EST. 1998
Our Origins as Palatine
We are a family-owned and operated tender fruit farm and rose nursery. Originally the fruit of our labour was just that—tender fruit. But in 2000, we fell in love with roses. As luck would have it, Carl Pallek and Son’s Nursery, only 5 km away, was retiring from business. Otto and Ruth Pallek became our mentors and were kind enough to provide us with their large collection of mother plants to start our own rose nursery. To this day, Otto and Ruth are dear friends and a source of knowledge to us. In 2007, we started growing our first cut roses. We are grateful to Raab Rosen in Germany for their great insights and generous conversations in the beginning of our cut rose journey.
Our Approach to Fruit & Roses
Today, we are a dynamic combination of fruit and rose growers. In both of these areas, we feel a compelling desire to serve our community while ensuring the most holistic approach to our care for and management of soil health, plant diversity, animal life, water systems, and human well-being alike.
The tender fruit is sustainably grown here at Palatine, and our varieties have been selected for flavour, nutrition, texture, and sometimes just for their unusual nature.
Further, in the realm of garden roses, we offer a large selection of old and modern roses, with samplings from various hybridizers across the world. We lay a strong emphasis on less common cultivars and disease resistant garden rose plants. This both contributes to maintaining the large diversity in the rose world as well as gardeners’ local ecologies.
And, in the world of outdoor cut roses, it is our aim to offer local and sustainably grown cut roses while producing the least negative environmental impact. We place an emphasis on long vase life, fragrance, diverse colour selection, and attractive flower form when selecting our varieties.
Finally, as we are situated on Palatine Hill, a place of historical significance in Niagara-on-the-Lake (Ontario, Canada), we are blessed with an exquisite geographical location. We have a longer growing season with higher heat units than most of Canada. This unique location, combined with an attention to detail and a holistic approach to farming, results in plants, fruit and cut roses of the highest quality.