This paper provides a look at the development of a new culture of assessment in higher education with the use of electronic portfolios (ePortfolios). It uses the metaphor of horticulture to describe how an inter-institutional program, Metro Academies of Health, has gone through the first two parts of the ePorticulture cycle--preparing for the use of ePortfolios and planting the first ePortfolio "seeds" within cohorts of students at both an urban community college and 4-year state university. Metro serves as a case study for potentially rich, albeit challenging, ePortfolio integration within a program that serves primarily low-income, first-generation college students. Given the chronically poor outcomes of many of today's college students, ePortfolios operate as a high-impact practice that provides students and educators with a tool for assessment to improve academic success. Metro aims for a successful and strategic ePortfolio implementation by beginning with a foundation of research on best practices and gives a series of recommendations that apply to new or growing ePortfolio programs.