The current boom in the commercial and residential landscaping market has had a predictable effect on the supply of plants – particularly large caliper trees. Simply put, there aren’t any to be had.

The cycles of supply and demand for plant material are prime examples of what sets the horticulture industry apart from other production industries. The intricacies and unpredictability of working with material subject to the whims of nature are unlike any other line of manufacturing.

John Putzer of M. Putzer Hornby Nursery, in Hornby puts it best when he explains: “The problem of plant shortages isn’t really solvable. Trees have to be in the ground seven to 10 years before they are large enough for today’s landscape requirements. We aren’t like a furniture manufacturer who can put on an extra shift to make a couple of thousand more chairs.” Knowing there are no easy answers to this issue, Horticulture Review spoke with a number of nurserymen and landscape contractors to find out how they manage the current plant shortage.

The demand for large trees puts pressure on all levels of the production cycle. “Small plant material is still readily available,” says Dave Wylie of Braun Nursery Limited in Mount Hope, “but the shortage of big trees puts pressure on the small trees, which are being substituted for larger sizes. I could set some smaller trees aside to grow on, but for me, cash is king. It is better to have cash in pocket rather than a tree in the field.” Wylie says there are a few nurseries in the U.S. holding back some trees to grow on, but for the most part, every nursery will sell each tree it can.

Nurserymen have good memories and have learned several lessons from the experiences during the last decade “The last time we had a plant shortage such as this, the liner growers doubled their production almost overnight, allowing nurseries to increase their plant production dramatically. We flooded the market with plants and a lot of growers ran into trouble,” explains Wylie, who adds the result was that growers stopped buying liners (because they had enough plants already in the field). As a result, the major liner growers in the western U.S. got together to determine at what rate their production will increase each year. While protecting the future markets, and indirectly, the interests of their customers, this means that growers who depend on liners for their own new production cannot expand as much as they might like.

Wylie admits the last thing growers want to say is “no, we can’t supply that.” So many are scrambling to help their customers. At Riverbend Farms (Ontario) in Alymer, John Hotchkiss says they bought in a number of plants from other growers to help service their regular clients. “We don’t make much money on those plants, but our priority is keeping our long-term customers supplied.”

History and the weather have played a part in Riverbend’s shortages. “We had a surplus of spreading junipers and cut back production so much that we fell short this year,” says Hotchkiss. In addition, last winter played havoc on Riverbend’s large field-grown yews. “Quite a few were badly desiccated and need one more year to recover.” There is a good side, however, and if people are patient, there will be a nice crop of big yews on the market in a year-and-a-half, says Hotchkiss.

Difficult to react quickly to plant trends
Ideally, Hotchkiss would like to work more closely with landscape contractors, designers and architects. “Trends in plants shift so quickly, it takes time to react and recover when planning plant production cycles. I really wish we had a crystal ball,” he smiles.

The need to educate those people who specify plants in landscape plans is a sentiment echoed by Harry Worsley of Uxbridge Nurseries Ltd. in Uxbridge. “We need to let them know what’s out there,” he says. “It takes at least five years to grow a tree – and it’s hard to determine what to grow when landscape architects and city planners keep changing their favoured species.”

John Putzer (M. Putzer Hornby Nursery) would also like to see cooperation and communication between landscape architects, contractors and growers. “The landscape designers and contractors need to think ahead a bit. We need to reach some sort of compromise with the types of plants they specify.” Adding to Putzer’s frustration is the reality that designers and contractors are clamoring for exotic material to set their work apart from others – so the nursery industry responds. “Then we have a winter like the one we just had where everything is hit hard, and no one wants exotics anymore.”

Putzer adds the nursery industry will be further stressed as cities begin to prohibit the planting of certain species. For example, under the perceived threat of emerald ash borer, conservation areas across the province are canceling all orders for ash trees (Fraxinus sp.).

Contractors look for creative solutions
As end-users, landscape contractors are having to come up with some creative solutions to plant shortages. At the very least, the shortfalls cost contractors a great deal in time, as they (or their staff) drive all over southern Ontario in search of specific plant material. Or, they can spend a lot of time as a go-between consulting with the designer and homeowners to substitute or downsize plants.

Some, like Keith Severs of Arbordale Landscaping in Willowdale, shrug off the frustration. “It’s just a part of my job that takes longer than it used to. Certain things have been a very tough find this year,” he says. “In the old days, I used to go to two nurseries and find all the plants I needed, now it takes up to two days to find what I am looking for.” Severs believes designers and homeowners need to get used to the idea of substituting plants, noting there are alternative plant choices available.

Dave Cameron, of Cameron Landscaping in North York, recognizes the difficulty in getting certain sizes because of supply and demand and he, too, takes it in stride. But he adds his company is not a big user of large plant material. Most often their landscaping jobs are an upgrade of existing landscapes for commercial customers. “We do our own designs and can spec smaller material. Where we would normally plant a 100 to 125 cm plant, we’ve had to settle for 60 cm size this year.”

Heritage Green Landscape Contractors in Ancaster tries to solve the shortage problem by scheduling as much in advance as possible. “If we know we are going to need a certain plant next July, we order ahead to reserve it from the grower,” says James Meerfeld, a landscape designer at Heritage Green. He adds the company has focused on creating a strong relationship with one supplier – and that has worked pretty well for them in the past.

All Heritage Green’s quotes come with a disclaimer letting the client know the price quoted is based on plant material coming from a local source. If the plants aren’t available, and the client is unwilling to wait, the price increases as the plant takes longer to find and pick up. “On our sales calls, we make our clients aware that nurseries can only dig so much material in spring, and as demand increases, plants may not always be readily available,” explains Meerfeld. For large tree movers, such as Phil Dickie of Fast Forest Inc. in Kitchener, the dearth of large caliper trees is more serious. When people use Fast Forest’s services it is because they want, in Dickie’s words, “big, big trees, and smaller isn’t always an option.” He finds himself having to go further and further from the Kitchener/Waterloo area to find good quality trees of sufficient size. Dickie is looking for trees from 5-8 in. caliper (125-200 mm) and says: “Come winter, I spend a lot of time traveling around developing sources for the following year.”

It is not practical to heel in or store trees of the size Fast Forest sells, so its trucks must travel to and from the source and job site with each installation. As nursery sources get farther afield, this added travel time has increased the cost of installing large trees. Dickie’s hope is that landscape architects come to realize they should spec “the ideal tree, but if it is unavailable, here are two other options.”

Buying plants directly from BC
Tyler Dingle of Oriole Landscaping Ltd. and Graham Leishman of Leishman Landscaping Ltd., both in Toronto, have taken another tack and have gone direct to growers on the west coast to purchase larger quantities of trees, which they heel in a holding yard. Leishman admits transporting and maintaining the plants is a hassle, “but I know I’ve got the product I need and have more control over my projects. Keeping plants in a small holding area allows us to pick from our own stock, which saves time as we (my crew and I) don’t spend time driving around picking up plants from all over.” Dingle adds that going out to BC each year and hand picking trees based on projected sales is a risk, but it gives him larger sizes than he would be able to get in Ontario. “The clients we work for want their installations to look like they’ve been there forever, so we need mature material.” Oriole Landscaping has the luxury of being able to devote a half-acre of their yard to plant material, so they can stock-pile. ‘Because we work in the city, we buy a lot of tight, columnar material that doesn’t take up much room.”

Owning and maintaining a yard of larger plant material is definitely a challenge, and takes a greater level of planning and forethought, but Dingle admits the result is a less-panicked job process. He also admits to selling larger material to other local contractors, saying he is happy to deal with a group of his peers in a friendly atmosphere. “There seems to be less fear of competition among us,” he says. “We sell product back and forth to get jobs done efficiently.”

Graham Leishman agrees that by working cooperatively, the group of contractors in his area has created a solution that works in today’s changing business environment. “By no means do I want to be a grower or supplier, but I do want to make my life easier.”