We are a traditional nursery in the sense that we strive to propagate all our plants and trial them in our own gardens before we sell them to you our valued customer. As we are still in our infancy we do still bring in a few plants to allow us to have stock available. We do NOT use harmful pesticides, or herbicides and this year we substantially reduced our consumption of peat in our potting compost (we mix our own to suit our quality specifications) to the point where we will not be using any peat moss in 2011 to grow our plants.
We are not a garden merchandiser where they are constantly buying plants in and re-selling them. Our passion is in the plants and feel we offer plant advice that is unrivaled due to our extensive experience in the art of Horticulture.
We feel blessed to be part of this art form and continue to research and test new and interesting plants, many of which are not new to horticulture but may have become difficult to find. We will continue to discover increased sustainability in all that we do, after all this is a green industry and we have no interest in 'green washing' whatsoever.
Gordon's speaking dates and sales events for 2013
Please call or email Gordon if you would like him to speak to your group.
March 18: 'Trees and Shrubs for the Smaller Garden, Comox Valley Horticultural Society
April 12 and 13: Vendor at VIRAGS Spring Show, Cadboro Bay United Church, Victoria
April 23: 'Rock, Wood & Crevice', Powell River Garden Club
May 1: 'More Gems for the Rock Garden', Campbell River Garden Club
May 8: 'Some Favourite Woodlanders', Galiano Island Garden Club
May 29: Growing Himalayan Plants from Seed with Chris Chadwell, Alba Plants (preregistration necessary)
June 14--16: Vendor at Vancouver Hardy Plant Group Conference
Gordon's speaking engagements for 2012
Interested Garden Clubs please contact Gordon at gordon@albaplants.com
April 10: Suitable Bedfellows for the Genus Rhododendron, North Island Rhododendron Society, Comox
April 13 and 14: Vendor at the VIRAGS Spring Show and Sale, Victoria. See virags.ca
April 18: Some Favourite Woodlanders, Mayne Island Garden Club
April 19: Companions for Rhododendrons, Vancouver Rhododendron Club, Van Dusen Gardens
April 23: Wood, Crevice and Rock: Right Plant, Right Place, SaltSpring Island Garden Club
May 28: Propagating and Growing my Favourite Alpine Plants, Bowen Island Garden Club
June 20: The Two Georges: The Plant Introductions of George Sherriff and George Forrest, Rocky Mountain NARGS Chapter, Denver, Colorado
July 7 to 16 : Garden and nursery touring Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Will be available to do a presentation to interested garden clubs along with my Father
September 22: Trough planting workshop, Special Interest Alpine Grouup, Qualicum Garden Club, Qualicum Beach
| Bio for Gordon:
After being encouraged and inspired by his father Angus, Gordon spent many weekends working on various landscape install and maintenance projects in the Glasgow area as a teenager. These years were full of great memories as he had the opportunity to work alongside his father and also his Uncle Hamish who was a great teacher. It was during this period that he knew that this was an industry that he really wanted to be involved in and after a pre-college year at one of Scotland's largest garden centres he enrolled at the renowned Threave School Gardening. It was here that Gordon found another horticultural mentor, Magnus Ramsay, a plantsman of the very highest calibre and for Gordon a true passion for ornamental plants was born.
Gordon was proud to achieve the top student award for plant identification and also be the first second generation student at Threave following in his father's footsteps. More training was in the cards, this time to specialize further into hardy nursery stock production in the three year diploma program at at Pershore College of Horticulture and both he and his Threave roommate Colin Johnstone quickly discovered how well their Threave training would serve them.
In 1994 Gordon was asked to come to Vancouver Island for a year to help set up and establish a specialty plant nursery. He enjoyed this experience so much that he stayed.
Alba Plants has been a personal project and Gordon is keen to develop and extend the range of plants, raised with no harmful pesticides. He is also part of the therapeutic horticulture team at Providence Farm and recently took up a position as Horticulture Instructor at Camosun College.
Gordon presents to gardening events on a variety of subjects. A new area of interest is arboriculture, a true passion and area of growing professional development.
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