As the world enters the sixth wave of extinction, human intervention for the preservation of plants is becoming increasingly necessary. Often the best means of preservation are through seed collection for banking, bolstering in situ populations, and cultivating ex situ collections. Botanic gardens, arboreta, and public landscapes are especially qualified to participate in this work due to their collective plant expertise, growing facilities, and attentive plant care, as well as their time and financial resources. To explore the relationship between plant conservation and botanic institutions, native seed was collected from natural lands at Mt. Cuba Center in New Castle County, Delaware, and at Wissahickon Valley Park in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania in the fall of 2021 and the summer and fall of 2022. Desiderata lists of native plants and local populations were identified by Mt. Cuba Center and James G. Kaskey Memorial Park staff. In the field, phenological, morphological, habitat, and location data were gathered, along with herbarium vouchers and seed when possible. These seeds were cleaned and sown by Mt. Cuba Center or James G. Kaskey Memorial Park, respectively. Propagules were, and will continue to be, planted in Mt. Cuba Center’s natural lands as part of greater restoration efforts, or in the garden proper at Mt. Cuba Center and James G. Kaskey Memorial Park. The following collections report was created to share the accumulated data along with contemporary seed collection best practices. As environmental destruction and disruption becomes more severe, projects such as this must engage with vital conservation questions, including identifying which institutions are conserving plants, who has access to this genetic material moving forward, the potential implications of human-directed plant collection, and what responsibilities institutions have for plant conservation. This project will examine these larger problems through a local-scale study and collaboration, which contributes to building a regional institutional response to these issues.