About

At Purple Springs Nursery we strive for excellence. As stewards of the land, we consider it our responsibility to build a legacy that makes an ongoing impact. To us, this means using regenerative, sustainable growing practices that reduce chemicals and focus on plant and soil health. It means ALWAYS striving for innovative solutions and exploring new possibilities, while remaining on an ongoing learning path.

INSPIRED BY NATURE. ROOTED IN SCIENCE. GROWING EVERYDAY.

Our method of business: We take care of our people first. Our people take care of our product. You and your business benefit from and excellent end result.
“Purple Springs is one of the most innovative nurseries in Western North America. This focus on growing the most urban forest friendly crown and root system are second to none.”
Dr. Edward F. Gilman PHD

Professor | Environmental Horticulture

Our Story

The Beginning of a Great Adventure

From Humble Roots to Innovative Farming

In 2001 Ken Regehr – owner of a lush parcel of land in the Armstrong valley was captivated by the idea of stewarding the land and growing healthy, productive, high value crops, Ken gave the green light and the team started planting trees. The beginning of a great adventure for what would later be named Purple Springs Nursery.

Many hours were spent researching farming strategies and potential crops. And so it was that in 2002, management found themselves on a plane to the USA visiting – you guessed it it – tree nurseries in Oregon. They returned to BC inspired and motivated to go big or go home. Over the next few years 26,000 conifers and 40,000 Autumn Blaze Maples were planted.

Mason Guetter (Shipping Manager) in his element. Our Load times have been cut in half thanks to the shipping team’s continued pursuit of efficiency.
In the beginning we made lots of mistakes. The tree nursery industry was an old boys club and as the new kids on the block, we had a lot to learn (lesson #1: conifers take a loooong time to grow). The vision was a pristine nursery with a golf course look and cookie cutter trees. But as time passed, what began as a few varieties of trees, grass between rows, and and excessive amount of mowing & chemical usage gradually shifted into strategic plant & soil health programs: the Purple Springs Nursery we know and love today.

In our early years, our goals were aesthetic and profit oriented – important parts of a successful business. But these goals didn’t give us much direction for moving forwards. Over the last 20 years our goals have changed and our definition of stewarding the land has evolved.

Mistakes/Wins

The first truck we ever loaded took 4 people 12 hours to load 70 trees. Today our team loads 110 trees in 45 minutes.
In 1978 this land was an empty dustbowl. Since then, with hard work and dedication it has transformed into a lush growing operation.

Change on the Horizon

Learning from our Mistakes

The owners of Purple Springs Nursery, had a vision for the perfect nursery: picture-perfect rows and uniform tree crops. They also had a deeply ingrained drive to change continuously for the better. It is this drive that inspired the transformation from “average tree nursery” to the innovative operation running today.

One of our early examples of this change is our Summer Digging Program. In the tree industry, customers commonly face the issue of a gaping hole in tree supply from late June to early September when it is considered “too hot to dig”. Rather than seeing this as a limitation, the team at PSN decided to put our heads together and develop a way to offer freshly dug trees throughout the entire season.

Digging trees in the middle of July

Mistake

We used to pre-dig and hold 4500 trees each year to insure inventory for the summer. Holding trees means higher risk of damage to the burlap/ basket, transplant issues,and stress.

Win

We used to dig & ship 5% of our orders in July/August.

Now we dig & ship up to 40% of our loads in Summer!

And so the trials began. And what better tree to test our Summer Digging experiments on than the mighty Burr Oak – a tree commonly known for its large tap root and difficulty to dig. Cue a long line of mistakes involving an elaborate shade structure with misting system, strict morning digging routines, seaweed sprays, and our personal favourite – planting the tree on top of ½ inch MDF board to “stop” the growth of the tap roots.

Our attempts to fix the problem weren’t working but instead of giving up, management encouraged the team to continue trials and innovation. We found ourselves immersed in the world of regenerative agriculture. Not only did this help us successfully develop a Summer Digging Program but we tapped into resources that changed the trajectory of the company.

Today we ship the majority of our tree varieties successfully in the hot Okanagan summer.

Our Growing Practices

Pivot Point

Above Ground to Below Ground

In 2017 Dr. Edward Gilman (University of Florida) visited the nursery and pointed our attention below ground. Up until this point we had been prioritizing canopy treatments and topical plant treatments.

We started looking at the roots and soil and examining how a tree interacts holistically with its growing environment.

This marked a foundational pivot in our plant health programs – cementing our path towards regenerative agriculture.

“I and my colleagues [at A&L Biologicals] view PSN as an example of how growers in Canada can adopt regenerative soil practices by reducing external chemical inputs and alleviating negative environmental impacts, while at the same time improving the quality of of their crops and abilities to market them on a continental-wide scale.”
Dr. George Lazarovits, PH.D

Director of Research | A&L Biologicals

“Healthy plants have immunity.”
JOHN KEMPF – Founder | Advancing Eco Agriculture

Our Commitment to Plant Health

And How it Gave Us the Clarity We Needed

In recent years we have broadened our focus from aesthetics to include holistic land management. Each tree variety comes with their own set of challenges when it comes to pest & disease susceptibility and nutrient deficiencies.

Thinking outside the box ultimately guided the company to embrace and adopt a new plant health philosophy.

As a testament of our commitment to this new path forward, in 2019 the Integrated Pest Management department was renamed “Plant Health”. With the name “Plant Health”, we are committing to spending less time managing insects and diseases with chemicals and more time growing healthy plants that are pest and disease resistant.

Did you Know
An IPM department traditionally focuses on scouting for pests and disease and retroactively solving problems. Our goal with the Plant Health Department is to preventively treat issues by growing healthy trees.
Lesson
Spend your resources in the RIGHT places. Reallocating your funds from chemical expenditures to plant health tests & nutrient-based products means change without an increase in cost.
Our daily focus is to reduce pest and disease in our trees by balancing plant nutrition.

We do this by interpreting leaf samples and plant available nutrient soil testing – these tests tell us what the plant and soil actually need for top performance.

Our long term philosophy for our Plant Health Department is a science-based methodology that mimics nature.

By energizing plants through soil mineralization and increasing photosynthesis, plants are largely able to take care of themselves. Thus minimizing our need for chemicals. 

Win

We discovered tools that have helped us communicate with our plants. Research leaf sample analysis and soil testing to get started.

Win

In the last 6 years we have cut down on chemicals by 85% without compromising our Nursery Clean Plants standard.

Our Plant Health Philosophy

A holistic regenerative management perspective inspired by nature with principles rooted in science. Not yet perfected, but growing everyday.

What's next for Purple Springs?

And how you can get involved

Purple Springs Nursery ambitiously strives towards next level progress. We are always learning, brainstorming, improving and wanting to inspire and work alongside others. This means we will never fully “arrive” at a final version of ourselves. The practices we decide to implement on our operation impact the lives of those around us and the opportunities available to future generations. We take this responsibility very seriously.

So what’s next for Purple Springs? We’ve got a few ideas including growing turf and garlic and strategically planning our cover crop rotations – as Gabe Brown (Author of Dirt to Soil) says, “Always have the land covered in plants – it acts as an amour for the soil.”

What we’d really love is to hear from YOU! We invite you to engage in the journey. There is immense strength in sharing resources and collaboration is something we not only encourage but are actively seeking.

Reach out to one of our team members or better yet, come visit the nursery!

Collaborate

Interested in working together? Get in touch with one of our team members. Book a tour today!

 info@psnursery.com