How to Get Native Plants in the Southern Adirondacks

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By: Elizabeth Jachim | Updated: 6/11/2025

This article is intended to be a starting guideline to the many means available to those in our region for procuring more native plants. We have listed over 20 resources below to help you get started.

Happy gardening!

Topics Overview:

  1. Encouraging the native plants already on your property.
  2. Purchasing native plants from local and national suppliers.
  3. Purchasing/ acquiring seeds, and resources for how to grow them.

1) Encourage growth of what you already have! 

A) Easily identify what native plants you have in your yard by taking a picture with your phone and using plant identification apps: 

Seek app by “iNaturalist”:

  • Pro: Free
  • Pro: Your entries allow scientists to know the distribution ranges of each plant.         
  • Pro: With ID, you can instantly identify plants, insects, etc. You just utilize the camera feature and can live pan around what you’re trying to identify (most accurate), or you can use a still photo.
  • Con: Not always 100% accurate, showing significantly reduced accuracy with young sprouts/ seedlings. Still, it provides highly accurate results overall.

Picture This: 

  • Pro/Con: Free if you click “x” on the top right corner of the paywall every time (yearly subscription is $30).
  • Pro: With internet access, it instantly provides detailed information on each plant, including: a world map of its native range, how to care for the plant, and interesting background information about the plant (scroll down on the result page to see all of the above information). It can also identify insects and trees. For trees, follow the app guidelines for best results.
  • Con: Not always 100% accurate, showing significantly reduced accuracy with young sprouts/ seedlings. Still, it provides highly accurate results overall.

Google Lens:

  • Pro: Free, installing the app is not necessary. Just open your picture in Google Photos and click on the Lens icon at the bottom.
  • Con: Gives you a variety of possible results instead of one reliable result.

If you encounter conflicting information about the native status of a plant, try to figure out its scientific name. Then you can look it up in the New York Flora Atlas. NYFA: New York Flora Atlas

B) Remove invasive plants (plants that are not native to our region, and which spread aggressively). All of the resources above should also let you know if a plant is not native. Invasive plant removal gives native plants more room to grow, and it will sometimes allow native seeds lying dormant in your soil to sprout.

2. Buy Native Plants 

We have listed sources below that do not use neonicotinoids, a pesticide that persists in the soil for many years. This is important because we are planting natives to promote the biodiversity of insects and other wildlife! 

Unfortunately, the use of neonicotinoids is common among plant suppliers of big-box stores. If you would like to inquire about it at a local nursery, a good non-confrontational way is to ask how their plant suppliers manage insect damage.

Nurseries:

  • Hewitt’s Garden Center (locations in Queensbury, Wilton, Ballston Spa, Clifton Park, Albany area) – Look for pale green pots with the brand “American Beauties” (pictured above). The American Beauties website also offers more information about their plants and useful blog posts about native gardening: American Beauties Native Plants
  • Jessecology in Saratoga Springs – Offers native plants by appointment, and services for garden design and installation if you’ll be using their plants. Jessecology | Eco Friendly Landscaping and Organic Gardening
  • Wild Things Rescue Nursery in Valley Falls, NY – A hidden gem well worth a day trip, as it is the biggest nursery in our region that specializes in native plants! Also offers services for garden design and installation if you’ll be using their plants. They have done installations as far north as Queensbury before. Native Plants, Native Plant Garden Design – Wild Things Rescue Nursery

Annual Community Plant Sales (Selling all-native plants! Except for those with italicized notes below.)

  • NY DEC Seedling Sale– order by phone/ mail, pickup in Saratoga (Jan – mid May) Spring Seedling Sale – NYSDEC
  • Warren County Soil & Water Conservation Sale– order by phone/ mail, pickup in Warrensburg (Jan – early March) Tree and Shrub Program – Warren County Soil & Water Conservation District
  • Warren County Master Gardener Plant Sale– in Warrensburg (Fri & Sat, mid-May)
    • (not all natives; ask about desired plants or look them up)
  • Thatcher Park Plant Sale– in Voorheesville (Saturday, mid-May), organized by our friends at the Wild Ones Capital Region chapter, based in Albany.
  • Green Thumb Pollinator Plant Sale & Swap– in Warrensburg (Saturday, late May)
    • (not all natives; ask about desired plants or look them up)
  • Pollinator Palooza– in Gansevoort (Saturday, end of May)
  • ADK Action Plant Sale– in Lake Placid (Saturday, early June)  

Online Suppliers of Native Plant Plugs & Bare Roots:

Spring pre-orders: Bare root, Potted trays: early Dec – mid May 

Potted 3-packs: early Dec – mid June

Fall pre-orders: Bare root: mid Aug – late Oct

Potted 3-packs: mid Aug – early Sept

3. Grow Native Plants from Seed 

More time-consuming, but certainly the most economical way of getting more native plants!

Ethics Note on Harvesting Seeds: It is considered unethical, and in some cases illegal, to pick seeds or plants from public lands and private properties that are not your own. However, you can pick from a private property if you have permission from the landowner, and you can manage the plants and seeds of your own landscaped yard as you please. If you have a large plot of wild property, a recommendation for responsible stewardship is to leave a portion of the seeds or plants that you find in an area, so those plants can continue to re-seed naturally. For example, trained ecologists will often take only 10% of what they find. The exception is if a wild area on your property will be destroyed for construction or new landscaping; in that case, salvage whatever you can!

A) Sources of Seed: 

Avoid: 

  • Big-box “wildflower mixes” such as Earth Science, Pennington Wildflower, etc. Most of the species they contain are not native to the US Northeast.
  • If you order from American Meadows, choose the “Northeast Wildflower” mix, not the “Northeast Pollinator Wildflower” mix, which contains non-native species. 

Preferred:

  • Prairie Moon – specializes in American native plants (filter by region and your site/ soil conditions!)
  • Prairie Nursery – specializes in American native plants (filter by region and your site/ soil conditions!)
  • Wild Seed Project – specializes in Northeast-native plants
  • Northeast Seed Collective – specializes in local ecotypes of Northeast-native plants
  • Free: Crandall Seed Library in Glens Falls, by appointment. You can get native seeds donated by us from Nov – April. They also offer seasonal vegetable seeds year-round.
  • Free: Warren Cty Soil & Water Conservation District – Plot for Pollinators – Warren County Soil & Water Conservation District (May-June). If you’ve missed the timeframe of that grant program, you can wait until next year, when they also offer a $15 wildflower seed mix at their annual pre-order plant sale (January-early March). Tree and Shrub Program – Warren County Soil & Water Conservation District

B) How to Grow Native Plants from Seed: 

  • Follow instructions from the supplier. Pay attention to the “Germination Code”, if it is listed. There are many codes that explain special treatment some native seeds will need for germination. For example, one common code for Northeast-native plants is code C(30) or C(60), which means they require 30 or 60 days of cold/moist stratification.
  • Research Winter Sowing (WS)! It is an easy and economical method for growing many native plants in cold regions. The Crandall Seed Library will offer a free WS workshop in December 2025, and Wild Ones Southern Adirondacks will offer free WS workshops in January-February at different venues, to be determined. (You can stay updated on our upcoming events by visiting our website, following our Facebook page, or emailing us at [email protected] to be added to our monthly email newsletter.)

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