Roundstone History
The Foundation
Randy Seymour and his wife, Donna, bought the first piece of their farm in Hart County, KY, in 1979. Both Randy and Donna were born and raised in the area but moved to Morristown, Tennessee, in their early twenties. There, Randy started a woodworking and furniture component company. Although he had moved away for work, his roots remained firmly planted in Kentucky.
During their time in Tennessee, Donna and Randy had three children. With the money he earned from his business, Randy built a house on the farm and moved his family back to Kentucky, where their families had lived for well over 200 years. For many years, Randy continued to travel between Tennessee and Kentucky until he eventually returned full-time to live with his family.
When Randy came back to Kentucky for good, he began writing his first book—Wildflowers of Mammoth Cave. While working on the book, he walked over 900 miles, documenting all the plant species in the park. Randy developed a love for native plants at a very young age, a passion deeply rooted in his mother’s influence. She loved native plants and used them in her everyday life.
Randy passed that love of plants on to his children. They spent countless hours hiking, fishing, hunting, and photographing plants together. John tells stories of Randy quizzing him on native plants during hunting trips. Though his interest may have started as something of an obligation, John now considers native plants his life’s passion—one he is grateful to share with his father.
The Prequel
Randy began using the land in the early 80’s for beef cattle production, as time went on and more land was acquired the operation grew to also incorporate a tobacco crop. In the early 90’s John began managing the farm with his father. John and Randy ran 200+ head of cattle, 40,000 lbs. of tobacco, and around 3,000 rolls of hay yearly.
John and Randy have been long supporters of The Nature Conservancy and its cause. Randy was on the board of the Kentucky Chapter of The Nature Conservancy. At that time their main focus was “saving the last great places”. Many of those places in Kentucky were prairie remnants. Only very small areas are left of what used to be the vast prairies that once made up the Big Barrens region of Kentucky. It came to their attention that with the work The Nature Conservancy and the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife were doing for conservation, there were no sources for the native eco-type seed that was needed to restore these areas. At around the same time, Mammoth Cave National Park was becoming a forerunner in restoration and trying to save and restore the once-prevalent prairies and savannahs inside the park. Randy and John received a contract to collect seeds from the surrounding counties around the park to start restoring these areas.
John and Randy began searching for prairie remnants in the surrounding areas to collect seeds from. After collecting they grew out the seed in tobacco float beds. They would grow out the seedlings and plant them in small plots. Once those plants matured, they began harvesting the seeds to make larger fields, creating enough seed for these projects. Then in the early 90s John and Randy started receiving some requests for the seed they grew for these projects, so they created a cooperative called Kentucky Native Seed. Several years of investment with very little knowledge if people would be interested in this effort or not. As fate would have it, demand started to show there was a market for this native seed and they officially created Roundstone Native Seed, LLC.
The Start
During this time cattle and tobacco were still prevalent on the farm. John says there was a lot of ridicule from other local farmers and people in the community. He says he had tobacco to cut, but they would see them on roadsides picking “weed seeds”. The more natives they began to grow the more land that came out of tobacco and cattle production. The business had a lot of setbacks and many “lean years” in the beginning. Many people were not interested in native eco-type seeds when they could get the same species cheaper from Canada or the Midwest. John says “I don’t recall if it was determination or desperation, but we just continued to have faith. Things didn’t get any easier, we felt like we had dug a hole that we couldn’t get out of, so we just continued digging.”
Slowly things started to turn around for them. They kept harvesting and expanding and eventually got enough to sell to restoration efforts across the state. The work got to be too much for them, so they began to hire a team. John and Randy say they were very blessed with good local people they had known their whole lives who came to help. The business continued to grow with evolving conservation programs. In the mid-2000s the CREP program in Hart County along with other conservation programs caused the business to grow exponentially. This exponential growth came with a big learning curve. John and Randy believe native seeds should be up to the same standards as all other commercially available seeds on the market. Not many people were doing the same things they were, so there was no guidebook to follow. John’s love for equipment and fabrication came in handy. He began making harvesting equipment and cleaning equipment to get the seeds up to the standards they believed they should be at.
Present Day
Roundstone has done turn-key work from the beginning and with every new project cam more knowledge in native seed harvesting, production and establishment. What started as a few collections has now increased to thousands of acres in production. While most of Roundstone’s production still takes place on the home farm in Kentucky where John, Randy, and their families still reside, production has now grown to include operations in seven additional states. These states are located primarily in the eastern and southeastern United States. Raising seeds for different ecoregions requires them to be raised in different places. After harvest, all seeds are brought back to the home farm in Kentucky to be cleaned, conditioned, and processed. All the seed is stored in the climate-controlled warehouse until they are ready to be sent to the customer.
The past 30 years were possible because of you, the native plant enthusiast, and many people at institutions, like East Kentucky Power, The Nature Conservancy, and the KY AG Development Board. Roundstone is thankful to have partnered with so many great people and organizations that share our vision and passion and it is simply impossible to list them all here. Visit our REAP page to learn more about the many people and organizations who have help with our production over the years.
Randy and John still work side by side every day at Roundstone. Currently, three generations work at the home farm at Roundstone Native Seed. The company employs an average of 40 people, who share a passion for restoration, conservation, and farming. The business has grown with the market for native seeds, as well as the need for all seeds for conservation, erosion control, forage, landscape architecture, pollinator conservation, and turf.
John says he is blessed to be able to make a living doing what he loves, and sharing that passion with his father, and now with his children as well.
