Straight to the Source: Where to find Native Plants
Step 4 in How to find the best native plants for your garden
Look at this little spray of adorability! On a walk in the woods yesterday I saw this plant popping up everywhere through the leaf litter of the forest floor. Meet cutleaf toothwort, Cardamine concatenata. This spring ephemeral is native across the eastern US (see BONAP!) and is one of the first flowers to bloom in spring. As such, it provides an early and valuable source of nectar and pollen for native bees, as well as acting as the only larval host for the West Virginia White butterfly. Cool! I know it’s native and belongs to my local natural plant community because I see it growing in a wild setting within half a mile from where I live. I immediately start to covet it a little bit and wonder if it is available to buy in my area.
And now we come to this week’s topic: sourcing native plants. Because there’s no use in coveting species that simply aren’t available commercially, I’m sorry to say. And unless it’s on your own property, it’s not cool to dig up plants from the wild - or to buy from anyone who does.
Sets and subsets: From “What is possible” and “What belongs” to “What’s Available?”
In previous posts in this series, I’ve talked about how to discover your ecoregion, how to explore your local native plant communities, and how to research the nativity of any given plant species. Now that you have some background knowledge of those large sets containing the broad list of native plants, it’s time to consider the practical question of availability. Ultimately, if you can’t source a particular plant, you won’t be able to plant it in your garden.
If your goal is to create an ecological garden that is climate resilient, supportive to wildlife, and aesthetically pleasing, then you’ll want to put in plants that are native and as locally sourced as possible. Read on for a general outline of how to go about this and an example process for my own area in northern Virginia.
Lack of availability is a problem!
Let’s face it: Lowe’s and Home Depot - and even your local conventional plant nursery! - probably aren’t going to stock straight species of local ecotype native plants. The retail garden trade business is built on non-native species and asexually propagated cultivars of any native species that they do sell. If you take a look at Proven Winners, for example, you’ll see every single plant is a cultivar, even if they claim that it’s a native. That’s because many of the plants they develop for sale are patented, and they make money on the exclusive right to propagate and sell patented plants—which they have cloned—after developing a form that has a compact nature or has more blooms or leaves of a different color. None of which qualities are natural or ecologically beneficial, as a rule.
So, where is one to find a nice selection of native plants? And how can you balance the competing priorities of convenience, availability, timing, and cost?
Begin with the end in mind
One of the most common mistakes we as gardeners make is to impulsively buy plants—even gorgeous native ones!—before we make a solid plan or come up with a pleasing garden design. It’s better to begin at the beginning and think through the ultimate goals for your landscape. I know, delayed gratification. But it pays off in the end!
Let’s assume your goals are to:
develop a list or get a general idea of what’s available in terms of native plants that form the foundation of a beautiful ecological garden; and
source all the native plants you want to create a beautiful and vibrant garden.
This step of the research determines realistic species selections and design choices.
Survey the field: Local outlets and regional sources
The gold standard for buying native plants is a nursery that grows its own stock from responsibly sourced seeds and plants found in the immediate vicinity. The nursery should operate with organic growing principles or at least minimize the use of chemicals. Not all reputable native plant nurseries are able to grow their stock from seed they collect. Some sell plants that they have grown from “liners” — very young plants provided by wholesale growers that the retail nurseries pot up and grow until they are a sellable size.
You can and should ask questions when you visit a native plant nursery about how their plants are sourced and grown. Ask about the origin of the plants - are they from the local ecoregion or do they bring in liners from three states away? Do they use any chemicals? Be especially wary of anyone using neonicotinoids, which are insecticides that persist in plant tissues and are harmful to bees and other pollinators.
How to find local native plant sellers
In order to find places to buy native plants, several steps to try include:
Simply Google “native plant nurseries near me” or “native plant sales near me” to come up with possible local outlets. This is a good first step, but may not come up with a full range of options.
Look through your state’s native plant society website, your local garden club website, or contacting your local Cooperative Extension office.
Check out nearby botanical gardens or public gardens. Some have plant sale areas or knowledgeable people to ask about local native plant sources.
Join an online community such as a Facebook group or a subreddit that focuses on native plants or ecological gardening, and ask about the best sources nearby.
Regional sellers and mail order nurseries
If you are in an area with a “native plant desert” - that is, somewhere with no local native plant nurseries - you might need to cast your net a little wider. Your local native plant society may list regional nurseries, or you may find this list on The Plant Native a helpful place to start. The key is to make sure you understand (as much as possible) where the plants are sourced from originally, and how that fits with your outlook and goals for your own garden.
Is it better to plant a species that is native to your county—even if the actual plant you are putting in the ground comes from genetic stock several hundred miles away—than it is to plant a non-native ornamental plant? I would argue that yes, it is better. It is not ideal, however, because let’s say you live in Pennsylvania but order plants grown and sourced in Alabama. Those Alabama plants will have genetics that evolved in a warmer climate, and even though the species naturally occurs in both places, the Alabama plants may not be able to survive Pennsylvania’s colder winters, for example.
Northern Virginia Native Plant Sellers
I am extremely fortunate to live in northern Virginia, where there is strong interest in native plants and ecological gardening. We are lucky enough to have an organization (really, it’s a federation of organizations) solely dedicated to promoting native plants called Plant NOVA Natives.
Checking out Plant NOVA Natives is always my first step when I’m researching anything to do with the subject as it pertains to my local area. There is a wealth of information on this site, from how-tos to garden design concepts to lists of service providers. Pertinent to this post, the site also contains a directory of local native plant nurseries and native plant sales that occur throughout the year. It even lists tree and shrub seedling sales and giveaways in the region.
By far and away, our most valuable and extensive source for local ecotype native plants is a nonprofit nursery called Earth Sangha, located in Springfield, VA. I love that they combine ecological restoration with engaged Buddhism (“Sangha” means community in Sanskrit) - right up my alley! Earth Sangha sells hundreds of species of native plants that they grow from seed collected around the Fairfax County region. They support public and private ecological restoration efforts, supplying parks and natural areas with plant material. They also have a public nursery where you can buy a wide variety of native plants that belong to the native plant communities found in northern Virginia.
There are several other local nurseries and native plant sellers in my area, including the Potowmack Chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society, which sells out of Green Spring Gardens in Fairfax, VA; Nature By Design; Watermark Woods; and Willowsford Conservancy, to name a few.
Better regional native plant sellers
If Earth Sangha or another nearby nursery does not have what I am looking for, especially in large enough quantity, I will look for plug trays sold by mail order nurseries. Sometimes you need to weigh price and availability to match with your timing and planting priorities. In that multivariate equation, it may be that purist planting goals simply can’t be accommodated. In this case, I would advise you not to let perfect be the enemy of the good. In other words, even though your ultimate goal might be to populate your landscape with only local ecotype native straight species, it might not be practically possible right now. You might need to source some of your plant material from farther afield, in an effort to fill your garden beds and get growing!
Regional native plant sellers I trust include:
Izel Native Plants - an aggregator that offers native plants from a number of regional growers around the country - and limits which ones you order from based on your ZIP code.
Direct Native Plants - a retail mail order offshoot of the wholesale native nursery, American Native Plants. Located in Middle River, MD.
Mid-Atlantic Natives - a mail order nursery with many VA ecotype natives located in Cobbs Creek, VA.
If none of these sources carry what you are looking for, then the outer limits (for me personally) would include:
My Home Park (based in Ohio)
Prairie Moon Nursery (based in Minnesota)
A word about selection
Just because you are shopping at a native plant nursery does not mean that everything they sell falls within your criteria.
They may sell some native and some non-native plants.
They may sell cultivars.
They may mislabel plants (everyone makes mistakes).
They may not know where their plants come from—that is, the plants’ provenance. So, if you really want to be particular, you need to do a lot of research and ask a lot of questions.
You may need to limit your plant palette in order to stay in keeping with your objectives. And that is fine!
Focus on what is important to you, be patient, and be persistent. The native plant nursery space is expanding right now due to booming demand, but there is still a lack of supply. It is up to us, the consumers, to demand better products. So don’t be afraid to ask those probing questions to alert the plant purveyors that you care about the details of plant origins.
Don’t buy anything just yet, though!
Although this entire post has been about finding available plants, this is still part of the research stage.
WHAT?!
I know it seems like a long and drawn out process and it is complicated. But the truth is, ecology is quite complex and it is not something you can learn in a day or a week. It takes some time and study to get a feel for how to go about ecological gardening.
If you keep your end goal in mind, then it will help to take your time and learn before you pull the trigger on buying 26 really cool plants and then wonder where you should stick them in the ground - only to realize that you just planted something that has a tap root and hates to be moved, or a tree that is going to grow to be 60 feet tall and overshadow your entire yard. Patience, grasshopper!
At this stage, you are arming yourself with knowledge. You have gone from learning about your ecoregion and your native plant communities and from there how to discover what is available near you. Once you have some lists of available locally native plants, then you can move on to considering your particular site conditions, plant compatibility, and design considerations. Those will be the topics of my upcoming posts, so stay tuned!
Excellent information! Much to digest, but well worth it!
Keep up the good work!