Ever-Green Greenhouses

Ever-Green Greenhouses

Ever-Green Greenhouses was started 35 years ago by Brian, an Olds College graduate. This greenhouse focuses on mass production for the big box stores, such as Walmart and Canadian Tire. Balancing quality, efficiency, and mass production are the key to Brian's success.  During this time of year Ever-Green Greenhouses is growing poinsettias and preparing for spring.

The EC and pH are carefully monitored to achieve optimal growth. Acid and fertilizer are also watched added for their benefits. Safety is always very important when dealing with any chemicals in the greenhouse. It is highly recommended that you have procedures in place. 

When you are growing large quantities of any crop it is very important to monitor for bugs and other plant health problems that could be detrimental to your success. This year Ever-Green Greenhouses has had problems with stem rot, wiping out over 900 plants. This problem stems back to the transplants being planted too deep. 

Every week the poinsettias are measured for height and they change out the bug cards. 

Holy Mass Production!

Nice pots!

BowPoint Nursery

BowPoint Nursery

BowPoint Nursery is owned and operated by Ken Wright and his family since 1988. The farm is situated on approximately 16 acres of land just outside of Calgary. BowPoints focuses is on sustainability and growing local quality products.

The BowPoint Nursery uses local horse manure and local wood chips mixed in to their media. This is a great example of how this farm is sustainable. 

 Ken finds root pruning and under cutting to be very successful.

The irrigation for this nursery is purely based on rainwater. They collect rainwater as well as snow melt to water their plants. They really don't have any other choice as there is no access to water for this nursery. So this means you know you are getting a tough, hardy, Alberta grown product. 

BowPoint Nursery, hands pick their local seeds. They are closed on Thursdays so they can go and do this. They use a GPS to mark where they have collected seeds, and keep track of the quality of the seeds. 

They leave seedlings where they are for over wintering. They make sure they are moist and hope for the best. This is inline with their mission of only growing quality sustainable products. 

Eagle Lake Nurseries

Eagle Lake Nurseries

Was started in 1970 by Tony and Anne Heuver. Eagle Lake Nurseries is located east of Strathmore. Tony and Anne's daughter Anita is now the part owner and manager of Eagle Lake Nurseries. Anita graduated from the Horticulture program at Guelph University and has extensive experience working in the industry. Anita even spend a year working in horticulture in Holland! When Eagle Lake Nurseries first started up business there were no there similar businesses in the area, they even use to dig in shelterbelts for landscape material. 

Eagle Lake Nuseries is situated on over 800 acres! 500 acres is designated for caliper tree and shrub production, 25 acres of container and pot in pot production of trees and shrubs, and the reminder is in crop rotation, roughly about 300 acres. Eagle lake Nurseries also has a cold storage facility where they overwitnter products such as perennials.

The Staff at Eagle Lake Nurseries record the amount of time they spend on a task. This helps to determine the price set for a particular product. Eagle Lake Nurseries also prepares their own media, is is composed of sawdust, sand, peat moss and bark mulch.

Eagle Lake Nurseries get their water from the Western irrigation District Canal system. This canal system is only open from May 1st through until October 1st. When this supply is not available the have a slough they have access to that is filters by cat tails.

They have both a drip line irrigation and a sprinkler system. The drip line is much more efficient than a sprinkler system, because it is less effected by factors such as wind. 

The photos here display the pot in pot style they use at Eagle Lake Nureries. They use 7, 10, and 15 gallon pots of this and it covered approximately 25 acres. 

Eagle Lake Nurseries ships their product throughout Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Northern United states and even as far as Alaska. However 40% of their product is sold to the Strathmore area. 

85% of the material sold at Eagle Lake Nuseries is for wholesale use and only the remainder if for retail use. They do have a retail area located on the farm, however they do no annual production here and must have that material brought in.