Our wildflower nursery, originally set up to grow regional plant stock for our own planting program in the Garden, now offers over eighty species of native plants for sale.

If you wish to consult our plant list before reading more about the criteria we apply in the nursery, please:

In all of our activities, we subscribe to the vision, principles and goals of The Canadian Biodiversity Strategy, which defines biodiversity as the variability among all living organisms including diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.For detailed information on the Biodiversity Strategy, please click CBS.

The Biodiversity Strategy underscores the primary purpose of habitat gardening, which is the nurturing of native flora to preserve, restore and otherwise enhance local and regional biodiversity. While focussing on the specific characteristics and beauty of wildflowers, habitat gardening goes beyond the care usually associated with flower gardening, extending its concerns to the preservation and maintenance of healthy regional soil and habitat types, and to fostering all forms of wildlife - insects, reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals.In this process, the social history of the region is understood as an underlying condition of ecological preservation or restoration.

Our commitment to biodiversity means that we do not use chemical herbicides or pesticides in any of the Garden's activities, nor do we use chemical fertilizers. We also prepare our own potting soils by incorporating appropriate types and proportions of organic matter (mor or mul humus) into local mineral soils. We avoid commercially prepared "no-soil" potting mixes because they are biologically impoverished (sterile) media.

In our approach to nursery management, we take three levels of biodiversity into account by applying criteria relevant to each with regard to seed and/or plant sources, techniques of reproduction, care of juvenile plants, record keeping and plant distribution. These levels, and some of their main implications for our nursery are:

1.Habitat Diversity

Depending on the focus adopted by various scientific bodies, Canada has been divided into a number of ecological regions or ecozones, each representing a relatively distinct geographical ecosystem.(For information about ecozones, please click The Canadian Biodiversity Web Site.

Each of our ecological regions contain areas that can be typified as distinct habitats, such as woodlands, wetlands, meadows, and prairies. Though most easily characterized by particular physical and biological components (dry open fields, damp forest, etc.), habitats can be understood more comprehensively as interactive life-systems which are the "home" or "neighbourhood" of a community of living beings that depend on their location and each other for food, shelter and reproduction.

Under normal circumstances, a regional ecosystem is relatively stable, though it does involve internal change due to various forms of disturbance (windfalls, fire, unusual weather conditions, flooding by beaver, human intervention,etc.).

The limits of an ecological region or ecozone should not be confused with the range of a given species, which refers to the geographical distributionof the species. The ranges of some species extend over a number of ecological regions, for example Twinflower, Linnaea borealis, which is found in numerous Canadian ecozones, while other species may be represented in only small areas of one ecozone.

One of habitat gardening's priorities is to conserve and restore regional habitat diversity whenever possible by using regional species and their associations as the basis of habitat development. At the Old Field Garden, this means working primarily with parent stock indigenous to the Great Lakes-St.Lawrence Forest Region, which overlaps much of the Mixedwood Plains ecozone. The selection of species to be included in a planting program is guided by a given site's "habitat capability," which is assessed for the most part by referring to what we know of historical regional habitats.

Our region, however, has suffered extreme disturbances since the arrival of European settlers, especially along the Quebec-Windsor corridor. These disturbances have changed the region's vegetation profile radically: the forest is now largely fragmented; fields and highways isolate small woodlands, urban centres and rural housing sprawl over the landscape,and new species - some dangerously invasive - have been introduced from other continents. And, adding to the effects of acid rain, climate change has begun to show its impact through sometimes violently extreme weather.

2.Species Diversity

Within a habitat, the members of the diverse species live and interact to form an ecological community, and the members of a given species living in the area compose what is called the species' population. The important point is that the members of different species tend to group together to form active associations which benefit the habitat as a whole.

Our approach to habitat gardening therefore involves a shift of focus away from plantings of isolated plant specimens to deliberately associating various species in an ecological neighbourhood. To achieve this goal, we have been working towards a plant list in which the diversity represented in regional plant communities is taken as an ideal or model, even though the task goes far beyond the possibilities of one nursery. It calls for a heightened sense of collaboration among all those involved in habitat restoration and development.

3.Genetic Diversity

In principle, there exist genetic differences among the various populations of a given species and among many of the individuals in each of these populations. The exact bearing of these differences on species survival and development still requires much study, but there are good indications that they are important to a species' ability to adapt to new conditions.

When propagating native plants, prudence therefore indicates that care should be taken to ensure that the genetic pool of each species is kept as large and differentiated as possible by ensuring that diverse populations and individuals are represented as parent stock. This is of particular importance in those cases in which species demonstrate slow growth and maturation as well as close-range systems of dissemination. An example in point is the White trillium Trillium grandiflorum, which is spread by ants moving the seed, and takes up to seven years to reach maturity. In such cases, the mix of genetic material is very slow and localized, making the possibility of in-breeding higher than with species that have a rapid life cycle and long-range methods of seed dispersal.

These considerations have a direct impact on the methods of reproduction we use at the Old Filed Garden.

Because reproduction by seed entails the division and re-assembly of genetic material, we prefer it to other methods of propagation. Whenever possible, we collect or acquire seed seed from identified parent populations, selecting seed from different individuals. While this ensures that genetic differences will be present in our seedlings, there is a downside in that germination of seed from some species is very difficult and it often takes a long time for the seedlings to reach maturity. The long carrying time, the inevitable losses along the way, and record keeping all add to the cost of the final product. But we think that the genetic quality of the mature plant is worth it.

The various forms of vegetative propagation - layering, cuttings, root divisions, and off-sets - always produce clones that are genetically identical to the "parent" plant. Although these techniques often mimic the reproductive strategies of certain species - the Trout lily Erythronium americanum can produce hundreds of off-sets before blooming for the first time - it nevertheless reduces genetic diversity to zero. But there are a number of reasons to adopt a cloning technique: the speed of reproduction is increased enormously, the distribution, and therefore the safety of rare or "difficult" species is enhanced and, in some cases, it is the only reasonably viable method available when seed production, germination rates and maturation time are excessive. A study has shown, for example, that Twinflower, Linnaea borealis, does not set very much seed, and its germination rate is about one in thirty. Added to this, it takes seedlings about thirteen years to bloom. This makes propagation from seed, though it should be attempted as a parallel technique, prohibitive as a basic nursery approach to this species.

We think that, when warranted by the known characteristics of a given species, it is reasonable to practice some form of cloning. But the dangers must be countered through the choice and documentation of parent plants from diverse populations and keeping the "pedigree" of each clone on file. On this basis, "mixing and matching" can be exercised when trying to establish a new population of the species. This type of documentation is time consuming, but we consider it an integral part of our nursery's task.

One final word on the task of protecting genetic diversity: when deliberately propagating plants, there is always the danger that hidden motives and criteria might enter the process, unwittingly leading to the equivalent of horticultural varieties or hybrids. This could happen as easily as choosing parent plants with the "best looking" flowers, or flowers of a certain shade. We do our best to avoid such dangers by allowing open pollination, and by choosing seed from an identified range of parent plants.