Chicago nursery for native plants

December 3, 2019 9:09 AM

I'd like to get a family member a gift card to a plant nursery/garden center/greenhouse that specializes in or is knowledgeable of native plants. FamilyMember recently relocated to the Chicago area, has a green thumb, and is excited to dig in to their garden in the spring. Where I should I get them a gift certificate to?
posted by carrioncomfort to Home & Garden (9 answers total)

I'm not knowledgeable about plants, but Gethsemane is very well-thought-of. In the suburbs (about half an hour north of the city, depending on where you start), the Chicago Botanic Garden is beautiful and has classes, though I don't know if they'd offer what you're looking for.
posted by likedoomsday at 9:24 AM on December 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

Seconding Gethsemane. It doesn't specialize in native plants per se but it's glorious (and family-owned!). And staff will be super helpful.
posted by tivalasvegas at 9:33 AM on December 3, 2019

They might also be interested in a membership to the Morton Arboretum.
posted by jquinby at 9:53 AM on December 3, 2019

First i would get in touch with the Illinois Native Plant Society. Gethsemane has an extensive shrub collection but it looks like a lot of them are "nativars" as indicated by the variety name after the genus and species. Some may be useful to wildlife but this is a relatively new area so the plant society should have more up-to-date information and a recommendation for nurseries.
posted by Botanizer at 10:10 AM on December 3, 2019

I would look into City Grange. They have a focus on native plants and on urban gardening. They also have events and workshops.
posted by Wink Ricketts at 11:56 AM on December 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

The southern-Wisconsin-based Prairie Nursery (which ships seeds and plants, and offers gift certificates redeemable online) could do the trick here. I'm a satisfied customer.
posted by humbug at 2:09 PM on December 3, 2019

If they're hardcore about native species, they should most definitely join the Northeast Chapter of INPS, which will be able to offer the most hyper-local advice. They are awesome fun folks and they have meetups fairly regularly to botanize area preserves, and their annual chapter meeting is coming up in January--a great intro for a newcomer!

In the Chicago Region, Pizzo Nursery is pretty well known, although I think they mostly do bulk orders for landscape-scale restorations. As humbug said, Prairie Nursery in Wisconsin is excellent. The similarly named, Minnesota-based Prairie Moon Nursery also offers gift certificates. I've made numerous orders from them over the years and have always been pleased. Missouri Wildflowers carries a somewhat more southern selection, but you can still get away with cultivating most of the species they offer in northern Illinois.
posted by Ornate Rocksnail at 10:32 PM on December 3, 2019

The Growing Place in Napervile has one of the best selections of true natives in the Chicago area, that I've found, but location isnt great for north siders. West Cook Wild ones may have a directory of good native nurseries on their web site.
posted by j810c at 9:20 PM on December 4, 2019

City Grange, Gethsemane, Farmer's Market Garden Center are all good. For mail order stuff, Baker Creek.
posted by ohsnapdragon at 11:02 AM on December 10, 2019