Spring 2024 Plant Sale Saturday May 11 from 9-12
WHERE: 401 Parsons Drive (Directions)
This spring we’re having a browse-about sale as well our tree and shrub pre-order.
We pre-order trees and shrubs from White Oak Nursery. Check the Native Plant Shopping Guide to find which plants White Oak Nursery offers.
Here’s a sample of the plants we’re likely to have available at the browse-about sale:
Asclepias tuberosa
Helenium autumnale
Heliopsis helianthoides
Lupinus perennis
Monarda fistulosa
Rudbeckia laciniata
Rudbeckia triloba
Symphyotrichum leave
Symphyotrichum novae-angliae
Verbena hastata
Dodecathion meadia (Shooting Star)
Thalictrum dioicum (Early Meadow Rue)
Allium cernuum (Nodding onion)
Aquilegia canadensis (Wild Columbine)
Penstemon hirsutus (Hairy Beardtongue)
Harebell, Campanula rotundifolia
Prairie Smoke, Geum triflorum
American Coral Bell, Heuchera americana
Robin’s Plantain, Erigeron pullchellus
Bottle Gentian, Gentiana andrewsii
Seaside Goldenrod, Solidago sempervirens
Clustered Mountain Mint, Pycanthemum muticum
Red Bee Balm, Monarda didyma
Appalachian Sedge, Carex appalachica
Great Blue lobelia, Lobelia siphilitica
Golden Alexander’s, Zizia aurea
Hairy Beardtongue, Penstemon hirsutus
Little Bluestem, Schizachyrium scoparium
New England Aster, Symphyotrichum novae-angliae
Green headed coneflower, Rudbeckia laciniata
Harebell, Campanula rotundifolia
Prairie Smoke, Geum triflorum
American Coral Bell, Heuchera americana
Robin’s Plantain, Erigeron pullchellus
Bottle Gentian, Gentiana andrewsii
Seaside Goldenrod, Solidago sempervirens
Clustered Mountain Mint, Pycanthemum muticum
Red Bee Balm, Monarda didyma
Appalachian Sedge, Carex appalachica
Great Blue lobelia, Lobelia siphilitica
Golden Alexander’s, Zizia aurea
Hairy Beardtongue, Penstemon hirsutus
Little Bluestem, Schizachyrium scoparium
New England Aster, Symphyotrichum novae-angliae
Green headed coneflower, Rudbeckia laciniata
Ohio spiderwort, Tradescantia ohiensis
Fall 2023 Pre-order Plant Sale
ORDER DEADLINE: Sat. Sept. 9 at midnight. Orders will be filled in the order received.
PICK-Up: Sat. Sept. 16, 9 am – 3 pm or by appointment
WHERE: 401 Parsons Drive (Directions)
You can order perennials from this list of over fifty plant species provided by our native plant nurseries. In addition, you can order any non-cultivar native shrubs or trees on the White Oak Nursery potted seedlings list. [NOTE: The White Oak website says that plants marked as “Sold Out” may be available for purchase in late summer/fall.]
You can order plants in 4” pots, 6” pots, 6-packs, or a few in larger sizes. When you send your order to John, please use the scientific name, and indicate how many and which size plant you want.
For White Oak nursery plants, your cost will be $5 more than the price listed by White Oak Nursery to cover the cost of the pot, cost of delivery, and a contribution to Habitat Gardening in CNY.
For both perennials and shrubs/trees send your order to John.
You’ll get an email confirming your order including a pick-up time. In order to make pick-up of plants less congested, you will be given a one-hour timeslot to pick up plants on Sat. Sept. 16. If that is inconvenient it can be changed. If you can’t pick up your order on Saturday, we can make arrangements to pick up on Sunday or early the following week. Feel free to suggest a timeslot (9-10, 10-11, etc.) with your order.
If you have any questions, contact John.
Our native plant sales
Subscribe to our free newsletter to find dates and other details about our Spring and Fall sales. Just send a subscribe request to info@hgcny.org.
Don’t forget that you can also acquire native plants from the local native plant nurseries featured in our free Native Plant Shopping Guide.
Fall native plant sale
Our major plant sale has always been in the fall, generally on the first or second Saturday and Sunday of September.
This may seem odd to traditional gardeners who see spring as planting time. This is probably because so many plants for conventional landscaping are annual bedding plants, such as petunias or marigolds. These non-native annuals are planted in the spring and discarded in the fall, often replaced by fall non-native ornamentals, such as mums.
But fall is a great planting time for plants that are meant to be part of rich, diverse, living landscape that supports life: native perennial herbaceous plants, grasses, vines, and trees and shrubs.
Of course, this plant sale is a major fundraiser, enabling HGCNY to pay our monthly speakers and to fund our free newsletter. But our primary purpose is to get native plants planted in CNY landscapes, previously difficult to do since there are very few local nurseries that have native plants. Fortunately, this is changing and we welcome an increasing number of new native plant nurseries!
So another purpose of our sale is to support true native plant nurseries in the general CNY region. Since many of these may be too far for some people to travel to buy just a few plants, so we bring them here to Syracuse on consignment. We’ve had great partnerships, beneficial to HGCNY, to the nurseries, and to the wildlife that depends on native plants.
We’ve learned over the years that this two-day event is a wonderful educational opportunity, with our members able to talk with people about the plants, make recommendations, and just get to know fellow CNYers who want their landscapes supporting life. And we host the sale at Our Habitat Garden, so people can see what many of the plants will look like when they mature.
Spring native plant sales
Since our parent organization, Wild Ones, is one of the partners in the Monarch Joint Venture, we also offer native, mostly local-ecotype milkweeds.
Two changes from past sales
In the past, we included common cultivars (i.e. “named” varieties) of native plants, but we support the Wild Ones position that some of these “nativars” don’t offer the habitat and ecological benefits of the species — and none of the genetic diversity — so we no longer include nativars.
Sadly, we no longer invite our members to donate their native plants to the sale due to our concern about spreading non-native earthworms, especially the Asian jumping worms. They are indeed in Central NY!! (See Our Habitat Garden’s Earthworm page for more information.)
NOTE: Plants from nurseries are not guaranteed to be free of jumping worms either, but we’re trusting that they are more aware and knowledgeable about preventing them. We strongly urge people to check any plants they buy or receive from other people!