Nurseries, Landscape Professionals, Education

Caras Nursery and Landscape,  Missoula MT, offer indoor and outdoor hardy plants, Montana landscaping and design, lighting and irrigation in one of the oldest establishments of this kind in Missoula.  Greenhouse, outdoor nursery yard and garden store offers “Seeds, supplies, soils. Ingredients for a Gardening lifestyle.  Seasonal interest, fresh harvest – happiness is a Montana garden.”

Marchie’s Nursery & Garden Center,  Missoula MT,  “your one-stop shop for all of your plant and gardening needs…  carry everything from trees and shrubs to vines and roses.”  They “can also handle all of your landscaping needs.”

Delaney’s Landscape Center, Polson MT, offers the “largest selection of high-quality plants in Western Montana…” Also a full-service landscape service division: They “have the knowledgeable staff to help you with all of your landscaping problems”.

Blake Nursery, Big Timber MT.  Providing hardy garden plants for the Mountain West including many natives. Their extensive plant list is organized by categories designed to make your selection easier – plus offering Montana landscape design, installation, and maintenance.

As experienced landscapers, they alert you to potential problems in construction and landscaping and share their observations in building site guidelines on their website.  The article also explains the importance of preserving the Montana native vegetation during construction.

The Cashman Nursery & Landscaping in Bozeman MT, a family in business in the nursery and landscape trade for more than 120 years,  offers Montana hardy plants, landscaping materials, and design services, as well as gardening tips, seminars; a super plant finder tool and plant library.

Blackfoot Native Plants, Potomac MT, sells containerized native plants, most from Western Montana, including hardy native grasses, shrubs, and wildflowers.  Seeds and cuttings are hand collected to ensure genetic diversity and grown out-of-doors at 4000′ so you’ll have the hardiest plants available. They are “no longer selling at Farmers’ markets or at the nursery but are available for consultations and contract sales.”  Their website is a great resource for all interested in learning more about native plants.

What grows in Montana, in your zone?

The USDA Agricultural Research Service makes a Plant Hardiness Zone Map available that is interactive with your input (type in your zip code). “Hardiness zones are based on the average annual extreme minimum temperature during a 30-year period in the past, not the lowest temperature that has ever occurred in the past or might occur in the future. Gardeners should keep that in mind when selecting plants, especially if they choose to “push” their hardiness zone by growing plants not rated for their zone. In addition, although this edition of the USDA PHZM is drawn in the most detailed scale to date, there might still be microclimates that are too small to show up on the map. ”

Garden Design Magazine

Subscribe to the hard copy or to its newsletter which is brimful with Garden Design ideas, including a photo gallery, popular garden tips, and more.  Beautiful designs are shown here and interesting plants with their care instructions and suitability to your zone gardening.

In its article on Gardening in the Rockies the magazine offers tips about Alpine Landscape Design and Designing in Mountains.

Montana Native Plant Society

“The goals of the Montana Native Plant Society are to preserve, conserve, and study the native plants and plant communities of Montana, and to educate the public about the values of our native flora.”

“Because native plants are adapted to local environmental conditions, they require far less water, saving time, money, and perhaps the most valuable natural resource, water. In addition to providing vital habitat for birds, many other species of wildlife benefits as well.” (“Why Native Plants Matter”, Audubon)

Montana Landscape & Nursery Association

Check out its Resource pages that list its members. Here you can find a local professional as well as important nurseries, growers (retail as well as wholesale) and landscape suppliers.

The Montana Homesteader publishes lots of useful information pertaining to all sorts of issues relevant to gardening in the mountains, especially which vegetable to plant in your region.

The Urban Farmer offers a wealth of practical information at their website:  Planting guide & calendar of vegetables and flowers for our Montana zones (USDA hardiness zones 3 to 6, as per this website), vegetable problems, fertilizer schedule, growing library and so much more.

Wheat Montana Farms & Bakery publish great posts on a multitude of gardening/growing and lifestyle-related issues.

Tizer Botanic Garden & Arboretum is a public garden and internationally accredited arboretum that is open to the public daily from 10 am – 6 pm from Mother’s Day to October.  Besides showing locally adapted plants in their natural environment and a lovely place to visit, they have a retail garden and gift shop and an extensive nursery which specializes in high altitude, drought tolerant, and cold hardy plants.

The Missoula County Weed District & Extension runs the Plant Clinic offering help with plant care and pest management issues.

Let’s not forget the Farmers’ Almanac!  Their Planting Calendar for Montana might be particularly helpful to you as it allows to fine tune the planting date by selecting from an extensive list of MT cities.