Illustrations by Kelly Ballantyne; follow on IG @kcballantyne
Help the birds and the environment, and enjoy a beautiful blooming native garden!
Chicago Bird Alliance Online Native Plant Sale is held every spring, offering a wide variety of native plants. 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 Possibility Place to provide native plants from local and regional ecotypes for sale, many of which are difficult to find elsewhere.
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 plants to choose from. Native plants provide food for pollinators, birds and other wildlife; shelter for wildlife— and they are beautiful!
Resources for Native Plantings
Check out these two great resources to help you plan your native garden. (click the photos to take you to that resource)
Plant pick up is SUNDAY, MAY 31st, 2026 12 pm - 3 pm at North Park Village Nature Center located at 5801 N Pulaski Road in Chicago.
Volunteer sign ups for 2026 coming soon.
Thanks to our friends at North Park Village Nature Center for hosting the pickup! We'll have a variety of landscape professionals, master gardeners, native plant enthusiasts on site to answer 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.
Quick Tips for Choosing the Right Plants
Assess soil and light conditions in your planting area.
Decide on the plant heights you would like for this area, and think about layers—taller plants behind shorter plants.
Decide if you want to anchor the planting with a shrub or tree?
Sketch out your design. The best practice for design is to think in clumps of 3s, 5s, 7s, etc. Generally, fewer different species and larger quantities of each will make the planting look nicer.
Create a mix of flowers, grasses, and ephemerals (very early growing/flowering plants that disappear after spring [will often just be a root at plant pick up, e.g. Virginia Bluebells).
Plant List
Common Name - Botanical Name, size
Maidenhair Fern - Adiantum pedatum, pint
Canada Anemone - Anemone canadensis, plug
Canadian Pussytoes - Antennaria neglecta, plug
Columbine (Wild Columbine) - Aquilegia canadensis, plug
Milkweed, Green - Asclepias hirtella, 2.5" pot
Milkweed, Butterfly - Asclepias tuberosa, plug
Purple Poppy Mallow - Callirhoe involucrata, plug
Wild Hyacinth - Camassia scilloides, 2.5" pot
Tall Bellflower - Campanula americana, plug
Sedge, Gray's - Carex grayi, plug
Sedge, Hop - Carex lupulina, plug
Curly Styled Wood Sedge - Carex rosea, plug
Sedge, Fox - Carex vulpinoidea, plug
Lanceleaf Coreopsis - Coreopsis lanceolata, plug
Purple Prairie Clover - Dalea purpurea, plug
Shooting Star - Dodecatheon meadia, plug
Pale Purple Coneflower - Echinacea pallida, plug
Purple Coneflower - Echinacea purpurea, plug
Big leaved aster - Eurybia macrophylla, plug
Grass leaved goldenrod - Euthamia graminifolia, plug
Queen of the Prairie - Filipendula rubra, plug
Wild strawberry - Fragaria virginiana, 2.5" pot
Cream Gentian - Gentiana flavida, 2.5" pot
Prairie Smoke - Geum triflorum, plug
Prairie Alumroot - Heuchera richardsonii, plug
Sweetgrass - Hierochloe odorata, plug
Kankakee Mallow - Iliamna remota, Pint
Round-Headed Bush Clover - Lespedeza capitata, plug
Rough Blazing Star - Liatris aspera, plug
Prairie Blazing Star - Liatris pycnostachya, plug
Great Blue Lobelia - Lobelia siphilitica, plug
Prairie Loosestrife - Lysimachia quadriflora, plug
Virginia Bluebells - Mertensia virginica, 2.5" pot
Bradbury's Monarda - Monarda bradburiana, plug
Sensitive Fern - Onoclea sensibilis, pint
Plains Prickly Pear - Opuntia macrorhiza, 2.5" pot
Pale Beardtongue - Penstemon pallidus, plug
Smooth phlox - Phlox glaberrima subsp. interior, plug
Jacob's Ladder - Polemonium reptans, plug
Pasque Flower - Pulsatilla patens , 2.5" pot
Clustered Mountain Mint - Pycnanthemum muticum, plug
Sweet Black-eyed Susan - Rudbeckia subtomentosa, plug
Little Bluestem - Schizachyrium scoparium, plug
Starry Campion - Silene stellata, plug
Fire Pinks - Silene virginica, pint
Showy Goldenrod - Solidago speciosa, plug
Prairie Dropseed - Sporobolus heterolepis, plug
Celadine Poppy - Stylophorum diphyllum, plug
Heart-leaved Aster - Symphyotrichum cordifolium, plug
Smooth Blue Aster - Symphyotrichum laeve, plug
Prairie Violet - Viola pedatifida, plug
Trees & Shrubs
Maple-leaf viburnum - Viburnum acerifolium, #1
Pawpaw - Asimina triloba, #1
American Hazelnut - Corylus Americana, #1
Dwarf Bush Honeysuckle - Diervilla lonicera, #1
Spicebush - Lindera benzoin, #1
Wild Black Currant - Ribes americanum, #1
Elderberry - Sambucas nigra var. canadensis, #1
Pagoda Dogwood - Cornus alternifolia, #5
Jack Pine - Pinus banksiana, #5
Bur Oak - Quercus Macrocarpa, #5
Click here for full Plant List
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