the Ramapo Munsee Nation on the border of New York and New Jersey, he said.

“They took us around their land, and showed us all their species. There are these sites that they are trying to restore where cars were dumped or trash was dumped, but there’s also a very holy site to them on top of this big ridge called Split Rock,” Over said. “That was just a very special trip. I felt very grateful that they took us there and showed us around and were willing to let us collect seeds.”

Patrick Over works at the Parks Department’s Plant Ecology Center and Nursery on Staten Island, Nov. 18, 2025. Credit: Alex Krales/THE CITY

In all, Over has gathered roughly 250 collections so far this year, he estimated — with about 100 collections from October alone — “which is so much paperwork,” he said.

“It’s harvest season: The birds are gathering nuts, the squirrels are gathering nuts and we are, as well,” Over explained. “But from the plant’s perspective, it’s like a season of giving.”

He continued: “There’s an implied exchange there where they’re giving us a gift, and our end of the bargain is to plant them and tend to them and nurture the next generation.”

Building the Collection

The work to fulfill the human’s end of the deal starts in the seed lab. By early winter, Over spends most of his time here cleaning and processing seed collections, so they can be stashed away or be treated for sowing.

At the seed lab, shelves are filled with flora encyclopedias, wildflower and grass identification guides, and binders full of seed protocols, along with notes and data dating back decades.

Gatherings are left out to dry on racks and in bins to make them easier to process and to induce them into dormancy, a crucial step in seed preservation. It’s also key to coaxing out spiders and insects so that seeds can be preserved without contamination.

Fall seed collections are dried on a rack to lull them into dormancy at the Parks Department’s Plant Ecology Center and Nursery on Staten Island, Nov. 18, 2025. Credit: Alex Krales/THE CITY

Over pointed back to the hackberry leaves, peppered with small lumps called galls: “Those are insects that have laid their eggs. It’s like a little shell for a little insect that’s living inside of it. I don’t know if it’s still in there, maybe it has come out.” He added, chuckling: “You can generally find evidence of the bugs that were here — they’re all over the place.”

Over said he was more interested in animals than plants as a kid. But he changed course as he grew older, he explained, as he realized how plants are the basis of the food chain, which sustains animals.

“That’s part of the reason we collect native species, because they provide so many more resources for native insects than introduced species,” he said.

Native plants are also more efficient at capturing greenhouse gas, filtering water and stabilizing eroding shorelines — making habitats better not just for wildlife but humans, too — Bachert said.

“They all have something to teach us,” Over said. “They provide all these resources to all the wildlife everywhere. If you look through one lens, you could see some plants as aggressive competitors, but at the same time, those plants are also cooperating with all these other organisms.”

That cooperation shows up in the seed collection process itself. Although Over is the Parks Department’s only full-time seed collector, other staff are often eager to pitch in their own time.

Rubino is among them. A week before, Over had sent her on a mission at a town park near the Passaic River to hunt for wild senna flowers.

“If I can hike and also work, that will make me very happy,” Rubino said. “And I took my two little kids — a 10-year-old and a 9-year-old — with me, and we went on a treasure hunt.”

A few moments passed before Over joined Rubino to clean seed pods from bladdernut trees harvested from Crosswicks and Muckshaw ponds in New Jersey — their thin, brown, papery skin letting out a crunching sound as Rubino and Over peel them open to extract seeds that rattle inside.

Staten Island plant nursery workers clean seed pods from bladdernut trees harvested from Crosswicks, Nov. 18, 2025. Credit: Alex Krales/THE CITY

Once fully processed, the seeds will be entered into the facility’s seed bank — an enclosed room with a humming machine sound not unlike a walk-in refrigerator, where the temperature is kept at 52 degrees and 20% humidity at all times.

Here, seeds are lined up neatly in envelopes and glass jars on cabinet shelves as in an herbal apothecary, waiting for their turn to be sent out to a lab to be tested for viability.

More of the seeds are currently being moved into glass jars, Bachert said, to help preserve humid conditions in the case of a power outage. But the move is also to help control for another unexpected natural phenomenon.

“We had some mice get in here last winter, and it’s taken us like a year to recover,” Rubino said.

“That’s why everything you see is in cabinets now,” Bachert added.

Overwintering

On the other side of the 13-acre center, the warmth of the greenhouse is a welcome refuge from the cold of the seed bank and the brisk outdoors. Here, a locally rescued cat named Lily roams freely within the bounds of the headhouse.

“In theory, she’s pest control,” Rubino said as the calico asked for pets.

“She brought us something recently,” greenhouse supervisor Catherine Molanphy, 50, chimed in.

Lucy Rubino pets Lilly the cat inside the Parks Department’s Plant Ecology Center and Nursery on Staten Island, Nov. 18, 2025. Credit: Alex Krales/THE CITY

A diligent inspector, Lily paced the table to check in on the gardeners’ progress before stopping in the corner to nap.

“This is where all of the winter stuff happens,” said Bachert.

On the table sat a pitcher full of oak tree acorns soaking in water, beside bags of Dathonia spicata seeds, commonly known as poverty oat grass. These had been pulled from the seed bank for stratification — a process that mimics winter conditions to induce seeds to break dormancy, so they can be ready to sowed and germinate in early spring.

Nursery workers soak tree acorns in water as part of the seed treatment process at the Staten Island plant center, Nov. 18, 2025. Credit: Alex Krales/THE CITY

“You wet some sand, put the seed in the wet sand mix, and then put that in a fridge,” gardener Rafael Lacerra, 29, explained.

That walk-in fridge is not to be mistaken with the lunch fridge in the headhouse, which is adorned with a filled-in colorbook page from one of Rubino’s children that reads “PLANTS ARE MY FRIENDS.”

“We do often use it as a temporary way station when there’s a lot of treatment to do and they get brought out,” Molanphy said, before whispering under her breath: “But yeah, we do often have human food in there,” breaking into laughter.

Greenhouse propagators and gardeners Rafael Lacerra, left, and Bree Sands treated seeds to encourage them to break dormancy over the winter, Nov. 18, 2025. Credit: Alex Krales/THE CITY

Most seeds stay in the fridge for two months before they can be sowed, while others spend four months or more. Some tree species refuse to be fooled and demand to feel actual snow and freezing cold. Those are left in wooden boxes outside.

Each step of the way, Molanphy keeps meticulous data to refine the process.

Most of the seeds treated by the greenhouse staff in the cold seasons will not be sown or sprout until the early spring. But a selected few seedlings are now already emerging on a shelf under a set of growlights: mugworts, ferns, wild blueberries.

Ferns grow in the headhouse of the greenhouse at the Parks Department’s Plant Ecology Center and Nursery on Staten Island, Nov. 18, 2025. Credit: Alex Krales/THE CITY

Come spring, many of them, along with thousands of other plants, will move into bigger containers and into a greenhouse indoors, or the pop-up shelters known as hoop houses outside.

But for now, those hoop houses shelter plants that have already lived through a few growth cycles.

“You want things to experience winter because they need that dormancy to get a rest and put all their energy into the spring,” Molanohy explained. “You just want to make sure they’re protected, that they don’t get frozen.”

Inside the hoop houses, Rubino checked on some overwintering plants: persimmons, hazelnuts and the Quercus brittonii (“a funny hybrid oak,” said Rubino). She stops at a fully dormant plant with just dead leaves attached to its stem, and lifts its bottom from the pot to reveal and inspect its white roots — a sign of good health.

“This is what you want to see,” Bachert said.

“I will keep an eye on this over the winter to make sure it doesn’t start rotting,” Rubino added. “There’s a couple species every year where we’re like, ‘Did they make it?’ I’d be nervous to celebrate before everything wakes up.”

There’s no formal celebration for the staff when spring begins. But sometimes, they’ll go scout out new grounds for seed collection as plants begin to sprout and bloom, or revisit places with plantings they’ve cultivated.

Molanphy recalled a visit to Brooklyn Bridge Park earlier in the year: “They were showing us their gardens — and there was a hummingbird there.”

“And I was just thinking…when did they have hummingbirds there?” Molanphy continued.

“That was really rewarding, knowing I was part of bringing the plants there that then brought the insects there, which meant the birds had something to feed on.”

This press release was produced by The City. The views expressed here are the author’s own.