Akène - Native Seeds

Seed Grower Among the Trees


Seed Grower Among the Trees


Akène is a seed company specializing in the production and distribution of wild and native plant seeds, with a vision deeply rooted in the sustainable enhancement of forest environments and the ecological restoration of built landscapes in Quebec.

In 2020, we acquired a former woodlot in the Laurentians with the ambition of demonstrating the economic viability and ecological benefits of an integrated and innovative approach to forest management. Our project is grounded in a simple belief: forests offer far more than timber. They are full of valuable resources known as non-timber forest products (NTFPs), ranging from mushrooms to medicinal and edible plants, as well as berries and northern nuts.

Our forest has therefore become much more than a production site. It is a living laboratory where we experiment with new ways to cultivate, propagate, and preserve thriving biodiversity. Through our efforts, we enrich our forest with a growing variety of native wild plants, whether edible, medicinal, ornamental, or beneficial. These plants flourish in our clearings, wetlands, riparian buffers, under the canopy, or along the edges of this Laurentian forest.

At the same time, our research has made us aware of the essential role native plants play in our ecosystems. These species are the foundation of biodiversity, yet they face constant pressure from urban sprawl, land management practices, and the impacts of traditional forestry activities. This reality has encouraged us to rethink forest productivity and adopt an approach that combines economic value with ecological regeneration.

 

With this in mind, Akène is committed to offering accessible and practical solutions. By cultivating native plants and making their seeds available, we enable everyone — individuals, municipalities, or organizations — to contribute actively to biodiversity restoration, whether in a forest, a garden, a backyard, or even on a balcony.

 

Our project is also part of a conservation effort: the growing popularity of wild plants places significant pressure on their natural habitats. By producing these seeds, we offer a sustainable alternative that reduces the harvesting of medicinal and edible plants in the wild, thereby helping preserve natural populations of these species.

Although we are still in the early stages of this venture, we already offer a selection of seeds from native plants and naturalized perennials. Our collection will evolve over the years, with the gradual addition of new species, including forest and understory plants. Some, being more complex to cultivate, will require several years before they can be added to our catalogue. To see the new arrivals from the 2025 harvest, take a look here!

Akène is therefore more than a business project: it is a concrete contribution to a future in which our living spaces, forests, and gardens are filled with diversity and beauty. You too can become an ambassador for biodiversity by cultivating today what will build tomorrow’s ecological richness and resilience.

Akène, culture forestière

Seed grower and founder: Philippe Denis

Before venturing into agroforestry and seed production, Philippe worked for 20 years in communications, public relations, digital marketing, and briefly as a brewer in a Montreal microbrewery. Having grown up in the countryside, surrounded by forest, he has always been close to nature and never missed an opportunity to get his hands dirty experimenting with landscaping, edible perennials, permaculture, and vegetable gardening in a collective garden with his partner, two daughters, and five other families.

Curious by nature and always driven by a thirst for new knowledge, Philippe has spent the last few years transforming what started as a fleeting interest in wild plants into a (healthy!) obsession with Quebec's native plants. By founding Akène, culture forestière, Philippe not only wanted to share this passion, but also give as many people as possible the power to restore native plants to their rightful place in our living environments, and thus contribute to halting the biodiversity decline.