Special Services

The Plants you Receive are Grown to Withstand Most Adverse Conditions.

To provide you with the highest grade of hardy, deep-rooted evergreen seedlings and transplants, the Western Maine Nurseries team continually seeks technological advances to improve our nursery stock and operations. Through the advanced growing techniques used in our greenhouses, we can produce much heavier seedlings in a shorter period of growing time.

Cold Storage Service

Since 1978, we have been providing cold storage services for our customers who can plant before our spring harvest season begins (usually around April 15). Not always in the name of providing better service do we give the customers more. After several years of experimenting, we now feel that our growers would be better served if we took something away.

Our fine, sandy loam soils are ideal for growing conifers, but we've experienced inconsistent results when it comes to over-wintering certain species of evergreens. The abrasive nature of these soils can cause needle damage during the harvest/cold storage process and eventually lead to fungus development if the conditions are right. To avoid potential problems of this nature, we strongly recommend that the following species be ordered only as "fresh dug": Canaan Fir, Concolor Fir, Douglas Fir, Fraser Fir, Upright Yew, Canadian Hemlock, and White Pine. These species will no longer be warranted when ordered from cold storage.

Custom Growing

We offer custom growing services for customers needing large quantities of specially grown items. For conifer growers, we can grow seedlings from a customer's own collection of seed from an orchard or stand of trees with exceptional characteristics. Seed can be field or greenhouse sown. With conifers, this is usually a 2-year process in the greenhouse and 3 years in the field to salable seedling size and 4 to 5 years to produce a field-ready transplant.

For woody ornamentals, we routinely custom grow for larger nurseries. The process can be as quick as 4 weeks to produce a fully rooted cutting (i.e. Potentilla) or as long as 6 months for a product such as some cultivars of Chaemacyparis.

Advanced Reservations

Advanced reservations are an easy, convenient, no-cost way for Christmas tree growers and nurseries alike to plan their crop rotations years in advance. The most popular species/varieties of conifers and woody ornamentals routinely "sell out" months before the harvest or propagation actually begins. Our advanced reservations system basically puts the grower first in line for the quantities and types of plant material needed. Bare-root conifer reservations can be placed up to seven years in advance with no down payment required until January 1st of the of the year the product is to be shipped. Our spring bare-root harvest season generally begins when frost leaves the ground in early April and continues for about six weeks. Fall harvest runs from early September until as late as ground freeze-up. Woody ornamentals production and shipping is year round, but reservations can still be made seasons ahead.