Section 2: Selecting Plants

Glossary

Lesson 4: Resources


Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (www.agr.gc.ca) estimates that nine out of every ten bites of food available in the world today begin with the planting of seeds. This startling revelation makes us realize how important the seed production industry really is - not only in Canada, but throughout the world.

According to the Canadian Seed Trade Association (http://cdnseed.org), the Canadian seed industry is composed of about 154 seed companies and 4,500 producers of pedigreed seed.


The sale of certified seeds is big business, especially for field crop producers.  A large variety of certified seeds is used by farmers who want additional assurance on:
  • seed quality
  • variety purity
  • seed performance

The variety of seeds available for producers of greenhouse and/or garden crops is even greater. A visit to almost any commercial greenhouse will amaze you with the vast number of plant species being produced.

Even the average back-yard garden or landscape has an impressive variety of plants in it, including food plants as well as ornamentals such as grasses, flowers, shrubs, and trees.

©iStock

Catalogues, Companies, Online Resources

A simple Google search will provide you with a large number of suppliers of plant seeds, bulbs, tubers, and seedlings.
No individual companies or websites will be listed in this course, but please note that you should always be aware of a plant product's "hardiness zone" as well as other plant descriptors when choosing the plants you wish to grow. 

"Gardening Life" magazine ceased publishing at the end of 2008, but they maintain an exceptionally useful website for a beginning gardener at http://www.mygardenlife.com/  and deals with a variety of topics and with different types of gardening (e.g., container gardening - growing plants in various containers).

Mark Cullen is an expert gardener and also the spokesperson and horticultural consultant to Home Hardware Canada; visit Mark's website.

  Digging Deeper


 
Hardiness Zones
It's important to understand what the hardiness zone is for your area; these zones indicate a range of temperatures that a plant can survive in that zone. 
Click here to view the hardiness zones in Alberta; refer to this map when choosing your vegetables, plants, trees, and/or shrubs.