The greenhouses at Foster Flowers Wholesale Nursery in Whitefish look like most other greenhouses. The floors are covered with trays of young plants and rows of hanging baskets are overhead.  

Upon closer inspection, multiple packages among the plants become apparent. Small plastic boxes on carboard backings hang from overhead baskets and tea bag-sized pouches on sticks dot the flats of plants on the ground. Each contains about half a teaspoon of what looks like fine sawdust with a sprinkling of dark specks.  

Those specks are what makes this nursery special. They are the stars of the greenhouses, aside from five beloved cats who patrol the grounds, and they are bugs. That’s right, bugs. 

"Those are mummies of a little miniature wasp,” Owner Travis Foster said, pointing out the specks which are the cocoon stage of the soon-to-be flying insects. “It doesn't sting, but it's in the wasp family, and they hatch over time, and they fly around and they eat aphids.” 

He said the aphid-hunting wasps look more like flying ants and are only a couple of millimeters long. 

Another sachet holds a beneficial bug that prefers to eat thrips. 

Employing bugs to fight bugs is one kind of biological practice – the use of a product derived from natural sources to protect plants from pests. Each of the predatory bugs has a specific pest bug that it likes to eat. 

“We are the first nursery in Montana to go to a completely biological control of insects on ornamental plants,” Foster said. “We're one of the first 50 in the country, I'd say, to do this.” 

Foster calls his method “responsible growing,” which entails his rejection of chemicals, including organic sprays, in favor of the use of biologicals. 

"I have a problem with even organic chemicals, because some of them are even bad for bees and bad for humans,” he said. “We have this idea that, you hear the word organic chemical, it's healthy, but that's not necessarily the case.” 

Foster said there is a steep learning curve involved in running his nursery this way and admits to experiencing some failures, but he sees each of them as an opportunity to learn. 

"I've got cutworms this year that I've never had, and they took out quite a bit of the peppers, but we didn't want to spray them even with organic chemicals,” he said. “The organic chemical that really gets the cutworms is also bad for bees, therefore, probably not the best thing for humans. 

“So we brought in some more beneficial insects two nights ago and it seems like they knocked down the cutworms,” he said. “We lost a lot of plants, but we learned a lot.” 

Biologicals include not only bugs, but plants, too. 

“This plant here is what we call a banker plant, and this plant attracts all the thrips, aphids, spider mites, and it brings them here, so there's a more concentrated place of food,” Foster said, turning aside some of the grass-like leaves to show the tiny bugs. “My good bugs go around and eat everything, then they come on this plant and feed. 

"When you come out, first thing in the morning, there are lots of bugs flying around here because they've been feasting all night,” he added. 

Foster grew up on a cattle ranch in Choteau and, thanks to his dad, developed an appreciation for beneficial bugs.  

"I've always been curious about the biological control of things because of what my dad was doing back in the mid 80s with the release of the insects to control weeds,” Foster said. “My dad was the first ranch in the state to use the biological control of weeds and worked with Montana State University on the litura bug that that eats the seeds of the thistles.”  

Foster Flowers are available at Western Building Center and Nelson’s Ace Hardware in Whitefish, Columbia Falls’ Ace Hardware and Glacier Ace Hardware in Evergreen.  

The nursery is available to local landscapers, who are given 24-hour access to the plants.  

“I'm a great choice if they're in Whitefish and they're short a few flats,” he said of the landscapers. “They can just come grab it really quick. If they do have a big order, we'll deliver it for them.” 

Between the four greenhouses on the property that’s been in Foster’s family for 100 years, the mid-April snow covered hundreds of potted plants including pansies whose bright colors belied the cold temps and grey skies. 

“We grow [our perennials} over two years, so we don't use any chemicals, like presentation chemicals, that nurseries use to make them look nice and perfect,” he said.  

“This is letting them grow naturally, so when you put them into the pot, they'll grow faster, they’ll root in quicker because there's none of the chemicals on them that slow the growth and force the blooming.” 

    Packets of beneficial insects are seen on hanging baskets and in flats of plants at Foster Flowers Wholesale Nursery. (Julie Engler/Whitefish Pilot)
  

    Art, a Foster Flowers cat, nibbles a banker plant. (Julie Engler/Whitefish Pilot)
  

    Flats of pansies relish the cold at Foster Flowers. (Julie Engler/Whitefish Pilot)
  

    Foster Flowers' Princess Luna keeps a flat of nasturtiums warm with a mid-day nap. (Julie Engler/Whitefish Pilot)
  

    The specks on this leaf are Amblyseius californicus, one of the beneficial insects used at Foster Flowers. Californicus specializes in ridding plants of spider mites. (Photo provided)
  

    Foster Flowers Wholesale Nursery is full of fresh colors.(Julie Engler/Whitefish Pilot)