Illustrations by Kelly Ballantyne; follow on IG @kcballantyne
Help the birds and the environment, and enjoy a beautiful blooming native garden!
Chicago Audubon Society Online Native Plant Sale is held every spring, offering a wide variety of perennials. Order online and pick up at North Park Village Nature Center on Sunday afternoon, May 22. Proceeds of the sale help to fund CAS’s successful bird conservation programs such as the push for a bird- friendly buildings ordinance. Order by using the button below before April 15.
Chicago Audubon Society partners with Pizzo Native Plant Nursery to provide native plants from local and regional ecotypes for sale, many of which are difficult to find in the retail sector. Indigenous 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, there will be 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 professionals John Eskandari and Lawry Lewis will be on site to answer your gardening questions.
We are selling plugs for $4.00 or $5.00, depending on species, trees and shrubs for $30 or $36, and our Pollinator Kits for $185. To learn more about these plants’ requirements, look them up by clicking the links below or on this guide from the Morton Arboretum. Details on how these plants help birds and pollinators are at Illinois Wildflowers.
2022 Offerings
NEW THIS YEAR - POLLINATOR KITS
A collection of 10 plants for full sun and part shade that are popular with local pollinators: 50 plants per kit, 10 species, 5 of each
FLOWERS, GRASSES AND SEDGES
American Spikenard - late summer berries
Sold Out Anise hyssop - hummingbird and pollinator magnet!
Blue flag iris - butterflies
Sold Out Blue-stemmed Goldenrod pollinators
Brown-eyed susan - finches, other seed eaters
Sold Out Butterfly weed - monarch host
Sold Out Calico Penstemon -summer butterflies
Cardinal Flower - Hummingbirds
Common Ironweed - late summer butterflies
Culver's Root - summer pollinators
Sold Out Downy (prairie) phlox - early summer butterflies, pollinators
False sunflower - finches, other seed eaters
Foxglove Beardtongue - early summer hummingbirds, bees
Sold Out Great blue lobelia - pollinators
Great St. John's Wort - pollinators
Heath Aster - fall pollinators, winter seeds
Hoary vervain - pollinators
Leadplant - summer butterflies, fall seeds
Sold Out Meadow Blazing Star/Rocky Mountain Gayfeather - late summer hummingbirds and butterflies
Sold Out Michigan Lily - hummingbirds
New England aster - fall, winter seed eaters
Sold Out Prairie Dropseed - grass
Ohio spiderwort - early summer bees
Prairie alumroot - hummingbirds, butterflies, bees
Sold Out Prairie blazing star - hummingbirds on fall migration
Prairie Coreopsis - summer pollinators
Prairie Dock - summer pollinators, fall seeds
Sold Out Purple Prairie Clover - fall pollinators
Side-oats Grama - grass
Smooth blue aster - fall, winter seed eaters
Spotted Joe Pye weed - fall, winter seed eaters
Stiff Goldenrod - fall pollinators
Sold Out Swamp Milkweed - monarch butterflies
Swamp Rose Mallow - summer bees and hummingbirds
Sweet Black-eyed Susan - summer pollinators, fall seeds
Switch Grass - grass
Sold Out Wild Bergamot - summer pollinators, hummingbirds
Wild Strawberry - yum!
Sold Out Wild Petunia - spring butterflies
Yellow Coneflower - summer pollinators, fall seeds
Yellow Pimpernel - spring, small pollinators
NEW THIS YEAR - SHRUBS AND TREES
the approximate size of the plant you will receive is shown
Black Chokeberry - 36”, fall berries
Sold Out Buttonbush - 24”, summer butterflies, hummingbirds; fall/winter seeds
Sold Out Climbing Illinois Prairie Rose - 18-24”, summer pollinators, good cover
Witchhazel - 18”, butterfly host, fall seeds for birds
Dwarf Bush Honeysuckle - 36”, fall, winter seeds
Jack Pine - 18”, cover
Oak Northern Red - 4’, migrant birds, small mammals
Oak Swamp White - 4’, migrant birds, small mammals
Pussy Willow - 3’, spring migrants
River Birch - 36”, finches
White Flowering Dogwood - 18”, thrushes, waxwings, other birds that eat fruit
White Snowberry - 15”, early summer butterflies, fall fruit
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.