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In full bloom: Montana Perennial Farms grows business from the basement up

Seven years ago, Besty and Doug Miller planted a seed for an idea.

They grew 16,000 tomato plants in the basement of their home near Belgrade. That spring,
the Millers loaded their plants into a truck and took them to town.

By ERIN EVERETT Chronicle Staff Writer

It took only six weeks for the Millers to sell all of the plants from the back of their truck, partly
because gardeners faced a shortage of tomato plants that year. The Millers knew it was also
difficult for Montana gardeners to find perennial plants — those that return every year — that
survive harsh winters and high altitude.

"We could never find plants that were hardy so we started growing our own," Betsy Miller said.

After a little experimenting, the truck-bed tomato business blossomed into Montana Perennial
Farms. Now Montana’s largest grower of cold hardy perennials — those than can survive to 25
degrees below zero — the farm has millions of perennials in 19 greenhouses and an outdoor
garden between Bozeman and Belgrade.

The Millers, who retired to Montana from California, have always had green thumbs.

Betsy was a florist and Doug, though he had a long career as a businessman, is a
third-generation perennial grower. The couple retired to Montana to be near Betsy’s elderly
mother.

They thought testing perennial plants for their hardiness would be a creative hobby, but they
don’t seem to mind it becoming a career.

"I have a hard time sitting quietly," Betsy Miller said. "I have so much energy I have a hard
time not doing something."

The farm that started five years ago as a sprinkle of greenhouses on rented land has since
doubled•IN SIZE?. It is now rows of computer-controlled greenhouses on 20 acres off of Airport
Road.

There are 10 full-time employees and a few temporary employees who are hired during the
busy seasons of spring and summer. The workers hand water every plant, keeping the gardens
and greenhouses looking like freshly painted landscapes.

A spray of fuschia geraniums, yellow and purple violas, creamy yellow irises and orange
poppies line greenhouse floors. In one greenhouse’s field of flowers is a breed of columbine
called Betsy’s bonnet. Doug Miller carefully bred that flower.

"He named it after me," Betsy Miller said.

Short ground covers, such as snow in summer, create velvety blankets of tender blossoms.
Hollyhocks are growing a forest of solid stems. Violas, with their lifted flowers and petite leaves,
seem to be smiling and holding hands.

Many of the ornamental grasses, herbs and flowers are native to Montana and drought-tolerant.

At a glance, the Millers’ spread looks like any other rural flower business. But this is a farm, not
a nursery or greenhouse.

"We grow everything whereas other people buy it in," Miller said. "We don’t have to wait for
anything to be shipped into us."

About 75 percent of their plants are sold at wholesale prices to landscapers, nurseries and
greenhouses. The farm grows over one million plants every year and trucks them from April to
October to customers in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Utah.

"We wanted to be a supplier to garden centers and landscapers who couldn’t find hardy plants,"
Betsy Miller said. "There’s nowhere you can go to get a plant this healthy. It’s the most
economical way to do it."

The farm is also open to the public. People are given a shopping cart, a map and free reign
over the greenhouses to browse 450 breeds of cold hardy perennials and ground covers, Miller
said.

Those plants are unique because they are taught to tolerate cold weather.

"We grow our plants slowly," Miller said. "We don’t juice them up for quick sale."

Seeds are harvested from the outdoor garden and planted in tiny trays under lights. They are
later transplanted to round, one-gallon containers and moved to larger greenhouses.

"They have very good root systems, which is what you need in Montana," she said.

The greenhouses are kept at 33 degrees in the winter, which allows the plants to go dormant.
When they regrow in spring, people can buy colorful plants.

"Most perennials do not bloom the first year," Miller said.

If the greenhouses fluctuate three degrees from the programmed temperatures, an alarm is
triggered and the computer calls the Millers’ house to alert them of the problem.

Mature perennials are planted in special containers in outdoor flower beds where they’re left all
year to prove their hardiness.

The containers, called "Montana Plugs," are the Millers’ invention. The plastic, bottomless
cups are set in the soil to allow plants to continue developing root systems.

"They just explode when they get in the garden," Miller said.

The Millers say they plan to keep the farm this size for a while to preserve the plants’ quality.

"We are more interested in helping the gardeners than we are with selling plants," she said.

In addition to growing flowers, the Millers’ landscape about 10 residences a year.

The outdoor gardens at the farm surround a gazebo used for gardening workshops and
seminars for students from local schools and Montana State University. Miller welcomes anyone
who wants to learn more about flowers to visit the gardens.

"It’s a wonderful learning facility to see how plants grow in nature," she said.

Miller, who calls all 1 million flowers her "babies" says she can’t think of a better way to
spend her energy than cultivating perennials. She even spends her spare time in the
outdoor gardens.

"It’s hard to doubt a creator when you work in a business like this," Miller said. "When you
take something from a tiny seed to a beautiful plant … it’s a miracle."

Erin Everett is at [email protected]

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