Canadian Nurseries - what was your experience with them?

General Gardening
#1

Been looking to purchase a plug of 10 Pawpaw trees from them, and perhaps other trees/bushes. I have faced many difficulties finding valid nurseries in Canada, that can ship to British Columbia. Since the CFIA prohibits shipment of nursery stock that enters our province. If anyone has reliable/approved B.C CFIA fruit tree nurseries that they know of, I would love to know!

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#2

Hi Taylor, did you find our list of nurseries here?

It has 20 or so Canadian places if you scroll down for a bit. That one is not on the bad list but that is about all I know about it.

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#3

They’re in Alberta? Right ? If so I have ordered from them twice with good results.

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#4

Hey Scott, yes I did see your post and the Canadian nurseries listed and have been doing my research on which ones are available to ship to British Columbia. I know for sure that Silver Creek Nursery based out in Ontario cannot ship to BC due to CFIA regulations. Going to be contacting all other nurseries outside of BC if they can deliver here. Perhaps I’ll make a separate post compiling my findings? We will see!

On a side note, thanks for opening up this forum Scott, the amount of time saving (knowing what grafts will successfully take) and general information on varieties/fruits - the whole plethora of it all helps folks like me, who wish to have a nursery, and run a commercial garden in the near future immensely. I’m on the slow path of educating myself on the world of grafting and nursery work/permaculture, and your forum has given me the means to learn, ask questions, and try things out. Thanks so much man! :green_heart:

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#5

You may find that if you place a large order, shipping to BC all of a sudden becomes an option (at some Canadian Nurseries that state they won’t). :wink:

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#6

Ah I see haha, well ill keep that in mind :yum:

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#7

I just thought I’d sum up what I’ve experienced trying to ship fruit trees to BC from other parts of Canada over the last few years.

Many Canadian nurseries outright refuse to ship to British Columbia entirely because of the headaches caused by our province’s restrictive import regulations.

The shipping of apple trees is heavily restricted into BC, and even within BC. Apple trees can not be imported into BC’s Okanagan region without dealing with a mountain of red tape. Apple trees from the Okanagan can however be shipped to other parts of BC, (or Canada) without problems. BC heavily restricts apple tree shipments to protect our huge apple growing industry. So don’t expect to be able to import new Canadian apple varieties developed back east without a lot of headaches.

Fortunately we have some excellent nurseries within BC that ship apples within BC, and across Canada. Unless you live in BC’s Okanagan, apples can be easily sourced within BC from our local nurseries.

Hundreds of apple varieties can be sourced from nurseries within BC. Some great examples of local BC nurseries that ship apples and scion wood are:

Apple Luscious Orchard
Denman Island Heritage Apples
Saltspring Apple Company

From my experience I’ve found a fair number of nurseries in other parts of Canada will ship plums or pears to BC. We don’t have a huge plum and pear industry here, so importation of plums and pears seems to be less of a problem.

I’m not going to name all the nurseries that I’ve found willing to ship fruit trees to BC. There are nurseries across the Prairie’s, Ontario, and Quebec willing to do so. The nursery that I’ve been most impressed with is Ontario’s Whiffle Tree Nursery. Their prices are good, and their trees are of excellent quality and well packed for shipment.

Just thought I’d give an update on what I’ve found over the last few years. Below is a list of most of the Canadian nurseries that ship within Canada:

Canadian Nurseries

Edited, to add new nurseries I’d missed.

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