Time to pick potted plants packed on pallets

Here’s a tongue-twisting riddle for you: how many outdoor potted plants did producers pack onto pallets in 2023? Just under 146.0 million pots to be exact, according to our most recent Canadian greenhouse and nursery data.

“Never plant before the May long weekend” cagey Canadian farmers warn, with the risk of frost still possible in most of Canada before then. The last week of May in Canada is therefore the best time to see millions of outdoor potted plants piled on store shelves.

Enough outdoor potted herbs for every household in Canada

Outdoor potted fine herb plant production rose by approximately one-third from 2020 to 15.3 million pots in 2023, equivalent to one outdoor potted fine herb plant for every household in Canada.

Conversely, outdoor potted vegetable plant production declined for the second straight year, falling to 12.9 million pots in 2023, 7.1% below the record high set in 2021 but 34.6% above the number from 2019, pre-COVID-19 pandemic.

Flower power rules the potted plant world in terms of production

Outdoor potted flower production accounted for 80.7% of total outdoor potted plant production in 2023.

Outdoor potted herbaceous flowering perennial plants were most plentiful, with 13.6 million pots produced in 2023, down 3.9% from a year earlier but more than two-thirds (+67.4%) higher compared with the beginning of the data series in 2016. For those uninitiated in gardening, a perennial is a plant that can survive a harsh Canadian winter and bloom again next spring.

The production of outdoor potter geraniums declined 1.0% from a year earlier to 13.5 million pots in 2023, which was 17.9% lower compared with 2016.

Outdoor potted petunia production totalled 7.0 million pots.

Most outdoor potted fine herb plants are grown in Ontario and most outdoor potted veggies are grown in British Columbia

Ontario accounted for 19.2% of total outdoor potted plant production in 2023, followed by British Columbia (18.8%) and Quebec (12.3%).

Ontario producers packed the most potted begonias, hawker balsams, petunias and herbaceous flowering perennials nationally in 2023, while British Columbia potted the most geraniums.

Greenhouses and nurseries in Ontario potted a nation-leading 6.6 million outdoor potted fine herbs in 2023, while British Columbia growers packed 4.3 million outdoor potted vegetables. Quebec (3.7 million potted vegetables) and Ontario (2.4 million) ranked second and third in potted vegetables.

A peek at the greenhouse, nursery and floriculture industry

We counted 8,290 greenhouse, nursery and floriculture farms during the 2021 Census of Agriculture. Not every farm packed pallets of outdoor potted plants.

Approximately half of the operations made $50,000 or less in 2020, while 1,500 made $100,000 or more. Over two-thirds of the greenhouse, nursery and floriculture farms nationally were found in Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec.

Outside of the five-year census and our annual survey of greenhouses, we also track greenhouses’ footprints from space, with all of the information shared on our “Open Database of Greenhouses.”