Home soil advantage – Locally grown perennials are your best bet

🌿 When it comes to growing a healthy, thriving garden, where your plants come from matters just as much as how you care for them. Locally grown perennials aren’t just a feel-good choice—they’re a smart one. Adapted to your region’s soil, climate, and seasons, these plants are naturally stronger, hardier, and better suited to flourish in your garden. Forget the mass-produced big-box varieties—home soil truly holds the advantage.

When you buy locally grown perennials from small Canadian growers like Gardener Nation is not only better for your garden—but better for the planet, your wallet, and your community.

🌱 1. Locally grown means zone-proven hardy

When you buy a plant from a big-box store or an international brand like Proven Winners, it may have been:

• Grown in a completely different climate zone
• Pushed to grow fast under artificial greenhouse conditions
• Shipped thousands of kilometers to get to your local store

That means it’s not acclimatized to your soil, your temperatures, or your unpredictable spring weather. The result? A plant that looks great in the pot, but struggles—or dies—in your garden.

At Gardener Nation, every perennial we grow is tested, tough, and Zone 4–ready. If it can’t handle a Canadian winter, it doesn’t make the cut.

🌍 2. Mass shipping = Mass environmental impact

Let’s talk carbon footprints. Most big-brand plants are:

• Grown in the U.S. (or further)
• Shipped on diesel trucks or airplanes across the continent
• Packaged in plastic and boxed in layers of packaging waste

Every time you pick up a name brand plant like Proven Winners, you’re supporting a supply chain that relies heavily on fossil fuels, single-use plastics, and massive water use. And most of those plants are treated with fertilizers and pesticides just to survive the trip.

Buying local means your plants travel fewer miles, use fewer resources, and keep their footprint light—just like your garden should.

🧪 3. Tissue culture plants: Techy, expensive, and resource-heavy

Big brands often rely on tissue culture propagation, a lab-based system of growing genetically identical plants from cloned cells. While this sounds efficient, it's:

• Energy intensive (requires precise lab equipment, lighting, and temperature control)
• Resource-heavy (uses sterile substrates, single-use lab containers, and artificial hormones)
• Less resilient (plants grown in controlled conditions often struggle to adapt outdoors)

Locally grown plants—from seeds, cuttings, bulbs, or divisions—are tougher, genetically diverse, and more connected to your local ecology. They don’t need a lab to survive. They just need good soil and real seasons.

🇨🇦 4. Supporting Canadian Growers strengthens our communities

Every dollar spent at a local nursery:

• Supports Canadian families and small businesses
• Keeps tax dollars and reinvestment within your community
• Builds a more sustainable, homegrown gardening culture

At Gardener Nation, we grow, sell, and ship right here in Powassan, Ontario. That means when you buy from us, you're not just buying a plant—you’re investing in a more self-reliant, climate-adapted, community-driven gardening future.

🌸 5. You deserve plants that tell a story—Not just sell one

Proven Winners and other marketing brands spend millions on shiny tags, buzzwords, and big displays. But you’re paying for branding, not necessarily better plants.

When you shop small, your plants come with:

• Real advice, from people who actually grow them
• Variety choices you won’t find in box stores
• A direct connection to the grower—you can ask questions, get support, and know your plant’s origin story

That’s what gardening should be: personal, rooted, and proud.

🌿 Ready to plant wisely?

Let this be the year you grow local.
Let this be the season you say goodbye to cookie-cutter plants and embrace something more authentic, more resilient, and more Canadian.

👉 Explore our collection of zone 4 hardy, locally grown perennials.

✨ Free delivery over $200. 

Over 400 varieties grown from seed on site.

☎️ Landline: 705-724-5050

Hours May 31 - October 13 2025:

• Thursday: 9:00 to 8:00 
• Friday: 9:00 to 6:00
• Saturday, Sunday: 9:00 to 4:00

Gardener Nation Perennials:
On Ruth Lake ⛱
494 Swalwell Drive,  Powassan, ON

🛒 Please shop local.