Here are links to a few of my favorite local nurseries as well as general plant information.
Nurseries: Half the challenge with using natives in the garden is sourcing plants. Here are some of my favorite sources both locally and mail order.
Carolina Heritage Nursery: Small nursery located in Mineral Springs NC. Available by appointment only and at the Matthews farmers market seasonally. Wide selection of strictly natives including many local eco-types (grown from local populations and better adapted to local conditions).
Dearness Gardens: Large nursery located in Huntersville, NC with a large selection of natives and non-natives. Excellent quality, but on the pricier side.
Queen City Native Nursery: Backyard nursery located in Mt Holly NC. Available by appointment only. Limited selection and quantities, but excellent quality and prices.
Bring Back The Butterflies: Backyard nursery located in Wesley Heights near uptown Charlotte. Good selection of natives. Plants are very robust.
Byrd House Natives: Backyard nursery located in Huntersville, NC. Available by appointment only.
King’s Garden Center: Large nursery in Stalling, NC with a wide selection of native and non-native plants.
Blackhawk Hardware Garden Center: Garden center associated with Blackhawk Hardware in South Charlotte. Good selection of vegetable starts and decent selection of native plants depending on when you visit.
Izel Native Plants: Izel is a service which allows retail customers to order from wholesale nurseries in the midwest and east coast. This allows you to order trays of plugs (typically 50 or 72) or access inventory that might not be available locally. Besides ordering plants, I highly recommend signing up for their weekly newsletter which is full of great advice.
UNCC Botanical Gardens Plant Sale (April & October): UNCC’s botanical garden has a plant sale 2x per year to raise funds for the garden. They always have a wide selection of natives as well as non-natives. Their plants are high quality and any purchases go to a great cause. While there for the sale, make sure to spend some time walking around the gardens. They have lots of natives (and non-natives) that you won’t find anywhere else nearby.
Wing Haven Gardens Plant Sale (April & October): Wing Haven Gardens, located in South Charlotte, has a plant sale 2x per year. While much smaller (and a bit more expensive) than UNCC’s, it also has a good selection of native and non-natives with all purchases helping to fund the garden.
General Plant Information: General gardening information that I have found useful over the years.
North Carolina State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: If I had a dollar ever time I consulted this website, I would be a wealthy man. If you live in NC, this should be your first stop to look up information on a plant. It gives good non-biased information on plant characteristics, where it typically grows (i.e. Piedmont, mountains or coast) and recommended care. The toolbox also has a great filter feature, which allows to search for plants that meet desired conditions…i.e. deer resistant, shrubs, native, clay soil and occasionally wet to occasionally dry.
North Carolina State Extension Gardener Handbook: If you want to learn more about a gardening topic (i.e. soils, botany, disease, etc.), this should be your first stop. It’s the textbook that the Master Gardeners use for their training and its available to everyone for free. You can definitely find more in depth information elsewhere on each individual topic. But it is hard to beat this for an introduction on a topic.
Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder: When I am researching a new plant, this is typically my second stop. Although it is located in the Midwest and doesn’t provide information on where the plant is found in NC, it still has great general plant information as well information on what general habitats the plant is found in nature. Additionally, relative to NC State, they have information on a larger number of plant cultivars and will tell you how the cultivar differs from the species (i.e. October skies aromatic aster is 18-24” tall vs 1-3’ for the species).
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Similar to NC State and Missouri Botanical Garden, they also have an excellent plant finder. Depending on the species, the descriptions can be a bit sparce. But I really like the habitat information they include with each plant description.
North Carolina Invasive Plant Council Piedmont Region Invasive Species List: Compiled by the North Carolina invasive plant council, this is a comprehensive list of exotic plants that have spread into natural areas and have shown the ability to displace native plants. Unfortunately, many of these plants are sold at even reputable garden centers.
South Carolina Invasive Plant List: Statewide list maintained by Clemson University.
Recommended reading:
Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants by Doug Tallamy: This book is one of the best at explaining the connection between plants (both in the wild and what we choose to plant in the landscape around our homes) and the health of local wildlife. If you have ever wondered why we see fewer lightening bugs or butterflies relative to our childhood, this is a must read.
Garden Revolution: How Our Landscapes Can Be a Source of Environmental Change by Larry Weaner and Thomas Christopher: If Bringing Nature Home teaches us that plant choice can have a dramatic choice on the health of our local ecosystems, this book teaches you how to implement that change.
Planting in a Post-Wild World: Designing Plant Communities for Resilient Landscapes by Thomas Ranier and Claudia West: Similar to Garden Revolution, this book also addresses how to design and build plantings that are more resilient and beneficial to the local environment.
Meristem blog: Blog by Dr. Jared Barnes covering a range of horticulture topics. As a university professor, all of his posts are very detailed and go further into the “why”. I always feel smarter after reading what he has written. He also has a newsletter you can subscribe to, which includes some information from him as well articles that he finds informative.
Garden Professors: Blog by several university garden professors, including UNCC Botanical Garden director Jeff Gilman, that brings science based garden information and dispels many common garden myths. If you like to know the “why” as opposed to “how to”, this is the blog for you.