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Our Nurseries
St.
Williams Nursery
885
Hwy 24 P.O. Box 150 St. Williams, ON NOE 1P0
The St. Williams Nursery and Ecology Centre is located in Norfolk County, in the heart of southern Ontario’s “Carolinian life zone”, several miles inland from the shores of Lake Erie, at a southerly geographical point in Canada… actually at a latitude shared by northern California.
 
It is located on a 250 acre property, which is the site of Canada’s first Forestry Station. It was selected as, and has been operated as an ideal nursery site since 1908. The very moderate micro-climate combined with light sandy soils makes it ideal for field production of bareroot seedlings as well as for growing native seed crops. The nursery was run by the Province of Ontario and has produced well over a billion bareroot reforestation seedlings, until 1998 when it was privatized.
 New greenhouse facilities were added in the last few years and the nursery now boasts fourteen acres of modern Westbrook and Cravo (retractable-roof) greenhouses, automated seeding and production equipment, modern environmental control systems, and high-capacity packaging/shipping facilities. Production fields are equipped with irrigation systems and access to a supply of clean fresh water. If all production capacity was devoted to reforestation tree seedlings, more than 5 million bareroot and over 20 million container plug seedlings could be produced on an annual basis at the nursery. ForestCare continued to operate the facility primarily for the production of reforestation tree seedlings until 2008.
In 2009, St. William's Nursery and Ecology Centre was created as a new vision and partnership of ForestCare and Pterophylla to create a company dedicated not only to supplying high quality tree seedlings, but as a science and innovation centre committed to supporting native biodiversity conservation and ecological restoration in Canada and beyond.
 
The new St. Williams Nursery will now produce in excess of 300 native species (trees, shrubs, wildflowers and graminoids) with a purpose and commitment to growing, conserving and promoting the use of wild-type genetics of native flora for planting both natural and man-made landscapes. Species are available in a variety of forms suitable for projects, from ecological restoration to landscaping, and including seed, seed mixes, bareroot seedlings, plugs, as well as larger potted stock.
Big bluestem seed production rows
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Butterflyweed seed production rows
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The St Williams Nursery and Ecology Centre has brought together an expert and dedicated team of scientists and practitioners (ecologists, nursery growers, foresters, technical experts etc). Our goal at the Nursery Centre is to provide the highest quality native species stock in support of natural biodiversity conservation, ecological restoration, natural resource and landscape management.
Seed Processing and Testing Lab
St Williams Nursery and Ecology Centre has facilities and expertise to clean, process and store native seed. We produce native seed in bulk and package to custom orders. We also produce a line of native seed under the Pterophylla label, which emphasizes our commitment to producing source-identified native seed genetics for ecological restoration and conservation in Ontario.
Harvesting prairie grass seed
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Little bluestem with mature seed heads
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We are currently in the process of setting up an accredited seed lab which will specialize in the testing of native seeds to ensure that quality standards are met with respect to the commercial use and sale of native species seeds. This will be the first seed testing laboratory set up specifically for testing native seeds in Canada and is part of our commitment to building capacity for biodiversity conservation.
Swamp Rose Mallow (Hibuscus mosheutos) from wild Long Point spit population.
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