Our Story: A Woman in Love with Seeds

Spiffy Seeds is part of an ongoing love affair Ann Amato has had with seeds and plants since she was a child. Truth be told, the story began when she started to ask the question, “Where do plants come from and how do they grow?”

With family and neighbors who gardened, had farmed, and who’d worked in produce, many of her initial questions were answered years ago by elder members of her community.

Yet, those answers never fully satiated her need to know and do more.

A previously undiagnosed primary immune condition had her fearful of field studies as an undergraduate so she dove inward. Amato studied English literature, linguistic epistemology, art history, critical theory and the historiography of science. In 2001 she graduated from Portland State University.

All roads led her right back to her first love though, plants—and their seeds. (Especially so after she finally received a medical treatment for the hereditary angioedema which had set her back.)

She worked professionally as a part-time seed propagator at Cistus Nursery for 7 years, she worked in propagation and production at Secret Garden Growers part-time for around 6 years. For over a decade, she grew, collected, and sold seeds on Etsy at Milton’s Garden Menagerie.

In 2025 she graduated from Clackamas Community College with an AAS in Horticulture with a focus on greenhouse and plant health. She currently works full-time at Little Prince of Oregon as a Propagation Assistant. There she has been focused on hand-pollinating the beloved Winter Jewels® hellebore program and she works on special projects as well.

She is also a garden speaker and writer. You can find out more about that at her site annlovesplants.com