No I haven't.

Did you start your Nypa from seed, Wes?

I believe there's sufficient demand for a specialist palm nursery in BC.
..for people who know what they want (like we do 😉 )
Specimens don't need to be large.
Most of us would be happy with one gallon sizes, and are prepared to pay for it.

But then again, maybe the lack of reliable and properly ID'd
and labelled live plants is what makes people buy seeds.

Barb

I agree we need a good sized speciality palm nursery but when I talk to nurseries the problem is the cost of getting palms across the border and transporting them to Vancouver. The nurseries here tend to get most of their plants from California and the selection of hardy palms is not that great. The better palms are in the east. We have small nurseries like Barrie's and Tropic to Tropics that we have to rely on or we must grow them from seed or pay the high price to order them from back east.

I do all three. I get my waggies and chamaedorea radicalis from our BC small nurseries, I grow sabals, and Trachycarpus from seeds and I order needles and larger sabal minors from Broadway in Ontario.

One day I hope to have enough sabal minors to start to spread them around Western Canada.

Wes,
Deliveries would have to be curtailed in winter, naturally, but I don't see how it would be more expensive
to get palms from California to BC than it is to get Florida palms to Ontario.

We palm nuts want to own NON-HARDY varieties, too, for indoor protection in winter.
Properly ID'd and labelled unusual palms (Nypa, Licuala, etc etc) wouldn't be on the shelf for long!

When you think of the volume of US nursery plants that land in BC around May 15th annually,
I just wonder why there isn't more selection.

I do agree with supporting Canadian growers, but if they don't routinely what we want...who is there to fill the VARIETY gap?

We Canadians are used to paying big bucks for just about everything.
Somebody somewhere is missing out on an opportunity.

Barb

How did things work out with the Kelowna Flower Farm when they ordered in palms last spring?

I tried dealing with him but he couldn't get in the palms that I wanted and wasn't interested in holding anything until I got out there to pick it up.

Allen

"We Canadians are used to paying big bucks for just about everything.
Somebody somewhere is missing out on an opportunity."

Barb, if you're refering to an importer or nursery bringing on a large selection of hardy palms for the Canadian consumer, that opportunity is rather small. There really isn't enough interest even with the recent enthusiasm for palms over the last 10 years to make it a very lucrative venture. Sure some of the big box stores have and do bring in the basic palm types, many are still reluctant to make that next step. There pricing and return policies (high prices and usually a one year guarantee) in my opinion are keeping them going outside the sure bet.

Cheers, Barrie.

Barrie,
The one year guarantee (which I've never seen myself), would be a big obstacle.
I'm not surprised big box don't want that type of business.
They're not the right retailer for specialty plants.

It's a niche for a specialty nursery whose customers will pay a premium for
specimens that aren't run-of-the-mill varieties...tender and cold hardy.
But they'd be insane to offer any guarantee.
Many of us are interested in 1 gallon specimens (versus the huge bucks for 10 and 15 gallon plants.)
I still think it'd fly, especially if they had the savvy to stock Nypa, Licuala among others never seen here.

Allen, I never made it to the Flower Farm. You'll have to ask Jay or John.
The pic I saw of their palms showed, I believe, three varieties;
none of which I was interested in buying.
Barb