Upcoming Plant Sales
Fall Plant Sale
2023 Fall Plant Sale
Order Online: From 10:00 am October 1 thru 5:00 pm October 7
Location: shop.eldoradocnps.org
Plant Pickup
Date: October 14
Time: Pickup time assigned at checkout
Location: 2850 Fairlane Court,
Placerville, CA
(parking lot of county building C)
El Dorado CNPS Chapter Plant Sales
When you purchase native plants through the El Dorado chapter of CNPS, you’re actively supporting one of the Society’s missions: to help replenish and preserve our local ecosystems by native plant gardening. You are helping to regenerate lost habitat and enhancing biodiversity!
Our chapter holds an online plant sale for several days in late March/early April, and late September/early October.
We offer a wide selection of native plants from specialty nurseries such as Floral Natives Nursery in Chico, and from local growers when available. Books with detailed information on native plant gardening, natural history, edible natives, and other topics are also available, as well as native plant posters.
Orders are scheduled for pickup a week or so later on a Saturday at 2850 Fairlane Ct. Building C parking lot, in Placerville. Additional plants offered by local growers, as well as garden art, are often available for sale on site on pick-up days. Experienced gardeners will be available to answer your gardening questions.
Plants sell out fast! Sign-up for e-alerts to be notified of spring and fall plant sale dates and times.
Visit our chapter’s online plant store to view native plants that we typically offer.
El Dorado CNPS chapter members will be provided a discount code for 10% off prior to the sale. Become a member today!
Local Nurseries
The demand for native plants has increased significantly as gardeners have become aware of the many benefits of including them in their gardens.
In 2021, CNPS launched Bloom! California in partnership with over 100 nurseries. This statewide initiative is designed to increase native plant sales throughout our state’s backyard gardens, city parks, business fronts and more. Find local nurseries who have joined forces with CNPS.
It can be challenging to find native plants for the garden in smaller counties like El Dorado and Amador. Our chapter plant sales can help, as well as sales by our local El Dorado/Amador County UC Master Gardeners.
Learn how to plan, prep, and care for your native garden with the aid of a few resources provided by our local chapter and the greater community of CNPS.
- Calscape.org can help you discover the plants best suited to your specific location, with information on each plant’s needs and attributes. It’s like the Sunset Garden book for California native plants.
- El Dorado County native plant list for gardening, created by Ray Griffiths, former Horticulture Professor, FLC, provides helpful information for selecting plants. It provides garden information for natives specific to El Dorado County.
Other General Advice
- Design your native garden
- Choose your native plants
- Prepare and plant your native garden
- Maintain your native garden
- Learn about gardening with natives in El Dorado county
- Fire-resilience and native plants in the garden
Creating a habitat in your yard will bring wildlife directly to your home! Relish the beauty of your native garden while ticking these items off your “To Do” list:
Planting
Plant natives during fall or spring. Fall is the best time to plant natives because their roots get established more easily with winter rains. Most natives will require very little supplemental water after their first or second summer once they are established. If you live in colder zones where deer are present, spring may be a better time to plant. Deer have more options outside the garden at this time, however, it’s more difficult to get plants established through the hot summer. Why? Our native plants are not adapted to warm, moist roots in summer, yet you will need to water their roots once a week or so, since their roots are not developed or long enough to seek needed moisture.
Deer Protection
Newly planted natives should be protected using wire cages to avoid being browsed on by deer and inadvertently plucked out of the ground. Remove the cages once they become established.
Sowing Seed
Want to try wildflowers, or meadows of perennial grasses? Again, fall is the best time to plant. Establishing wildflowers is worth the effort, but can be a little tricky. Be sure you use Calscape to choose wildflowers that grow in your area. For success:
- WEED! Remove young weeds while they are easy to pull in late winter and early spring before they go to seed.
- SOW annual native wildflower seed or seed balls in fall, or early spring. Provide supplemental water to extend the blooming period through summer.
A few companies that offer native seeds are:
Maintenance
Maintenance of native plant gardens is less time consuming than traditional non-native gardens, but living in wildfire country, we do need to tend our gardens regularly. Tidy up the garden in early spring, removing dead stems and dried flowers as new growth is just starting to appear, and add natural mulch where needed. Leave some areas further from the house “messy” for wildlife if you can. Remember that it’s very important to leave patches of bare soil for native bees to nest. Visit Xerces Society to learn more about our native bees and their important role in pollination.
Check for aphids on the succulent spring growth of many perennials, shrubs and young trees. If the plants look stressed, you can hose them off with jets of water, repeating every few days. If you leave them be for a while, predator insects and birds will eventually use them as a food source, bringing balance to the garden. Learn more about managing pests in the natural garden.
Happy gardening!
