I've gardened in Canada for many years and have never heard of them. My go to seed companies are
Stokes seeds
T+T seeds
Dominion seed house
Vesey's seeds
All have on line sites

There are many companies in Canada that supply seeds and plants. Canadian Gardening has supplied a list. You can find it at this site. Maybe you can find another supplier here

http://www.canadiangardening.com/how-to/seeds/browse-for-seed-catalogues/a/2493

dowlinggram, GI has been one of the premier Canadian mail order companies for rooted perennials and bulbs for several decades. It does not do seeds.

OMG, now I am depressed. I've dealt with them for years and have never been disappointed. So I guess this means no spring catalog :(.

Annette

That is sad news. There pricing was on the higher side but they offered a lot of very interesting and different plant selections. All of the product I ordered from them was high quality. It will be even more difficult to find that out of the ordinary plant!

Aww thats too bad. I was waiting to see what they were offering this spring.

Definitely, pretty much a first rate company that'll be missed by many! I've been a customer for probably 25 years and seldom had a qualm with quality or service. I'll miss no longer receiving their beautiful full color catalogue and those often rare and difficult to find perennials. They also had one of the best, if not the best selection of quality fall bulbs!

Terrance

I wonder if this business could continue ie might someone purchase it? I have my fingers crossed.

The event made the newspaper:

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Import gone

Such a pity that there were not enough people supporting Gardenimport . It is a sad day when any company has to close before they are ready to.
Whether it is a dot or a brick & mortar nursery support is necessary in order to be able to keep bringing in the unusual plant material to satisfy hard core gardeners like Rouge and so many others.

"Owner Dugald Cameron fell victim to a general decline in the demand for quality plants and our increasing tendency to focus only on price."

^^ This. With seemingly everything nowadays, not just plant material.

mxk3, of course I have no reason to doubt the reason the Dugald gave for the decline of the nursery it is just that I am a bit puzzled. Speaking personally, most of the plants available available through GI could never be found at a big box store. (Any plant material I purchase a HD or Lowes etc might be an annual here and there.)

It may well be the case that the kind of hard core perennial gardening as discussed on this forum is in decline.

Welcome to the Walmart world. Soon, most of the plants in your gardens will be released through Walmart because it's the only game in town. They will set the price and decide what varieties your gardens will sport. They will dress you and feed you and supply you with ammo and fertilizer too.
If you don't like it, complain to head office - somewhere in the United States. Or shop at and support an independent nursery,.

ninamarie- I can't see Walmart having that degree of importance around here. I buy one thing regularly from the pharmacy at the store here, but other than that, never shop there. If they have a garden center, I'm not aware of it! In my area, we're blessed by having quite a few good nurseries and garden centres within reasonable driving distance.

I rarely bought things from Gardenimport, although I did like their catalog. Their stuff was expensive and, if I'm going to pay a lot, I want to see the plant to choose the specific plant myself. Rouge was able to select in person because he lives near where they are/were located.

I suspect it is true that there has been a decline in the number of people willing to pay for expensive/unusual plants. There are certainly a lot of 'fancy' plants that just aren't worth paying extra for when there are more commonly available/less costly plants that are just as attractive and useful.

Aftermidnight wrote:

OMG, now I am depressed

Maybe this will help ease the pain:

Canadian mail order nursery "Canning Perennials Paradise" has there 2015 on-line catalogue up and running. This should help pass the time ;).

Here is a link that might be useful: Canning

This post was edited by rouge21 on Tue, Jan 27, 15 at 11:40

Thanks Rouge, I had a quick look and they have a couple of things I've been looking for :). I lost my clump of Solidaster a couple of years ago, haven't been able to find a replacement anywhere in Canada, do you know of a source?

Annette

Sad...especially as I'm a newbie to gardening & need all the help/sources available. I was just perusing the new Canning on-line catalogue last night.

I did notice one nursery wasn't mentioned in an earlier list - Botanus: they don't have a large amount, but they do have a section called "unusuals". Although they're on the other side of the country for me, the perennials I did order from them arrived very fresh & healthy.

As for the loss of GI, I'm sure big box stores do have an impact. I think of myself: I used to go to my local nursery to pick up the occasional mulch @ $7.00/bag-whenever I'd run out. But somehow, I'd also end up with a trunkful of little beauties that jumped in my basket on the way to the cashâ¦last year, I waited until the mulch went on sale at the Superstore for $.99/bag and bought 50. That's an extra $500 I can spend on flowers - no brainer!

I know that might sound like the opposite, but what I'm saying is that there's likely a decline in impulsive buying because people are going to other places to buy the nuts & bolts, like soil, mulch, etc.

We can hope it's like coffeeâ¦once upon a time, people were happy with coffee from a jar like Nescafe - now we think we NEED a super extra long skinny latte with a cumulous cloud of foam, a hint of cinnamonâ¦.etc.

C'est la vie, but demand will always determine supply!
Happy catalogue gardening (for now),
Dina

Phoenix Perennials in B.C. have just started up a mail order section. I'm lucky enough to shop in person there every spring. I've picked up some choice plants there.

Annette

Here is a link that might be useful: Phoenix Perennials

UPDATE:

In the mail today was my small order of 4 perennials from "Canning Perennials" (3 Minnie Pearl Phlox and 1 Uvularia Grandiflora). The plants are large, well rooted and healthy from the box:

Not box stores driving nurseries out of business here but the seemingly unstoppable rise of that US import - the Garden Centre. True, everything is under one roof and you can buy an (overpriced ) drink while browsing...but their inventory is limited to maybe 2 types of certain perennials, a handful of common and popular favourites such as the hardy geraniums and absolutely nothing which has slipped off the top 40 list. Meanwhile, our wonderful nurseries, run by real expert plant growers, offering an unsurpassed range at half the cost (overheads) are vanishing because people apparently want to go on a coach trip - buy ornaments and jewellery and other tat and spend a morning in a coffee shop whilst being served by a clueless school-leaver on minimum wage. Even so, I can choose from a dozen small nurseries less than 25miles away which are often specialised and always a source of valuable advice. I think most of these will have vanished in my lifetime - although I still have faith in the egalitarian nature of gardening and the deep passions plants arouse in British gardeners. I have been a reluctant convert to mail order but on the plus side, I have become a lot more capable of propagating and producing my own stock. Seeing a much loved nursery close it's doors seems like a sad defeat for the free gardening spirit and a victory for capital driven, market solutions which do not sit well on this anarchist's shoulders.