The history of Northern Lights

Timeline

1. 1970sBy tradition, a grower known only as “The Indian” raises the first Northern Lights plants on an island near Seattle, Washington; SeedFinder and Alchimia date this to the 1970s.^2,5
2. Before 1985Each plant gets a number; seed-company accounts call them Northern Lights #1 to #11 and say #5 and #1 stand out, while Leafly’s history singles out #5.^1,5,6
3. 1984Nevil Schoenmakers establishes The Seed Bank in the Netherlands.³
4. 1985Northern Lights reaches Holland; Royal Queen Seeds says The Seed Bank marketed Northern Lights #1 as a pure Afghani inbred indica.^1,6
5. 1989Accounts differ: Leafly says Northern Lights #5, first entered in competition that year, wins the Cannabis Cup, while Wikipedia’s list of winners credits a Seed Bank cross of Early Pearl/Skunk #1 with Northern Lights #5/Haze.^7,8
6. 1990Northern Lights #5, grown and entered by The Seed Bank, wins the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam.^8,9
7. 1991Sensi Seeds buys The Seed Bank and keeps propagating the Northern Lights line.^1,3,4
8. 1992Accounts differ again: Leafly says Northern Lights #5 wins the Cannabis Cup a third time, while Wikipedia’s list gives the 1992 Cup to Haze × Skunk #1 from Homegrown Fantasy.^7,8
9. 1993Wikipedia’s list credits the Cannabis Cup to Haze × Northern Lights #5 from Sensi Seeds.⁸
10. 1994Jack Herer, Sensi Seeds’ cross built partly on Northern Lights #5, wins the Cannabis Cup, per Wikipedia’s list.^8,10
11. 1998–1999Green House Seeds’ Super Silver Haze, a Skunk, Northern Lights and Haze cross, wins the Cannabis Cup in both years; Leafly also lists 1997, which Wikipedia’s list gives to another strain.^8,11
12. 2025In its November 2025 update, High Times’ list of the 25 greatest strains of all time, first published in 2014, ranks Northern Lights #5 seventh.⁹
13. 2025–2026Northern Lights is missing from the top of current sales charts: Leafly’s 2025 best-seller report mentions it only in passing, and it leads no state in The Marijuana Herald’s September 2026 roundup.^12,13

Why it spread

Leafly says it is cherished for “its resinous buds, fast flowering, and resilience during growth.”¹⁴ Wikipedia credits Nevil Schoenmakers’ Northern Lights breeding as an inspiration for indoor indicas, and High Times says the strain led to numerous breeding projects, among them NL #5 × Haze and NL #5 × Skunk #1.^3,4

Its offspring won too: Sensi Seeds’ Jack Herer and Green House Seeds’ Super Silver Haze both won the Cannabis Cup in the 1990s.^8,10,11

The disputed parts of the story

• Place: an island near Seattle (Leafly’s history, SeedFinder), Washington state (Weedmaps) or the Pacific Northwest (High Times in 2019, Wikipedia); the French-language Wikipedia says California, High Times’ 25-greatest list calls Northern Lights #5 a Northern California native, and Royal Queen Seeds mentions claims that the plants came from California or Oregon.^{1,2,3,4,6,9,15,16}
• Date: the 1970s (SeedFinder, Alchimia) or a discovery in the late 1970s to early 1980s (CannaConnection). Royal Queen Seeds relays accounts that Nevil Schoenmakers found it on a US trip in the early 1980s, while SeedFinder puts that trip in 1985.^2,5,6,17
• Parents: Afghani × Thai, or pure Afghani with Thai added to some lines later (see genetics).^1,14
• Cups: Leafly says Northern Lights #5 won in 1989, 1990 and 1992; Wikipedia’s list gives 1990 to #5, 1989 and 1993 to crosses built on it, and 1992 to Haze × Skunk #1.^7,8