The Cut: How Seedlings Are Selected at Spine City
Not every seedling makes it — and that’s by design.
At Spine City, almost everything we sell is grown from seed - and most of that seed is produced in-house.
But what matters isn’t just how we grow plants.
It’s how we decide which ones are worth keeping.
It starts from day one.
I’m sitting in front of trays of seedlings — hundreds of punnets — and I’m already making calls.
I’m not waiting years to figure it out.
You can see a lot early if you know what you’re looking at.
At a broad level, it’s simple:
- strength
- vigour
- colour
- form
Some punnets come up strong — good shape, good colour, everything moving the way it should.
Easy decision. They stay.
Then you’ve got the others.
Runty seedlings. Weak colour. No presence. Just… nothing going on.
And yeah, sometimes you get what people call “variegation.” I call it piss yellow.
Weak, unstable plants that more often than not go nowhere.
Every now and then you’ll get one that’s actually strong — those are worth a look.
Most of them?
Straight in the bin.
And that’s the part people don’t like.
“Why not keep them?”
“Why not give them away?”
Because I don’t want to grow weak plants.
And I don’t want to make my problem somebody else’s.
These plants might have an nice flower later. Maybe.
But I’m not interested in nursing something for years on the off chance it does something special — when I’ve got strong, vigorous plants that will also produce great flowers.
So I make the call early.
Four months in — if you still look like shit, you’re done.
That’s the first cut.
The Test
The First Winter: Where Plants Prove Themselves
Getting through the seedling stage is one thing.
Surviving the first winter is something else entirely.
At Spine City, there’s no safety net.
No heating.
No pampering.
No controlled indoor setups.
What I grow has to handle real conditions.
Because that’s exactly what it’s going to face once it leaves here.
We’re talking winter lows pushing down to minus 3 to 5 degrees. Cold, damp, uncomfortable conditions — the kind that exposes weaknesses very quickly.
This is where a lot of plants get found out.
Some that looked good early on just stall out. Others start showing issues — soft growth, susceptibility to rot, fungal problems.
And again, the same rule applies:
If it can’t handle the conditions, it doesn’t make the cut.
There’s no point carrying a plant forward if it needs perfect conditions just to survive. That’s not what I want in my collection — and it’s not what I want to pass on.
What I’m aiming for is simple:
Plants that can handle a bit of stress.
- A bit too much water
- A bit too little
- Too much sun
- Not enough sun
Real-world conditions.
Because that’s what people are actually dealing with.
So the first winter becomes a filter.
Not everything makes it through — and that’s the point.
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The Standard
How a Plant Earns Its Place at Spine City
By the time a plant gets past the seedling stage and its first winter, things start to stabilise.
But that doesn’t mean it’s made it.
From here, it’s still being assessed.
I’m looking at:
- ongoing strength
- stability
- resistance to issues
- overall form
Some plants just never really get going.
They survive — but they don’t thrive.
Slow. Inconsistent. Prone to problems.
They don’t stay.
By the time we get into the 2–4 year range, the ones that remain are generally solid.
That’s when the next layer comes in:
The flower.
This is where things separate further.
Some plants hit that next level — they become part of the 1-Code system.
Read One Plant, One Code – Our Lobivia Legacy to see how select plants are given a permanent identity.
Some push even further — genuine cultivar potential.
Others might not reach that top tier, but still produce good, honest flowers.
Those still have a place — just at a different level.
But regardless of where the flower lands, one thing stays consistent:
The plant itself is strong.
It’s already passed multiple rounds of selection.
It’s handled real conditions.
It’s proven it can hold its own.
By the time it reaches the store, it’s not a gamble.
It’s been tested.
