Montana 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 Department of Revenue's One-Stop Licensing
service to entities selling or distributing nursery plants in or through 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 annually.
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 1,200 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 exotic and introduced invasive 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 insects, plant diseases, noxious weeds, and state and federal plant pest quarantine violations.
Regulated quarantine 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. Phytosanitary compliance through nursery certification assures other states that the plant materials from Montana were thoroughly inspected and found free from any harmful or injurious plant pests.
Nursery Program Contact:
Michele Mettler
Phone: (406)444-9066
Laws & Rules:
Notice to Nurseryman regarding 2009 law changes
Administrative Rules of Montana
