I've been a gardener all of my life. It runs in my family. I grew up always in the garden or corn field with my parents and was the one whom helped them plant and harvest our yearly vegetable garden and also fruit orchard. We always had a garden and whether it was broccoli, cabbage, beets, strawberries, corn, peppers, or tomatoes, I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. Or in the greenhouses we owned sowing seeds in trays and pots and transplanting them to prepare for outdoor planting. 

​

 When I was around 3 years old, my parents had me helping them pollinate the short Canadian corn varieties in their corn nursery on the other side of our gardens. This is where I first got into corn, of course not entirely understanding what I was doing quite yet or the importance of it. I also grew up breeding and hybridizing day lilies (Hemerocallis) and still do this today. I am a member of the American Hemerocallis Society and have released around 30-40 daylily varieties with many more to come. My parents and I have been breeding daylilies since the early 2000s. In-between breeding day lilies, I discovered the races of maize in 2011 or so and instantly become obsessed with landrace and heirloom corn at that point. I began obtaining many of these tropical corns and building my collection at that point. 

​

Around 2015, my dad passed down to me the honor of continuing the preservation and legacy of a corn that had been in our family for 120 years. Hurst Reid Yellow Dent Corn had been preserved by by dad from the seedstock saved by his mother and father. Subsequently, this lineage traced back to my ancestor obtaining Reid's Yellow Dent Corn seed from the Reid Family directly at their famed 1893 Chicago World's Fair exhibition of their new corn. 

​

I originally founded The Divine Botanist in 2022 after the seed germinated, having to take a break to take care of family health emergencies. DB (Divine Botanist) encompasses small-scale farming, high respect for seeds, their traditional uses, and stories, and offering various varieties to the public to ensure they remain with us for future generations. These seeds carry their own story, lineage, and memories and are often beautiful but also medicinal, and edible. As a passionate supporter of heirloom seeds, everything offered is non-GMO, conventionally bred, and open-pollinated, allowing gardeners to save seeds freely without restrictions.

​

~ Stephen Smith

​

​

​

​

​