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Meet Purvis Nursery & Orchard

Purvis Nursery & Orchard was started by Bob Purvis in April 2008, shortly after he moved to Idaho from Minnesota.  During his time in Alaska (1972-89) he brought a number of Canadian fruit cultivars into the U.S. via the quarantine system to test and evaluate for their suitability in Alaskan conditions.  Bob maintained these in the orchards he later planted in Washington State and Minnesota, not just to observe how they perform there but also so that other fruit growers would have access to them.

            The purpose of the nursery is to graft, grow, and sell trees of hard-to-find fruit cultivars (primarily apricot but also apple, pear, plum, and cherry) that will survive and ripen in USDA Zones 2-6, for growers in the northern tier of states.  The orchard, comprising approximately 1.5 acres, is being used as a germplasm repository for fruit cultivars for the north country and western Mountain states, as well to test fruit cultivars’ suitability for the Treasure Valley.  PN&O offers scionwood of these cultivars to backyard fruit growers and also sells hard-to-find rootstocks in retail quantities.   Since 1985, Mr. Purvis has taught grafting and pruning classes for the general public in Alaska, Washington, Minnesota, and now Idaho and also does orchard consulting for homeowners and topgrafting for commercial growers.  Now that the orchard is in its 4th leaf and coming into production, we are selling fruit to the general public, concentrating on cultivars introduced by the University of Minnesota, the USDA-ARS, and the New Jersey apricot-breeding program rather than the more commonly available commercial cultivars.  Our address is 1568 Hill Road, Homedale ID 83628.  We are five miles by road WNW of Homedale.

Bob Purvis may be contacted at (208)-337-3782 (home) or (208)-407-6781 (cell).