Nursery Program
The nursery program protects the well being of Montana's nursery industry by providing inspection and compliance services. Licenses are issued by the Montana Department of Revenue's One-Stop Licensing service to entities selling or distributing nursery plants in or into Montana. Any business or location where nursery stock is grown or offered for sale, resale, or as part of a landscape business is required to have a nursery license. Nursery licenses are renewed yearly.
A "nursery" means a business or location where nursery stock is grown or offered for sale, resale, or as part of a landscape service. Montana currently has close to 1,000 licensed nurseries. Nursery inspection programs, alone, can seldom be relied upon to provide quarantine security. The basic purpose of nursery a inspection program is to assure compliance with standards of pest freedom for quality pests.
The Montana Department of Agriculture conducts regular nursery inspections under the authority of the Montana Disease, Pest, and Weed Control Act (control of diseases and insects in nurseries) and the Administrative Rules of Montana (distribution, inspection, orchards and nurseries). Inspections involve monitoring for insect pests, plant diseases, noxious weeds, and state and federal plant pest quarantine violations. Inspectors also check for the correct labeling of nursery stock and licensing compliance.
Regulated pests include black stem rust susceptible varieties of barberry, noxious weeds that are often used as ornamentals including purple loosestrife and tamarisk, and late blight disease in seed potatoes, tomato and pepper plants and other species.
In addition to looking for plant pests, the department also looks for proper labeling of nursery stock. Each nursery plant offered for sale as a separate plant must be identified, but is not limited to the common name and variety. It is unlawful to falsely represent or misrepresent the name, age, variety, or class of any nursery stock sold or offered for sale.
Nursery Stock Certification is available by request. The key to making nursery stock certificates meaningful and achieving uniformity among the states is establishing a national standard. And that standard should emphasize orderly marketing and consumer protection, and not exotic pest prevention. Quarantine (exotic) pest prevention must be dealt with separately via quarantine requirements and in close coordination with nursery inspection programs.
Nursery Program Contact:
Michele Mettler
Phone: (406)444-3730
Laws & Rules:
Montana Code Annotated
Administrative Rules of Montana
