Planting Hill’s thistle seeds has low flowering and germination rates. The study used the CPR (Conservation, Propagation, Redistribution) method to preserve the genetic material of germ cells of two plants and then use that material to produce 1,000 plants in the lab. They transplanted 300 at 12 sites in Ontario. Survival rate ranged from 67 to 99 per cent, with nearly all plants surviving the winter and showing shoot regeneration and flowering.