How Plantable Paper Works

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Plantable Paper

Plantable paper is a biodegradable eco-paper that is made with post-consumer materials (no trees harmed for this paper!) and embedded with seeds. When the paper is planted in a pot of soil, the seeds grow and the paper composts away. All that is left behind is flowers, herbs or vegetables and no waste. It's easy to plant and grow, and below we'll show you examples of photos taken by our customers.

Botanical PaperWorks is both the manufacturer of plantable paper and the designer and printer of plantable paper products such as wedding invitations, seal and send wedding invitations, favors, memorial products, birth announcements, greeting cards, journals and so much more. All of the products are on this site so that you can browse and shop.

Here is some information about plantable paper to get you started:

How To Plant Plantable Paper

Supply List

  • a pot for planting
  • some good potting soil
  • plantable paper
  • water
  • a sunny corner

Step 1 - Prepare your pot

Fill your pot 2/3 full with good potting soil. Tamp down the soil and add more if necessary. You want the pot to be firmly full, but not packed. The paper can be planted indoors or outside, so you get to choose according to the temperature and conditions at the time of planting (we don't recommend planting outside if it's blizzarding or desert-hot!).

Step 2 - Plant the paper

Take your plantable paper and cover the soil in the prepared pot with the paper. It's okay if the paper overlaps. Spread a 1/8 to 1/4 inch layer of soil over the plantable paper pieces and tamp down gently.

Step 3 - Water during germination

After planting the paper in your pot, give it a good soak. You want the paper and the soil to be nicely damp but not swimming in water. During the first 10 days, keep the paper moist at all times. The water is necessary for germination.

Step 4 - Care after germination

On sprouts appear, continue to keep the paper moist but be careful not to overwater. Once sturdy plants appear, water as needed. Here's what the pot looks like after planting a greeting card:

plantable paper

And here's what the pot looked like a week later:

plantable paper

Step 5 - Enjoy the flowers

Once the flowers (or herbs or vegetables) start to blossom, enjoy them in the pot or cut them and place in a decorative vase like we did here:

plantable paper

Growing some plantable paper? Take a photo and submit it, and we'll feature it on our site!

Flowers In Plantable Paper

Our plantable paper is embedded with wildflower seeds. When you plant our paper in a pot of soil, the paper will grow into colorful wildflowers. We have many products made with a wildflower seed plantable paper which contains the following flowers:

  • Bird's Eye
  • Clarkia
  • Black Eyed Susan
  • Sweet Alyssum
  • English Daisy
  • Catchfly
  • Snap Dragon

You can also purchase plantable paper products that are embedded with herbs! Some of our most popular herbs are basil, dill and thyme. We also have a variety of plantable paper products that contain vegetable seeds such as carrots and lettuce.

Plantable Paper Photo Gallery

Customers of Botanical PaperWorks are always amazed at the flowers and herbs that grow from plantable paper. See below for some of our favorite results in these photos submitted by customers. All of the photos are of plantable paper growing in customers' backyard gardens or windowsills! 

Plantable paper in a pot

This photo of plantable paper was submitted by a customer who planted five plantable wedding favors. She placed the pot in her garden where there was full sun for most of the day. The flowers flourished!

Plantable paper garden

These gorgeous blooms came from plantable wedding invitations growing in a garden planter. The customer tells us that it took about a month for the plantable paper to germinate and blossom to this point.

Plantable paper inside

This customer grew her plantable paper in pots on the kitchen window sill. She planted a plantable greeting card and placed them in this sunny spot.

To buy sheets of plantable paper, please go to the seed paper product page. Bulk sheets of plantable paper are also available; please contact us for pricing. For more photos of flower, herb and vegetable plantable paper in bloom, visit our blog with photos of plantable seed paper growing.