Fruit and Nut Tree Resources Discussion

Edited by moderator @wcutler, to bring this info to the top:

wcutler submitted a new resource:

Fruit and Nut Trees | UBC Botanical Garden Forums

Resources for Fruit and Nut Tree Plant Care, Propagation, Identification and Appreciation

Discuss resources on the list, and submit suggestions for ones to be added to the list.

Read this resource ...

Edited March 8, 2018: this resource had to be split up. Nurseries offering fruit and nut trees are in this resource:
Fruit and Nut Tree Nurseries​

Justification: I merged in a thread with a lot of nursery resource postings, and they were posted, so dated, before I set up the Resource file, so the link to and info about the Resource file is now hidden somewhere in its posting date sequence on the second page.

Apologies to @Rob Beckers for intruding into his posting, which starts on the next text line.
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With the unseasonal warm spell we are having here in the Ottawa area the gardening itch surfaced and I once again spent many hours trying to find good mail order sources for fruit trees in Canada. My yard has about an acre of south-facing grass, and I want to turn part of that into a little orchard. We are at the cold end of zone 5 (Canadian zone system), the warm end of zone 4. The time to mail order is now, for delivery in April/May.

There are some great fruit tree varieties available for zone 3 and up, which covers most gardeners in Canada. The problem is finding them. I've called all local nurseries last spring, with zero results. When visiting in person all one finds are a few apple, pear, and plum trees of dubious origin (usually not known to be a cold-hardy variety), that were very likely mass-grown in much warmer climes, and unlikely to survive a old winter.

What I am ideally looking for is a place much like St. Lawrence Nurseries, which unfortunately is south of the border (and not very far from here). They offer a huge variety of fruit trees that work in our climate. Canadian import rules make it utterly impossible though to (legally) import fruit trees for the home owner.

What I would like for this thread to do is compile a list of worthy Canadian mail order sources. I will try to keep an up-to-date list at the end of this post, of all that is proposed.

I just ordered a number of cherry trees (and will post a link to that later). What I am still looking for are plums, apricots, pears, apples etc. It would be nice to find a place that goes beyond the one or two choices usually found. But beggars can't be choosers, and I'll take what I can get (and yes, I have searched these forums for sources, found a few, found many that no longer sell).

If you know of a good place to mail order from, please post!

-Rob-


The list of Canadian mail order fruit tree sources so far:

Alberta Nursery and Seeds - Mostly smaller fruits, bushes etc., great prices
Corn Hill Nursery - Small fruit bushes, maybe heritage apples (they sell 'm but not mail order)
Denman Heritage Apple Trees - Good selection of apples/pears, but they are zone 7, so beware!!
Dominion Seed House - Some fruit trees, including Asian pears
Green Barn Nursery - Rare cold hardy fruit trees, asian pears, apples, plums, very expensive!
Grimo Nut - Great selection of nut trees, good prices
McFayden - Large selection of berry plants and a few trees
Mr. V's - Nice selection, though often sold out, prices on the high end.
Rhora's - Nut trees and a few other items
Siloam Orchards - Heirloom apple and pears (and a few other items)
T & T Seeds Ltd - Good source for U. of Saskatchewan cherries, good prices too!

 

McFayden has always been an excellent source for live stock in Canada; their nurseries are in Manitoba if memory serves. I used them every year for both live stock and seed when I lived in Edmonton; their zone ratings are very accurate and they never shipped me dead plants. They've got a fairly wide selection of fruit trees adapted for Canadian conditions.

 

Good Morning Rob,
Try Alberta Nursery and Seeds, Little Tree Nursery or Siloam Orchards too. Just google search and get into their catalogues. All three do provide on line ordering.
Peace
Thean

 

While it's true that a lot of varieties simply aren't available in Canada, you can find a good amount of mail order stock if you're willing to purchase from multiple sources. FYI, the process of importing stock into Canada isn't that difficult, just tedious (excepting species such as pyrus, malus: these have to come from an approved facility in the country/county of origin, which greatly limits the range of sources)....Just check the species on the CFIA website AIRS (Automated Import Reference System) for the requirements. If it's listed, check the requirements, apply for an import permit if necessary, have the originating nursery issue a phyto certificate, and away you go. It's an intimidating process at first, but fairly simple once you get the hang of it.

Within Canada, check out Denman Heritage Apple Trees for numerous rare plums, pears and apples. Grimo Nut in Niagara does nuts, figs, mulberries and pawpaws. Rhora's carries different versions of the same. Green Barn Nursery in Quebec has a bunch of rare cold hardy fruits, though they charge a pretty penny for it.

 

Hi Thean,

Thank you for the names!
I've added Alberta Nursery and Seeds to the list. Looks like a great place for the smaller stuff. The other two do not seem to offer mail-order at this time. I've sent them an E-mail, if they do I'll add them to the list as well.

-Rob-

 

Added, thank you!
Sounds like you're in a nice and warm place! No issues trying to grow fruit trees with -35C winters....

-Rob-

 

Thanks Woodschmoe!
Last time I looked at the process of obtaining an import permit the conclusion was that this was impossible for individuals, and geared towards wholesale operations. Possibly I was wrong, if anyone has a recent (and positive) experience with it please let me know.

Added the mail-order sources you listed to the Big List at the top. Nice sources! Thank you!

-Rob-

 

Nope, I have the opposite problem. I don't have enough chill hours to grow many fruits that I'd like to. For example, most apples, pears, peaches, plums, hazelnuts, saskatoons, and cherries flat out die for me, as do maples, Asiatic lilies, and a number of other plants I used to grow back when I was a Canuck. On the upside, I have no problem whatsoever with bananas anymore.

 

Not sure if they do mail order but you may want to check with Fruit Trees and More.

 

http://www.cornhillnursery.com/retail/apples/apple.html#hist
and
http://www.canadiangardencentre.ca/content/view/1235/67/

This is Corn Hill Nursery in New Brunswick, the nursery is not open for actual visits until April 17 I think it said, that says something about the climate there! I have been there, it is a marvellous nursery specializing in quality hardy stock, but they say they don't mail order ship apple trees but then they say at the website that they can make special arrangements -- I am unclear as to whether one could have them shipped by one method or another... they are also known for cold-climate roses and other shrubs, and the owner Robert Osborne has written a couple of books on hardy roses.

 

Thanks Junglekeeper!
The little info on their site sounds intriguing, two problems in listing them as a source however: They are in zone 7 or 8, making them a dubious source of cold-hardy material. Second is that they really need to work on their Web site if they are interested in mail order, as it is there's no real information available short of starting a personal conversation (which may be very pleasant, just that it is a bit outside of the mail-order concept).

-Rob-

 

Thanks Janet!
I've added them to the list. Not sure why they claim mailing small trees has become prohibitively expensive. What I've seen so far from shipping rates it is quite the opposite.

-Rob-

 

Please report back on what you find out about Fruit Trees and More.

 

I have not contacted them, as they are in a climate zone that won't work for me. Some of their trees will surely work in zone 4 or 5, but the problem is in telling which ones. They don't get the temperatures that 'prove' what works and what doesn't, unlike nurseries in the colder climate zones. Lots of people are reading this thread though, so hopefully someone who has dealt with them can chime in.

-RoB-

 

Just so y'all know the end of the story, where I ended up placing my mail-order orders:

I've ordered a number of sour cherry trees from T&T Seeds. Most are not really trees, but more like big bushes. Should do well in my climate.

Dominion Seed House is providing an apple tree. They have a Honey Crisp that I like. I have one more dubious (big box store) apple tree already planted, so that should provided polination. If not, then the many crab apples in our area will do the job.

Finally, I've ordered quite a few trees from Green Barn Nursery in Montreal. Their prices are stellar though, and it hurts to see that they charge just about twice as much as a reputable source in the USA would for the same trees. Hopefully they are telling the truth about their climate zone, as I would hate to loose any trees at what they cost. I'm getting an Asian pear, two regular pears, apricot, sweet cherry, nectarine, plum, quince, peach, and an apple-pear from them.

-Rob-

 

Hi Rob, may i ask you where you got your cheery trees? I live in ottawa, and having hard time to find nice cheery trees. Thanks

 

Hi Care,

Actually I wrote where I got the cherry trees in the message right above your post: They came from T&T Seeds. :-)

Nothing but good words for T&T Seeds. Their cherries are cheap, they arrived well packaged and were in good shape. These are not big bushes, they ship small ones, about a foot high. Considering the low price I think that's very reasonable. They shipped rooted in a soil-plug, dormant. In my case one of them just didn't 'take', it started to leaf out, those leafs wilted, produced a few more leafs and same thing happened before it completely died. I reported the problem to T&T, with a picture, and they immediately shipped out a replacement (they actually send out a huge one compared to the original, this one truly is a bush with 5 - 6 thick branches). So, T&T is very much recommended as far as I'm concerned.

-Rob-

 

Silver creek is a nursery in southern ontario I've used and am very happy with. Here's their website:http://www.silvercreeknursery.ca/index.php

 

An update, 2 years after starting this thread.

First, I've purchased some figs, hazelnuts, chestnuts, and a mulberry from Grimo Nut. They shipped good sized trees, very well packaged, decent prices too. In short, Grimo is much recommended as far as I'm concerned. Of course, the figs are not cold hardy, and I will grow those in pots.

The original trees of 2010 continue to do well (for the most part, two of the trees from Green Barn died early on, there were a number of issues with their trees and packaging, and though they promptly refunded the dead trees I can not recommend them). The peach and nectarine seem to really like our zone 5a and have grown very large very quickly. Barring late frost I believe we may have fruit this year. The others are growing at a more moderate pace, no fruit yet this year (likely), but maybe next year some will be big enough.

I've also planted a few more fruit trees last year, from Jardin Jasmin in Montreal. They are not a mail order place, you can order over the Web but have to go there to pick up. They are a great nursery though! What a selection! Very nice trees. Planted a Quince, apricot, and 5-in-1 pear. Lastly, I'm growing some Reliance grapes from cuttings. Hopefully they will take (I have a great spot at the south side of the house in mind for them).

-Rob-

 

Well, it has been a while, but if others stumble across the thread, here are three more sources with plenty of choices:

1. green barn nursery: http://www.greenbarnnursery.ca/default.asp

2. Hardy fruit trees: http://www.hardyfruittrees.ca/

3. Pépinière ancestrale (in french only) you want to check their list, they have plenty of stuff: http://www.pepiniereancestrale.com/

Good shopping!

 

From my neck of the woods, but ship nationally:

1. Arbornaut Nursery www.arbornautnursery.com

2. Figs for Life: www.figsforlife.ca

 

You might want to check out Honey Tree Nursery in PEI - they are not that far from you (relatively speaking) and seem to have a nice selection of cold hardy fruits as well as a few "hardy tropicals"
http://thehoneytreenursery.com/Fruit--and--Nut.php

 

and for nut trees http://www.cassenoisettepepiniere.com/ but for now its in french

 

a nursery specializded in nut trees http://www.nutcrackernursery.com/qui-sommes-nous.php

 

Hi! Why try a visit to Les Serres Latour Valleyfield. Greenhouse selling trees, shrubs and garden accessories as well and providing landscaping services.