Illustrations by Kelly Ballantyne; follow on IG @kcballantyne
Help the birds and the environment, and enjoy a beautiful blooming native garden!
Our Online Sale is open! You can order herbaceous plants as well as trees and shrubs.
Plant pick up is SUNDAY, JUNE 1, 2025, 12pm - 3pm at North Park Village Nature Center located at 5801 N Pulaski Road in Chicago.
We are also looking for volunteers for our Native Plant Sale. It’s a fun, happy day! We are expanding our efforts and need volunteers for the whole weekend - May 30-June 1. Click below to learn more and sign up!
Chicago Bird Alliance Online Native Plant Sale is held every spring, offering a wide variety of perennials. Proceeds of the sale help to fund CBA’s successful bird conservation programs such as the push for a bird- friendly buildings ordinance.
Chicago Bird Alliance partners with Pizzo Native Plant Nursery and Walnut Creek Nursery to provide native plants from local and regional ecotypes for sale, many of which are difficult to find in the retail sector. Native species have adapted to our local conditions over many centuries, growing naturally without fertilizers, supplemental irrigation or herbicides. Whether your landscape is sunny, shady or in between, we offer many perennials to choose from. Native plants provide food for pollinators, birds and other wildlife; shelter for wildlife— and they are beautiful.
Thanks to our friends at North Park Village Nature Center for hosting the pickup! Landscape professional Lawry Lewis will be on site to answer your gardening questions.
To learn more about the plants’ requirements, look them up on this guide from the Morton Arboretum. Details on how native plants help birds and pollinators are at Illinois Wildflowers.
There’s lots more information to help you choose plants below.
The Native Plant Sale is always a happy event and we are looking for volunteers. Spend a few hours with other plant- and bird-lovers and get a little exercise moving plants around. Openings on Friday 5/24 in the afternoon unloading the truck, and Sunday 5/26 from 9-3:30 preparing for and then helping at the sale.
These are the plants we will be offering. Click on the plant name for detailed information.
FLOWERS
Anise Hyssop - hummingbird and pollinator magnet!
American Bellflower - bumblebees, butterflies, other pollinators
Aster, Big-leaved - bees, butterflies, moths
Aster, Sky Blue - Pollinators, fall, winter seed eaters
Blue-eyed Grass, White - bees
Blue Flag Iris - hummingbirds, butterflies, bees
Boneset - butterflies, other pollinators
Cardinal Flower - hummingbirds
Columbine - hummingbirds
Compass Plant - goldfinches, bees
Cream Gentian - bumblebees
Cream Wild Indigo - bumblebees, other pollinators
Early Meadow Rue - caterpillars
Field Pussytoes - host of American Painted Lady, other pollinators
Figwort - Hummingbird (can you believe it?), bees, other pollinators
Goldenrod, Stiff - monarchs, moths, other pollinators, goldfinches
Hairy Wood Mint - bees, butterflies, other pollinators
Ironweed, Missouri - late summer butterflies, bees
Milkweed, Butterfly - monarch host, other pollinators
Milkweed, Swamp - monarch butterflies
Milkweed, Tall Green - monarch host, other pollinators
Monkey Flower - bumblebees, caterpillars
Nodding Wild Onion - bees
Pale Purple Coneflower - summer butterflies, fall goldfinches
Purple Coneflower - summer butterflies, fall goldfinches
Pasque Flower - early pollinators
Penstemon - Foxglove Beardtongue - early summer hummingbirds, bees
Penstemon, Long-sepal (or Calico) - hummingbirds, bees
Prairie Blazing Star - butterflies, other pollinators
Prairie Alumroot - small bees
Prairie Coreopsis - many insects including bees and butterflies
Prairie Phlox - butterflies, moths, other pollinators
Prairie Smoke - bumblebees
Round-headed Bush Clover - bumblebees, other pollinators
Rough Blazing Star - butterflies, other pollinators
Royal Catchfly - hummingbirds, butterflies
Shooting Star - bumblebees, other bees
Slender Mountain Mint - butterflies, other pollinators
Spikenard - berries for fall migrants; pollinators
Spotted St. John’s Wort - bees, caterpillars
Sweet Black-eyed Susan - bees, catepillars
Sweet Joe-pye-weed - bees, butterflies, moths, seed-eater
Turtlehead - hummingbirds, bumblebees
Virginia Bluebells - hummingbirds, butterflies, pollinators
Wild Bergamot - bees, hummingbirds
Wild Petunia - be
Wild Strawberry - yum!
Yellow Coneflower - summer pollinators, fall seeds
GRASSES, RUSHES, SEDGES AND EMERGENT WETLAND
Little Bluestem - winter seed-eaters
Prairie Dropseed - grass
Sweetgrass - caterpillars; seeds
Sedge, Gray’s - caterpillars, swamp sparrow, woodcock
Sedge, Hop - caterpillars, other insects, ducks (seeds)
Sedge, Eastern Star - seeds
Path Rush - for your path!
Arrowhead - ducks, insects including aquatic ones
Woolgrass - aquatic insects, ducks
Lizard’s Tail - small insects, bees, ducks, small fish
TREES AND SHRUBS
Black Chokeberry - 36”, fall berries
Blue Beech - many birds, insects
Bog Birch -winter birds, insects
Coralberry - robins, pollinators
Dwarf Bush Honeysuckle - 36”, fall, winter seeds
Hazelnut - many birds, insects, pollinators
Nannyberry - many birds, pollinators
Red Osier Dogwood - many birds, insects, mammals
Winterberry - many birds, insects
Where will you put those trees and shrubs?
This guide by Colleen McVeigh can help
Shrubs
Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis)
part sun/shade wet 6-12 feet tall, 5-8 ft. wide
Dwarf Bush honeysuckle (Diervilla lonicera)
part sun/shade med 4 ft. tall, 4 ft. wide
Common Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius)
full sun/shade dry to moist 5-10 ft. tall, 5-10 ft. wideNew Jersey tea (Ceanothus americanus)
full sun/part shade tolerates drought 3 ft. tall, 3 ft. wide
Spicebush (Lindera benzoin)
full sun/part shade moist, well drained 6-12 ft. tall, 6-12 ft. wide
White Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus)
sun/light shade dry-moist, well drained 4 ft. tall, 4 ft. wide
Trees
Serviceberry (Amelanchoir canadensis)
full shade/full sun, tolerates drought, 6-25 ft. tall, 4-25 ft. wide
NEED MORE GARDEN SUGGESTIONS?
We have a great page about how your garden can help migratory birds.
Here are National Audubon’s suggestions
Doug Tallamy has studied which plants are best for attracting birds
Free garden designs from Wild Ones - the Chicago and Milwaukee designs are appropriate for our area