The Nursery

Beaver Creek Greenhouses is a mail-order specialty nursery located in the Selkirk Range in SE British Columbia just north of the US/Canadian border. Tucked into the east-facing slope of a narrow north-south valley at an elevation of approximately 2000' above sea level, our site would rate a cold Zone 5 on the USDA climate chart. Winters are long, quite cold with occasional lows to -30C (-20F) but with reliable heavy snowfall that helps to protect outdoor plantings. Spring weather is generally cool & unstable. Summers are short & hot but due to the elevation & surrounding forested hills, even very warm days are followed by cool evenings. Autumn is a long & drawn out season giving the plants ample time to harden up & prepare for winter.
Since the early 1980's we have been growing & selling a wide range of perennial plants. Over the last five years or so, we have narrowed our focus to concentrate on dwarf hardy plants suitable for growing in rock, woodland & alpine gardens as well as in the container plantings known as alpine troughs. We are also steadily increasing the number & variety of native plants we grow including many that feature substantial drought tolerance. All the plants we sell are grown here at the nursery. Many are propagated by means of seed, cuttings & divisions from the large collection of stock plants we maintain. In addition, we travel to various areas of Western North America each summer collecting seed of native alpine and dryland plants for trial & growing on at the nursery. Additional seed comes from exchanges with fellow nurserymen and seed collectors all over the world.

Seed collecting, White Cloud Peaks, Idaho		Alpine Meadow with Dolomite Pillars, Bighorn Mts, Wyoming

We ship our plants throughout Canada & the United States while our seed is shipped to customers all over the world. Please note however that all sales are done via mail-order only, we regret that with our limited space and staff, the nursery is not open to on-site shopping - we thank you for your understanding! We do attend various trade sales, conferences & garden shows in Western Canada & the United States through the year. We are always happy to meet customers at these sales, putting faces to names & orders is always great fun!

The Plants

Many of the plants we grow are alpines - that is, low-growing perennials that grow near or above tree line in mountainous regions around the world. Increasingly however these mountain plants are being joined in our lists & collection by dwarf perennials from dryland regions of Western North America, Turkey, Central Asia & elsewhere. Both groups of plants share many of the same adaptations to help cope with the severe challenges of their environments. Both must deal with high levels of ultraviolet light, brutal temperature changes night to day & season to season, fierce winds and periodic drought conditions. The adaptations these species have had to make to grow in these extreme environments make them especially attractive to gardeners seeking to recreate naturalistic gardens in small spaces. Most obvious among these adaptations is the compact low growth habit often manifested as mats, cushions or tight domed 'buns' - all shapes that deflect & lessen damage by battering high winds & simultaneously minimize moisture loss. Foliage of both alpines & dwarf dryland plants are often wooly or densely coated with a pelt of fine hairs that provides protection from high levels of ultraviolet light. Others have succulent foliage to help retard moisture loss. Whether wooly or succulent, the foliage of many of these wonderful hardy plants is also more or less evergreen. This is an important consideration as the foliage of any garden plant is on display all year round (unless of course under snow!) while blooms are often of only fleeting duration. Few other groups of plants can boast such a rich diversity of foliage color, texture, shape and arrangement.
Foliage interest aside, these dwarf plants also often feature great 'flower power'. In nature, even small plants need to attract pollinators & in challenging environments like mountain slopes & high dry tundra, this can be even more difficult to achieve. As a result, the blooms on many of these dwarf plants tend to be large & showy, often quite out of proportion to the diminutive size of the plant itself! Colors too can be particularly rich & vibrant while a surprising number of species also feature fragrant blooms to further entice the all important insect pollinators. The culture of alpine & dry land rock garden plants has something to offer to all levels of gardeners, from easy to grow vigorous carpeting plants smothered under sheets of brilliant springtime blooms to the choicest high alpine rarities that can offer a worthy challenge to the skill of even the finest 'green thumb'. We hope you enjoy browsing our website & plant lists & find within some alpine & dryland gems to grace your own rock garden!

Roger & Debbie Barlow