Bow Point Nursery Tour

September 21, 2013 - Bow Point Nursery Tour

Ken Wright and his family started Bow Point Nursery in 1988 on 16 acres of a bare hayfield.  His mission was to provide a better quality plant material to the Calgary market.  It is Ken's experience that a better quality seed yields a better quality plant material.  He believes in "driving the market rather than the market driving them."  Accordingly they often tell the customers what they want!

Bow Point Nursery Website Link

Over the years the focus of the nursery became about sustainability and they specialize in native plants of Southern Alberta within a 100km radius.  Growing the native plants means they have a predictable crop. Some of this speciality focus was due to factors such as not being able to use well water for irrigation in their county as per their bylaws.  Bow Point had to adapt business for this very important factor and therefore grows plants that are genetically programmed to live in their immediate area.  They use no field  irrigation.  In fact they only use about 3,000 gallons of water per week compared to some nurseries that can use 6,000 gallons per day.  They collect rain water and then use gravity feed to recapture the water they use for their container area and cycle it back up.  One inch of rain yields about 6,000 gallons.  If they run out of rain water then they truck it in.  They have turned the drought tolerance of their product into a positive selling feature.

Another way that Ken adapted to his environment and in fact turned it into a positive is that they use manure from local horse farm and wood chips from local arborists to make their own mulch and compost.  Certain arborists can dump their byproduct as long as they follow specific rules and then it is mixed with the horse manure and saw dust.  Pile is turned once a week and cooks for a month and then cures in another month and is then ready for sale or use.  The compost serves to add organic matter to maintain Bow Point Nursery soils and also provides them with another product line.

In fact the sale of the mulch and compost has allowed them to invest in some new equipment.

They further adapted to their environment by planting a windbreak at the bottom of every acre which creates microclimates.  Their soil maintenance program and because soil has a clay base means that it holds the moisture well.  In the winter they also 'farm snow' from North and South hedges by plowing to create ditches to keep the snow on their property.

They do spray thistles but otherwise use tillers and other equipment to keep control of weeds.  Their labour force starts the season in March with seven employees and ends up with three by the end of the season in October.  In the off season staff sells firewood from arborist.

Bow Point has had a lot of success in root pruning and uses an under cut root blade on a skid steer.  They can also use a Bob cat with a 14 inch clearance with the U blade to run down right over a row of Dogwoods for example.

Bow Point is closed on Thursdays so that they can go on seed picking trips.  They pick from multiple areas at no cost to them.  They use GPS to record where it was picked which is essential for reclamation portion of their business.  They have a number of plants which they have introduced and are COPF registered like the Paskapoo Poplar which is a native dwarf poplar.  Bow Point receives a 50 cent royalty per tree.

Powderface Willow which can form an attractive hedge and grows well in full sun where it is hot and dry is also one of their introductions.  They receive a 25 cent royalty for each of these plants.

Ken's design principles are to focus first on winter then summer then fall and lastly spring.

Seeds can have only a 2 week viability so if this window is missed then they use cuttings instead.  Cold frames are used for this area of the business.  If they have a year where the seed collection is above normal they use good management practices to make sure to keep some of it for those years where the seed collection is lower rather than using up all in one year.

Bow Point does not move their containers to over winter them unlike other nurseries where they move them into a controlled environment in a building.  If it is a dry winter then they water to make sure they don't freeze dry.

Bow Point Nursery is an excellent example of a business that has adapted extremely well to the challenges within their environment often to the point that it becomes a positive unique characteristic that is a selling feature for their products.  They have carved out their own niche within the nursery market.