Plants in nonstressful environments tend to produce larger seeds that in turn may germinate quickly and produce initially larger plants. Also seed coats are comprised entirely of maternal tissues that affect dormancy and interact with the planting environment. Due to maternal effects in plants, it is likely that the production farm environment influences subsequent performance. We tested interactions between production farm and planting environment for three improved varieties of perennial grass species commonly used for revegetation throughout the western United States: P-7 Bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoregneria spicata), Lodorm Green needle grass (Nassella viridula), and Pryor Slender wheatgrass (Elymus trachycaulus) from two to three production farms per species. We used four field environments spread across the western US and four laboratory environments set at different temperatures and daylengths. In the field, Elymus showed maternal effects; that is, one production farm demonstrated significantly different emergence among all four planting environments. In the lab, Elymus exhibited maternal effects only for the other two production farms. Nassella did not show an interaction between production farm and planting environment in either the lab or the field, and Pseudoregneria showed an interaction from only one production farm in the lab but not in the field. The production farm effects on seed emergence in the field are species-specific, can be as large as 63%, and laboratory assays appear to be a poor estimate of the degree and direction of maternal effects. Understanding maternal effects in economically-important species may allow us to use them as a tool to manage risk in high-stakes plantings.