Garden a la Carte offers only professionally grown, nursery stock plants that meet horticultural standards. We specialize in plants that feed people, meaning those that produce fruit or vegetables. What we don't grow ourselves, we source from local family nurseries across southwestern Ontario. We personally inspect each shipment to ensure we only offer the highest quality plants available to us.
Our plants normally come in two formats as described below:
Fruit trees are often grown in a field and harvested without the soil in a format known as "bareroot" within the nursery trade. In spring, they are brought out of cold storage and potted in a suitable material for the variety's requirements. Early season fruit trees are coming out of dormancy when they are sold, so while they don't have any leaves (yet!), they are still alive and require occasional watering. It is important to handle these young trees with extra care because their root systems will not establish until planted. Most online resellers only offer this format and trees usually ship without a pot, meaning they must be planted immediately upon receipt.
Plants that have spent at least a season growing in their container are known as "container stock" within the nursery trade. Most fruit bushes and vines come in this format and we occasionally have container-grown fruit trees as well, although these tend to be in smaller quantities. We still recommend planting these in a garden because their growth and fruit production is constrained by their pot, plus they are often unable to survive winter in the container without specialized care.
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.