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Spring 2026 Native Plant Sales in Northern Virginia

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Photo: Courtesy of LOUDOUN WILDLIFE’S NATIVE PLANT SALE AT MORVEN

 

 

Saturday, March 28
8:00am-1:00pm
National Arboretum Native Plant Sale
2400 R Street
Washington DC 20002Held in conjunction with the National Arboretum’s Lahr Native Plant Symposium 
Friends of the National Arboretum:
http://www.fona.org

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Friday, April 10 & Saturday, April 11
9am-3pm
American Horticultural Society Spring Garden Market at River Farm
7931 E Boulevard Drive
Alexandria VA 22308
See Garden Market site for details.
Native plant vendors include Seven Bends Nursey.

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Saturday, April 11
9am-2pm
Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy Native Plant Sale
Morven Park
17195 Southern Planter Ln, Leesburg, VA
Native plant vendors include Hill House Farm & Nursery and Nature by Design, Watermark Woods, Seven Bends Nursery, Yellow House Natives.
See Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy website and facebook page for details

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Saturday, April 11
10:00am
Friends of Riverbend Park Bluebell Sale
Riverbend Park
8700 Potomac Hills Street
Great Falls, VA 22066
Pre-sales orders end on March 31, 2026 for native plant and bluebell orders.
Pickup close to the visitor center and in conjunction with the Bluebell Festival. Bluebells will be available to purchase in person at the festival.
 – and –

Saturday, April 18
10am-5pm
Friends of Riverbend Park – Pickup for Native Plant Sale Riverbend Park Educational Pavilion
8700 Potomac Hills Street
Great Falls, VA 22066
Pre-sales orders end on March 31, 2026 for native plant and bluebell orders.

 

Saturday, April 18
10am-3pm
Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia Spring Celebration and Plant Sale
Glencarlyn Library Community Garden
300 South Kensington Street
Arlington, VA 22204
Vendors include Hill House Native Plants & Master Gardeners Hosted by Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia

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Saturday, April 18​
9:30am-1:00pm pickup
Walker Nature Center Native Plant Sale
11450 Glade Drive
Reston, VA 20191
Pre-orders are due by April 3rd at 5pm.
Online form for pre-orders is available.
See naturecenter@reston.org for other details.

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Saturday, April 18
9:00am-2:00pm pickup
Seven Bends Primavera Party
76 Moose Road
Berryville, VA 22611
2nd yearly gardening and conservation celebration

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Saturday, April 25
9:00am-4:00pm
National Arboretum Garden Fair and Plant Sale
National Arboretum
3501 New York Ave NE
Washington DC 20002
Contact Friends of National Arboretum: http://www.fona.org

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Saturday, April 25
9am-2pm
Northern Alexandria Native Plant Sale
The Church of St. Clement Episcopal Church
1701 N. Quaker Lane
Alexandria, VA 22302
See website for details

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Saturday, April 25
1pm-4pm​
Long Branch Nature Center Plant Pickup
625 S Carlin Springs Road
Arlington, Va 22204
Visit registration.arlingtonva.us starting sometime in March  to pre-order, and payments can be made by e-check or credit card online. Email longbranch@arlingtonva.us or call 703-228-4747 (option 9) for questions

 

DONT FORGET –  LOCAL PLANT NURSURIES:

Nature by Design in Alexandria, Earth Sangha in Springfield and Watermark Woods in Hamilton, Virginia are open throughout the growing season to supply your needs. 

Spring Native Plant Sales

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Photo courtesy of Virginia Native Plant Society

Native plants provide better food for insects, which in turn provide food for birds. You can make a huge difference for wildlife by planting native species on your property.

Virginia Native Plant Society maintains a list of native plant sales in the area.

Not on the list, but worth considering is Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy’s Native Plant Sale, which takes place on April 16, 2022 in Morven Park in Leesburg.  More information is here: www.loudounwildlife.org/event/spring-native-plant-sale

Native Plant Sales are Booming

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Article and photo by Plant NOVA Natives

Interest in using native plants in our yards has been growing over the past decade, gradually at first, and suddenly exponentially. It has long been known that native plants are critical to the ecosystem, and now thought leaders in the landscaping industry have taken up the cause of promoting them for our yards. Public gardens have set aside sections to demonstrate their value in the landscape, and gardening magazines are touting them in every edition. Garden centers have responded to the increase in demand for natives by increasing the diversity of plants available for sale.

When COVID struck last year, new gardeners flocked to garden centers in droves. As the country has started to open up this spring, sales have soared even higher. A very significant chunk of those increases has gone toward native plant purchases. The landscape designers and owners of garden centers that specialize in native plants have been exhausting themselves to keep up with the demand.

Why are native plants so particularly popular? We may be reaching a tipping point in acceptance of personal environmental responsibility, as the populace is finally facing the reality that our ecosystem is teetering in the balance and that the time to take action is now. Our own properties are a place where we can make a palpable difference by using locally native plants to support birds and other wildlife. Many of the new gardeners are younger and particularly attuned to the value of gardening not just for beauty but for a greater purpose. At the same time, the industry has had time to experiment with native plants and figure out where they do best in a landscape setting. It is now easy to find the plants and choose the ones best suited to a given landscaping need.

Several years ago, representatives of environmental organizations and governmental agencies got together to create Plant NOVA Natives, a campaign to promote the use of native plants in Northern Virginia. One strategy has been to provide a plant guide and resources on the Plant NOVA Natives website, with simple suggestions for every planting situation along with more details for those who are interested and even more details for landscape professionals. The other strategy has been to essentially deputize everyone who hears about the value of native plants to spread the word. One section of the website shows how to reach out to neighbors, community associations and faith communities. The website also lists the garden centers that only sell native plants – an introduction to three of those specialty nurseries is on this short video – as well as twenty-one conventional garden centers where volunteers for the campaign have been putting red “Northern Virginia Native” stickers on plants.

All in all, Northern Virginians are discovering that gardening to support nature has never been easier. Once healthy landscaping practices are adopted, the sight of a yard dancing with butterflies is enough to sell the native plant concept all by itself.

Native Plant Sales, Spring 2021

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Photo by Barbara J. Saffir (c)

Native plants help baby songbirds, butterflies, our ecosystem and support clean water. They need no fertilizer, no extra watering once they are established, no pesticides and no lawn mowing.

Virginia Native Plant Society maintains a list here.

Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy is having theirs April 10th.

VNPS Potowmack Chapter End of Season Plant Sales Reduced Prices

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Photo by Laura Beaty

The best time of year to plant is Fall. The soil is warm and the cooler air temperatures help new plantings overcome transplant shock, roots have time to grow before the cold sets in — and even longer before plants will start to grow again in the spring — when early spring bloomers will sustain early pollinators if planted now.

Due to the pandemic, the Potowmack chapter of Virginia Native Plant Society has not been able to hold their in-person plant sales this year. They count on selling plants that don’t over-winter well in pots. In order to make room and to find homes for our plants, they have decided to have an end of season sale so their loyal customers can enjoy our bounty.
 
All of their potted plants may be purchased, but they have reduced the price of 24 species to $3 each or 2 for $5. In addition, they are offering 11 other species at the rate of 1 free plant for each plant you purchase. They have sale prices for Milkweed, White Wood Aster, Great Blue Lobelia, Wild Bergamot, Orange Coneflower and New England Aster, to name a few.
 
The sales prices will be in effect for the remainder of the season. They are open for sales every Wednesday morning in October from 10 am until 1 pm until we close down the beds for the winter.
 
They have also marked down almost all their grasses, sedges and rushes, and many of their small trees are FREE, so here’s a good opportunity to give them a try! Come see what they have!
 
Please bring a box to carry your purchases home.

They will happily accept empty pot donations in the 1- to 2-gallon size. 
Cash or check only, please. Their sales take place behind the Horticulture Center at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, VA.
 
They observe Fairfax County COVID-19 Guidelines.

Making Scents of Your Yard

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Photo: Ana Ka’Ahanui

Margaret Fisher

Fragrant flowers can add a whole extra dimension to gardening, and the flowers of native plants are no exception. The scents are there for the sake of the pollinators, but we can enjoy them as well. If you try putting your nose up to every flower you meet, you will have some interesting surprises.

Modern day humans are good at identifying human-made smells such as suntan lotion or diesel fumes but are pretty oblivious to the smells of nature.  This may be partly from lack of practice and partly because of our species’ tendency to run roughshod over the planet which includes the olfactory environment as well. If we pay attention, though, we can experience some of the sensations that are so important to other animals. Can you sometimes predict a rainstorm by the smell of the air? You already have developed some skill at interpreting nature’s cues. That slightly metallic odor is ozone, pushed down by atmospheric disturbances. If you have a dog, he or she may have introduced you to the scent of foxes, which is surprisingly strong and similar to a skunk. Once you learn to recognize it, you may find yourself spotting foxes that would have sneaked by you otherwise. The smell released by rain after a long dry spell has its own name – petrichor – and is created by a combination of chemicals released by plants and soil bacteria.

As you walk along in the woods, you will notice that the scent of life and decay (which is actually just more life) is subtle and complex but distinct enough for you to know when you are passing from one layer to another. In this unusual year when so many people are out walking their neighborhoods, one local resident has watched as folks stop in front of the Common Milkweed that volunteered itself near her sidewalk. Some people comment on the beautiful flower, one person only noticed the bees, but many were brought to a halt by the intoxicating fragrance. So many people inquire about it that she plans to put up a sign.

Why not create a natural olfactory landscape in your own yard? Planting fragrant native plants is the perfect way to do that while simultaneously pleasing the butterflies. Many have sweet smelling flowers, some faint, some strong. Some are a little unusual. The tall white spires of Black Cohosh, for example, smell simultaneously sweet and barn-like. Wild Bergamot smells like, well, bergamot, which gives Earl Gray tea its flavor. The flowers of American Holly trees are tiny but fill the air with sweetness for many weeks in late spring. Arguably the winner of any fragrance competition would be the aptly named Sweetbay Magnolia, with its large, soft flowers that smell of lemony rose. Plant one by your front door and you can inhale a lungful of beauty whenever you pass by.

For a list of fragrant native plants and where to buy them, see the Plant NOVA Natives website. The site index will point you to sources for signs. Let your neighbors in on your secrets! Why should the bees have all the fun?

Local Native Plant Sales in Full Bloom

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Native plants help baby songbirds, butterflies, our ecosystem and support clean water. They need no fertilizer, no extra watering once they are established, no pesticides and no lawn mowing.

Check out this list of native plant sales and start digging!