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Hill Farm Nursery

Cariboo-Grown & Cariboo-Hardy Perennials. Since 1991.

ABOUT/FAQs

Who are you?

We are a family-run micro-nursery, operated by three people.

Barb is the primary plant person, who carries out the majority of the perennial plant planning and propagation.

Jane brings fresh ideas to the mix, undertakes ongoing nursery chores (all that transplanting, watering and weeding!) and is also the smiling face you will see at the Farmers’ Markets. After time away studying horticulture, she has returned to the farm and is expanding our operations to market garden crops, with plans for small-scale heritage vegetable and flower seed production.

Edwin is chief of the structural aspects of the operation. He is the builder of greenhouses, digger of dirt, weeder extraordinaire, fixer of all things mechanical and also cheerful salesman when Barb and Jane are tucked away in the greenhouse madly potting up more plants or out in the garden planting, weeding and harvesting.

Where are you?

Just north of McLeese Lake, in the small settlement of Macalister, down beside the Fraser River.

What zone are you in?

The quick answer: Zone 4.

Most of our plants are targetted at Zone 1 to 4 growing conditions. Occasionally we like to experiment with Zone 5-ish things, and these are always well identified.

Where do you get your plants?

We grow them ourselves!

Okay, longer answer. The great majority of our plants are seed grown right here. We search the world over for interesting things suitable for our Cariboo-Chilcotin region, obtaining seed from various wildflower and alpine seed exchanges and specialty seed houses. Ethically-collected wild seeds are used, as are garden collected and commercial (non-treated) seeds.

Some of our plants are divisions from established plants in our personal nursery garden.

A very few of our plants are grown from wholesale-purchased bulb/bare root stock. We grow these on, plant some in our own garden, and pot up the extras for sale.

Can we come out to the nursery?

The answer at present is “No”, the reason chiefly being that we are generally much too busy growing and caring for the plants to host drop-in customers. (We all love to chat, which means everything stops when a visitor drops in.) It’s also very hit-and-miss whether someone is here throughout the day, as we are often off-site at the Friday-Saturday-Sunday Farmers’ Markets we attend.

2021 note: it’s extra much a “No” this year, because of COVID-19.

This said, we are still very much intending to one day open up an on-farm retail space, to be open during the spring and fall planting seasons. The spot is cleared, the plans are simmering… We would then have to step back on our Farmers’ Market attendance, so it’s a bit of a catch-22.

Are your plants organic?

Short answer: No. We are not at present certified organic.

Longer answer: We do not use any systemic insecticides (in particular the problematic neonicotinoid/”neonics”) so common in larger commercial operations. We do occasionally use organic pesticides such as diatomaceous earth to spot treat serious bug attacks on delicate plants, but in general we rely on good sanitation, strong plants, and the natural balance of insect pests and predators to keep things healthy. Our greenhouses and garden plots are absolutely alive with insect activity, as you will notice from the pictures on the website. We wouldn’t have it any other way. Oh, yes, and we also keep honeybees.

Being a micro-nursery, the plants we produce are not merely “widgets”; we take pride in knowing our plants on a very intimate level, from seed to sale. We live and work among them, they are our great joy, and we know that they can thrive without the dependence on pesticides so prevalent in larger-scale, more necessarily sterile plant nursery settings.

We do use commercial seed starting mixes and potting soils, some of which are OMRI certified, some of which contain small amounts of chemical fertilizer and wetting agents.

Our fertilization regimen is wide and varied: homemade compost and manure teas, commercial fish and seaweed fertilizers, and commercial micro-nutrient/mineral mixes are all used as needed. Our larger pot sizes often contain some farm-produced composted manure.

Oh, no! I found a bug on one of the plants I bought from you! What’s with that?

See above.

Yes, you’re going to find the odd insect. And also the odd weed seedling here and there. Pick the bug(s) off, pull the weeds out, and tell yourself that being poison free is worth it!

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  • Header image:

    Viola glabella. YELLOW WOOD VIOLET. Stanley, B.C., June 15, 2019.  Image: HFN

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  • Contact Info

    Hill Farm Nursery is located in a rural area north of McLeese Lake, B.C. We are not set up for on-farm visitors at present,
    For 2022 you can find us at:
    WILLIAMS LAKE FARMERS' MARKET (May 6 onward)
    QUESNEL FARMERS' MARKET (May 7 to mid June)
    McLEESE LAKE FARMERS' MARKET - TBA
    1-250-297-6553 / arcadiaborealis@gmail.com
  • QUESNEL SEEDY SATURDAY 2021 - cancelled

    Seedy Saturday Quesnel - no word on this event for 2022. Maybe in 2023?
  • WILLIAMS LAKE SEEDY SATURDAY 2022 - it's on!

    Williams Lake Farmers' Market site, in the parking lot between the Cariboo Memorial Recreation Complex and Kiwanis Park.
    We're good to go! Saturday, April 30, 2022, 9 AM till 2 PM.
  • QUESNEL FARMERS' MARKET

    Helen Dixon Centre
    241 Kinchant Street
    Quesnel. B.C.
    Dates for 2022 - Saturdays, May 7 till October 15
    8:30 AM till 1 PM
  • WILLIAMS LAKE FARMERS' MARKET

    Now in the parking lot beside the Recreation Centre/Pool. Head for Kiwanis Park and you'll find the Market!
    Dates for 2022 - Fridays, May 6 till October 7, 2022
    9 AM till 2 PM
    Tuesdays, June 14 till September 27, 2022
    2 PM till 7 PM
  • McLEESE LAKE FARMERS' MARKET

    Lakeside Tourist Info Site, located between the Oasis Pub and the Oasis Cafe, and directly across from the McLeese Lake General Store.
    Dates in 2022 - TBA
    Time: 9 A.M. till 1 P.M.
  • Affiliations

    Alpine Garden Club of British Columbia
    Alpine Garden Society (Great Britain)
    David Douglas Botanical Garden Society
    Growing North Cariboo Society (F.A.R.M.E.D.)
    North American Rock Garden Society (N.A.R.G.S.)

    Perennial Plant Association (P.P.A.)

    Seeds of Diversity Canada

  • Places to Visit:

    SCOUT ISLAND NATURE CENTRE, Williams Lake, B.C. An oasis of peace on the outskirts of a bustling industrial area. Excellent trail network; something to see 365 days of the year - wildflowers, birds, aquatic life and small mammals. Nature centre, resource library, knowledgeable & enthusiastic naturalists on site.

    DAVID DOUGLAS BOTANICAL GARDEN, Prince George, B.C. Located at the University of Northern British Columbia. A small but interesting perennial flower display garden, lilac display, waterfall & bridge, and the Alice Wolczuk Alpine Garden.

    GOODSIR NATURE PARK, Salmon Valley, B.C. 20 miles north of Prince George. 160 acre private nature reserve, 6 miles of trails, open to the public May-Oct. Wildflowers & trees; an active beaver pond; plant museum, guided & self-guided tours; excellent signage; some rare plants. Picnic tables, firepits & camping available. Entry free; donations welcome.

    OSOYOOS DESERT CENTRE, Osoyoos, B.C. 2 km of boardwalk through B.C.'s rarest ecosystem, the "pocket desert." Wildflowers, birds, reptiles, small mammals. Guided & self-guided; small visitor centre.

    ANCIENT FOREST TRAIL, near Dome Creek, Robson Valley, B.C. (Along Highway 16, halfway between Prince George and McBride. Watch for large signs: "Ancient Forest".) Hiking trails through ancient cedar forest, including a recently completed 1/2 kilometer wheelchair accessible boardwalk portion. Built by dedicated volunteers; a prodigious amount of planning and sheer hard work went into this trail system, and it shows. Worth a stop to walk the boardwalk; you will be inspired to come back and hike the wilder trails as well. Huge cedar trees, ferns, water features - a prime example of B.C.'s rare and endangered Inland Rain Forest. Interpretive signage at parking lot, outhouses, well-thought-out wheelchair unloading/loading area and beautifully designed boardwalk. Donation box.

  • Image & Content Re-Use Policy

    This website represents many years of experience and many hours of labour. We are pleased to participate in the free and open transfer of information over the World Wide Web, keeping the following in mind.

    Personal non-commercial use of our text and images is warmly encouraged for all, and for our nursery customers in particular. You may copy, print and store our info for your own purposes. If sharing, we ask that you please cite Hill Farm Nursery as the source.

    All images are taken by us and most of those (but not all) have the tag HFN (for Hill Farm Nursery) in the caption.

    All written material and HFN images are copyright Hill Farm Nursery. Fellow gardeners, plant groups, societies and associations, you are welcome to re-publish our material as long as it is cited, credited and/or linked.

    COMMERCIAL RE-USE POLICY: We request that you contact us for permission for COMMERCIAL re-use of any of our written and photographic content: bscharf@uniserve.com.

    High resolution jpegs of most images on this website are available for a fee.

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