Started as a seasonal, one-man operation, Forde Nursery has grown into a year-round garden center and landscaping operation that serves the Great Falls area from Helena to the Canadian border, working with both residential and commercial clients.

Bruce Forde was introduced to the nursery business while in high school in Minot, North Dakota. He worked his way through college as a landscape foreman and, upon graduating from North Dakota State University in 1980, he moved to Montana and founded Forde Nursery in Great Falls.

Originally located on leased ground in the Montana Expo Park, Forde Nursery built a new, full-service garden center in 1997 on 10 acres in northwest Great Falls. The new building contains the offices of our sales and design staffs; a retail showroom for garden and landscape related materials, plus gift items; a climate-controlled storage facility for handling bare-root plant material; and a shop. We have added three greenhouses since 1999 and we continue to add and make improvements each year. In 1998, we began work on our ever-expanding display gardens, which have proven to be extremely popular with our customers.

Forde Nursery's mission is to provide our customers with the highest-quality, hardy plant material available. We feel it is our responsibility to ensure their landscaping projects are successful through education and personal assistance.

The landscape division of Forde Nursery has distinguished itself as one of the leading design/build firms in the state. We pride ourselves on providing our clients with beautiful and unique designs and experienced crews to see the jobs through to completion.

Forde Nursery employs ten full-time staffers and approximately 40 seasonal and part-time employees.

Forde Nursery has been an active member of the Montana Nursery and Landscape Association (MNLA) since 1981. Bruce Forde spent five years on the MNLA Board of Directors , serving as its president  in 2004, the 50th anniversary of its inception. 

Thank you for visiting our website. We hope you have the opportunity to visit our nursery in person.