Ornamental Crops

The Canadian ornamental industry includes various sectors, including flowers and plants grown in the field or in greenhouses for landscaping, nurseries, flower vendors, gardening and interiorscapes (plantscapes). Ornamental horticulture also includes the sod and Christmas tree production industries.

As of March 2008, the Canadian floriculture and nursery plant production industries together generate about 6% of the farm cash receipts of Canadian Agriculture. These industries are the third largest crop sector in economic importance after wheat and canola.

According to the industry, as of March 2008:

• Flower farmers from 3100 greenhouses - covering 21.3 million m2 - produce about 6000 species of cut flowers, potted flowering plants, houseplants, interior tropical plants, cut foliage, bedding plants, bulbs, cuttings for propagation, food and medicinal plants and outdoor-grown cut flowers.
• Nursery farmers on 4600 farms (20,000 ha) produce about 9000 species of annual and perennial plants, woody shrubs, deciduous and coniferous trees, roses, outdoor garden flowers and plants.
• Some 360 sod farmers grow 26,000 ha of sod annually in Canada.
• About $80 million worth of Christmas trees are harvested from 3000 farms (37,600 ha).

Ornamentals contribute about $7 billion to the annual economy in Canada. The global nature of this industry presents significant pest management challenges.

To benefit ornamental growers, Health Canada has dedicated staff that facilitates interactions among grower associations, growers, provincial and private crop/pest specialists, crop and pesticide distributors, researchers, scientists, registrants and regulators to work towards reducing risks in pesticide use. The goal is to help pesticide users to better understand the regulatory system and best meet their pest control needs.

This work provides stakeholders with:

• an understanding of pest control product issues from the user perspective
• assistance in understanding the processes and requirements of the regulatory system
• facilitated interactions between users and registrants of pesticides to address pest control issues
• monitoring of regulatory decisions to identify and follow issues affecting the industry to facilitate resolutions in their early stages
• assistance in identifying potential alternatives and reduced-risk pesticides inside and outside of Canada

The Health Canada Pest Management Regulatory Agency welcomes your questions or comments. Should you require further information please contact the Pest Management Information Service. If emailing, please specify "Ornamental Crops Sectors" in the subject line. If calling, please request to speak with the Ornamental Crops Facilitator.

Related Information

Some of the following hyperlinks are to sites of organizations or other entities that are not subject to the Official Languages Act. The material found there is therefore in the language(s) used by the sites in question.

• Canadian Nursery Landscape Association
• Flowers Canada
• Growers and Commercial Users
• Homologa
• Label Search Database
• National Priority List
• Pesticide Registration Process