diff --git a/terraform/graph_builder_apply.go b/terraform/graph_builder_apply.go
index 2721e7113..cee423b91 100644
--- a/terraform/graph_builder_apply.go
+++ b/terraform/graph_builder_apply.go
@@ -84,9 +84,6 @@ func (b *ApplyGraphBuilder) Steps() []GraphTransformer {
 		// Attach the state
 		&AttachStateTransformer{State: b.State},
 
-		// add providers
-		TransformProviders(b.Components.ResourceProviders(), concreteProvider, b.Config),
-
 		// Destruction ordering
 		&DestroyEdgeTransformer{
 			Config:     b.Config,
@@ -118,6 +115,9 @@ func (b *ApplyGraphBuilder) Steps() []GraphTransformer {
 		// Add module variables
 		&ModuleVariableTransformer{Config: b.Config},
 
+		// add providers
+		TransformProviders(b.Components.ResourceProviders(), concreteProvider, b.Config),
+
 		// Remove modules no longer present in the config
 		&RemovedModuleTransformer{Config: b.Config, State: b.State},
 
diff --git a/terraform/graph_builder_plan.go b/terraform/graph_builder_plan.go
index 4e74587be..fffa5554a 100644
--- a/terraform/graph_builder_plan.go
+++ b/terraform/graph_builder_plan.go
@@ -101,8 +101,6 @@ func (b *PlanGraphBuilder) Steps() []GraphTransformer {
 		// Add root variables
 		&RootVariableTransformer{Config: b.Config},
 
-		TransformProviders(b.Components.ResourceProviders(), b.ConcreteProvider, b.Config),
-
 		&MissingProvisionerTransformer{Provisioners: b.Components.ResourceProvisioners()},
 
 		&AttachSchemaTransformer{Components: b.Components},
@@ -112,6 +110,8 @@ func (b *PlanGraphBuilder) Steps() []GraphTransformer {
 			Config: b.Config,
 		},
 
+		TransformProviders(b.Components.ResourceProviders(), b.ConcreteProvider, b.Config),
+
 		// Remove modules no longer present in the config
 		&RemovedModuleTransformer{Config: b.Config, State: b.State},
 
diff --git a/terraform/graph_builder_refresh.go b/terraform/graph_builder_refresh.go
index a6c5373d4..b5d7d3208 100644
--- a/terraform/graph_builder_refresh.go
+++ b/terraform/graph_builder_refresh.go
@@ -125,8 +125,6 @@ func (b *RefreshGraphBuilder) Steps() []GraphTransformer {
 		// Add root variables
 		&RootVariableTransformer{Config: b.Config},
 
-		TransformProviders(b.Components.ResourceProviders(), concreteProvider, b.Config),
-
 		// Add the local values
 		&LocalTransformer{Config: b.Config},
 
@@ -136,6 +134,8 @@ func (b *RefreshGraphBuilder) Steps() []GraphTransformer {
 		// Add module variables
 		&ModuleVariableTransformer{Config: b.Config},
 
+		TransformProviders(b.Components.ResourceProviders(), concreteProvider, b.Config),
+
 		// Must be before ReferenceTransformer, since schema is required to
 		// extract references from config.
 		&AttachSchemaTransformer{Components: b.Components},
diff --git a/terraform/test-fixtures/apply-targeted-module-unrelated-outputs/child2/main.tf b/terraform/test-fixtures/apply-targeted-module-unrelated-outputs/child2/main.tf
index dce2d167b..d8aa6cf35 100644
--- a/terraform/test-fixtures/apply-targeted-module-unrelated-outputs/child2/main.tf
+++ b/terraform/test-fixtures/apply-targeted-module-unrelated-outputs/child2/main.tf
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ resource "aws_instance" "foo" {
 }
 
 output "instance_id" {
-  # Even though we're targeting just the resource a bove, this should still
+  # Even though we're targeting just the resource above, this should still
   # be populated because outputs are implicitly targeted when their
   # dependencies are
   value = "${aws_instance.foo.id}"
diff --git a/terraform/transform_provider.go b/terraform/transform_provider.go
index fc0101e44..e31cb20b5 100644
--- a/terraform/transform_provider.go
+++ b/terraform/transform_provider.go
@@ -134,6 +134,43 @@ func (t *ProviderTransformer) Transform(g *Graph) error {
 			pv.SetProvider(target.ProviderAddr())
 			g.Connect(dag.BasicEdge(v, target))
 		}
+
+		if pv, ok := v.(GraphNodeReferencer); ok {
+			// not a provider consumer, so check if this node references any
+			// providers
+			for _, r := range pv.References() {
+				var res addrs.Resource
+				switch sub := r.Subject.(type) {
+				case addrs.ResourceInstance:
+					res = sub.Resource
+				case addrs.Resource:
+					res = sub
+				default:
+					continue
+				}
+
+				providerCfg := res.DefaultProviderConfig()
+				providerName := providerCfg.String()
+
+				provider := m[providerName]
+				if provider == nil {
+					// create the missing top-level provider
+					// This provider node will only be initialized to provide
+					// the schema for its referrers.
+					provider = &NodeEvalableProvider{
+						&NodeAbstractProvider{
+							Addr: addrs.RootModuleInstance.ProviderConfigDefault(providerCfg.Type),
+						},
+					}
+
+					g.Add(provider)
+					m[providerName] = provider
+				}
+
+				log.Printf("[DEBUG] %s references %s", dag.VertexName(pv), providerName)
+				g.Connect(dag.BasicEdge(pv, provider))
+			}
+		}
 	}
 
 	return err