SANTA CRUZ >> Growing plants from seeds and cuttings can be such an absorbing activity that people happily volunteer for the task, some with two groups, and for as long as 40 years and counting.

The plants they grow for the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum and for the California Native Plant Society are all selected for our local growing conditions and are sold twice a year at side-by-side sales, which are major fundraisers for the two organizations.

One of these dedicated volunteers is Linda Willis, adviser to the society plant-sale team and also a native plant propagator at the arboretum. She undertook a tricky propagation project recently that has enabled the arboretum to offer the beautiful island bush poppy in this year’s fall sale.

Island bush poppy (Dendromecon harfordii) is a California native from the Channel Islands. It grows 5 to 8 feet tall and wide, with elegant blue-green oval leaves and masses of butter-yellow flowers that bloom almost year-round near the coast. It’s an easy-care garden plant that likes sun and good drainage, and little or no summer water.

But its seeds will germinate only after at least a year’s dormancy, followed by fire.

To give the bush poppy seeds the experience of lying dormant through the heat and chill of a year’s seasons, Willis buried them 6 inches deep in a patch of chaparral — and carefully marked the spot. She first placed the 300 seeds in a small muslin bag wrapped in two layers of protection: an envelope of window screen, inside an envelope of hardware cloth (¼-inch square wire mesh).

“If you have just hardware cloth and no window screen, something eats it. If you have window screen and no hardware cloth, something else eats it!” she said.

She dug up the bag a year later, in October, and sowed the seeds in a clay pot, using a standard potting mix for seedlings. Then she added a layer of dry pine needles with some shredded newspaper for kindling and set it alight. The flames burned out in about five minutes, mimicking a wildfire passing quickly over the ground. She left the pot to cool, allowing the smoke to seep down to the seeds, and then began watering as usual.

It worked. About half the seeds germinated, compared to only 1 percent if any steps are left out, and as a result, these handsome plants will be available at the arboretum’s upcoming sale.

The scope of the UCSC Arboretum’s propagation program is enormous. Run by staff member Helen Englesberg, the program offers daily sessions for volunteers. The plants they grow are not only destined for sale. They are also planted out in the arboretum’s world-famous collections, representing the flora of New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and California, which are wonderful to visit and walk among.

The CNPS propagation program has a smaller but equally dedicated cadre of volunteers. Plant sales fund the chapter’s varied activities, which include rare-plant conservation, habitat restoration, educational activities and native plant horticulture, which is becoming a natural choice for our dry summer climate.

The CNPS group has been hosted for many years at Suncrest Nurseries, a wholesale nursery in Watsonville. Between volunteer sessions, nursery staff care for the plants along with their own. Leonel Morales, the propagation manager, likes to drop in on sessions and is happy to advise and answer questions. He even gave the group a master class on the art of making cuttings.

“Frankly I don’t know what we would do without Suncrest,” said Mike Luther, the spry 80-year-old who leads the propagation group. Mike visits the nursery so often that Jim Marshall, vice president of operations at Suncrest, calls him his “missing manager.”

“Mike looks the part, and he is so bright and perceptive. He reminds me of the wonderful mentors who inspired me when I was getting started in the business,” Marshall said.

Fortunately you don’t have to be an expert to enjoy propagating plants for your own garden. Unlike those of the island bush poppy, most seeds germinate readily given water and warmth. In fact, as soon as fall rains arrive, you’ll see seedlings sprouting everywhere, all by themselves.

Growing plants from seeds is a wonderful activity to share with children. It’s also an economical way to create a mass planting of one species, which will act as a pollinator magnet, and add a strong design element to your garden, too.

You can buy seeds online, or just gather them from your garden when the pods, berries and seed-heads are ripe. Separate the seeds from the rest of the plant if you can. Some seeds (such as native buckwheat) are too small to see, and you can just crumble the whole seed-head onto your potting mix. Put pots on your windowsill or in a protected part of your garden, covered with a wire screen so they won’t be eaten. Keep the planting mix moist till the seedlings are ready to transplant. Pot up individual seedlings to grow until they are ready to plant in your garden.

Easy California natives to grow from seed include annual wildflowers (various species), California fuchsia (Epilobium canum), buckwheats (Eriogonum species), bush monkeyflower (Mimulus species), Heuchera species (similar to coral bells), and western columbine (Aquilegia formosa).

Native Monardella species such as coyote mint are especially quick to germinate, have masses of flowers, and are great butterfly plants.

Don’t have any Monardella in your garden? No problem —a couple of great plant sales are coming right up.

Jackie Pascoe is on the board of the Santa Cruz County chapter of the California Native Plant Society.