Why Choose Us - Verbinnen's Nursery

Seed

We propagate from seed, giving you the genetic diversity necessary for naturally resilient trees, shrubs and perennials. Our seed is collected locally by our staff and a number of dedicated, experienced local seed collectors, primarily from wild sources. We use an internal tracking code to connect all seed collection information with each plant we grow. This allows us to offer valuable information to the planter as to where the seed has originated.

We follow seed collection ethics as outlined by the Forest Gene Conservation Association (FGCA) and have FGCA certified seed collectors on staff. Our seed is primarily wild collected or first generation harvest from onsite seed production blocks from cultivated plants of known, wild origin. Seeds from species at risk, such as cherry birch, eastern flowering dogwood, cucumber tree, shellbark hickory, etc., are sourced from partners with documented and provincially-permitted seed orchards. All of these steps ensure that we can help provide responsibly-collected, genetically diverse and source-identified native Ontario plants to meet your planting needs and enhance our regional biodiversity.

In the photo to the right: Trembling Aspen (Populus tremuloides) seed ready for storage and future crops. This jar contains approximately 180,000 viable seeds!

Roots

At Verbinnen’s Nursery we have spent the last 10 years investigating how to propagate and grow trees in trays and pots while maintaining proper root structure. Industry standard smooth wall pots and trays have the detrimental effect of re-directing roots in undesirable directions. This leaves an irreversible imprint on the roots, which can be a cause of decline at some point in the tree’s life.

Did you know that many large seeded species, such as oaks and hickories, naturally produce deep tap roots from a young age that can make them difficult to transplant successfully? Similarly, species with fleshy, brittle root systems such as pawpaw and tuliptree can also suffer transplant shock from conventional production systems. At Verbinnen’s, we focus on starting all of our seedlings with high quality, well-rooted branch systems from day one with effective air pruning techniques utilizing our Growcoon system.

Growcoon net plug holders are the most recent innovation that supports our goal of providing consistent, high quality plant material with a strong root system. All of our plugs are now grown using Growcoon plug holders. Growing in pots while maintaining good root structure is an area we are continuing to work on.

We look forward to a future built on strong roots.

Read an article we wrote for CNLA

Quality

Too often plant quality is sacrificed in our industry in a race to offer the cheapest native plants. At Verbinnen’s Nursery we have placed plant quality as a top priority. We pay attention to the little details and work hard to provide you with healthy, robust plants to ensure your projects success.

We believe the extra care put into our product is well worth it!

Growcoon: A Commitment to Ecological Sustainability & Quality

After several years of trials we welcome a new innovation to take our root health to the next level. All Verbinnen’s plugs are now started in a Growcoon net plug holder. This product has allowed us to streamline crucial parts of production while improving our product quality even further. While used with our plugs trays, the Growcoon promotes a more fibrous root system with no circling roots. The Growcoon has many benefits, some of which can be found listed below, but one that should be highlighted is they are 100% biodegradable.

Benefits

Strong, healthy roots result in lower planting mortality
Plants root out faster in their pot, or in the field, allowing for a quicker turnover rate and financial benefit
Improved root structure benefits the plant for its entire lifetime
Lightweight & stackable, more efficient when shipping
100% biodegradable, nothing left behind!