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 21. 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 by 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 professional 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.
2023 Offerings
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
Anise Hyssop - hummingbird and pollinator magnet!
Aromatic Aster - fall pollinators, winter seed-eaters
Blunt Mountain Mint - bees and butterflies (in our region, found only in Berrien County)
Boneset - butterflies, other pollinators
Bottle Gentian - bumblebees
Bottlebrush Grass - caterpillars
Brown-eyed Susan - finches, other seed eaters
Butterfly Weed - monarch host
Button Blazing Star - late summer butterflies and pollinators
Cardinal Flower - Hummingbirds
Columbine - hummingbirds
Common Ironweed - late summer butterflies
Common Wood Sedge - caterpillars, sparrows
Compass Plant - goldfinches, bees
Cream Gentian - bumblebees
Early/False sunflower - finches, other seed eaters
Early Meadow Rue - caterpillars
Foxglove Beardtongue - early summer hummingbirds, bees
Heart-leaf Golden Alexanders - butterflies, bees
Hoary Vervain - pollinators
Kankakee Mallow - bees (presumed)
Late Figwort - hummingbirds, bees
Little Bluestem - winter seed-eaters
Marsh blazing star - hummingbirds on fall migration
Michigan Lily - hummingbirds
Midland Shooting Star - early pollinators
Monkey Flower - bumblebees, caterpillars
Ozark Bluestar - butterflies, bees, native south of Illinois
Penn Sedge/Common Oak Sedge - caterpillars
Prairie Dropseed - grass
Prairie Violet - bees, caterpillars
Purple Coneflower - summer butterflies, fall goldfinches
Purple Prairie Clover - fall pollinators
Queen of the Prairie - summer pollinators
River Oats - caterpillars
Short’s Sedge - caterpillars, sparrows
Sky Blue Aster - Pollinators, fall, winter seed eaters
Sneezeweed - fall butterflies, other pollinators
Swamp Milkweed - monarch butterflies
Spotted Bee Balm - summer pollinators
Starry Solomon's Plume - fall thrushes, summer bees
Sweet Flag - beetles (Sweet Flag is not native but naturalizes in high quality wetlands)
Virginia Bluebells - hummingbirds, butterflies, pollinators
White Wild Indigo - butterflies
Wild Hyacinth - bees
Wild Strawberry - yum!
Wild Petunia - spring butterflies
Winged Loosestrife - bees
Yellow Coneflower - summer pollinators, fall seeds
Zigzag Goldenrod - 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.