JOIN US FOR THE BEST VOLUNTEER GIG OF THE SPRING!
The Great Swamp Watershed’s community-run plant sale needs volunteers for 2-hour time slots at GSWA HQ on Tempe Wick Road, Monday May 1 through Friday May 5. BRING YOUR FRIENDS! Signing up for multiple slots is welcome, go to bit.ly/3MFHewS
THE PLANT SALE IS OFFICIALLY CLOSED
Order Placement Timeline
Prior to April 3rd, use this Native Plant Catalog to preview offerings and decide early. All products will show “OUT OF STOCK” (not orderable).From April 3rd-28th online ordering will be open. Each product will show Available Units, but if “OUT OF STOCK” is shown during this timeline, the item has sold out.
Online ordering begins on April 3rd at 1:30 PM ET with ordering ending on April 28th at 5:00 PM ET!
GSWA and our Native Plant Program Community Partners are thrilled to offer you an expanded selection of Native Plants for 2023, building on our successes from our last two plant sales. We offer relatively deer-resistant, resilient species selected for North Jersey yards. We are offering 33 Individual Species that are cost-effective, well-established Landscape Plugs, ready for planting. The individually-offered species are sold in packs of five, except Christmas Fern and Pussytoes which are in packs of four.
We’ve created six money- and effort-saving Garden Kits to suit a variety of typical garden conditions. Each kit of five different species units is designed to bloom from spring through fall year after year— feeding pollinators and providing color. These kits support a diversity of insects and birds including host plants for caterpillars, nectar and pollen for butterflies and bees, and habitat for wildlife.
Orders are to be picked up locally at your town’s participating location. At time of checkout, you can choose from one of the 13 locations based on the location, date and time that works best for you. Preview the 2023 Pickup Locations made available through our 2023 Plant Sale Partners (Subject to change).
We are grateful to North Creek Nurseries for providing most of the photos; and to Hazel England for the Obedient, and Kim Smith for the Seaside Goldenrod photos.
2023 Plant Sale Categories
2023 Garden Kits
SOLD OUT: Dry Shade Kit – $60
Does best in part-shade to shade and dry to average soils. Comprised of 5 plugs each of: Coral Bells, Curly Wood Sedge, Stonecrop, White Wood aster, Wreath Goldenrod.
SOLD OUT: Full Sun Loving Colors Kit – $60
Sun-loving, performs best in full sun and average to moist soils. Comprised of 5 plugs each of: Culvers Root, Scarlet Beebalm, Shining Blue Star, Showy Goldenrod, Sideoats Grama. (Formerly called the Red, White and Blues Kit)
SOLD OUT: Pink, Purple and Yellows Kit – $60
Sun-loving, performs best in full sun and average to moist soils. Comprised of 5 plugs each of: Anise Hyssop, Blunt Mountain Mint, Lanceleaf Coreopsis, New England Aster, Swamp Milkweed.
SOLD OUT: Sidewalk / Container Kit – $60
Perfect for hellstrips, containers, or any location with difficult growing conditions. Performs well in full sun and dry soils but thrives in all sunny conditions. Comprised of 5 plugs of: Black-Eyed Susan, Butterfly Weed, Lyreleaf Sage, and Purple Lovegrass; along with 4 plugs of Pussytoes.
SOLD OUT: Best-Behaved Kit – $60
Lower-growing, less spreading plants that work well in more formal settings. Comprised of 5 plugs each of: Columbine, Dense Blazing Star, Purple Coneflower, Tall Anemone, Wild Quinine.
SOLD OUT: Rain Basin Kit – $60
Wet-loving plants that thrive in wet areas. Can be combined with any of the sun-loving kits for rain gardens. Comprised of 5 plugs each of: Blue Flag Iris, Cardinal Flower, Eastern Star Sedge, Spotted Joe Pye, White Turtlehead.
Individual Species
Individual Species Plug Strips – $15 each
All 33 species can be purchased as individual strips of plugs. Species selected cover a full season of blooming periods (Mar-Oct), sun, part sun to shade conditions, wet to dry moisture levels, and a range of soil types. Each individual species plug strip contains 5 Landscape Plugs with the two exceptions of Christmas Fern and Pussytoes, which are strips of 4 plugs. Plants with the Tag: More Deer Resistant are those with aromatic leaves, hairy or leathery foliage, or with noxious tasting sap. However. hungry deer have been known to eat anything. Download the Individual Plant Conditions Table to help in your selection. Some native pollinators frequent certain plants. Download the Pollinators by species Table to help in your selection.
Basic Light Level Definitions
- Full sun – 6 or more hours of direct sun per day
- Part sun – 4-6 hours of direct sun per day
- Shade – less than 4 hours of direct sun per day
SOLD OUT: Anise Hyssop
(Agastache foeniculum)
SOLD OUT: Blue Flag Iris
(Iris versicolor)
SOLD OUT: Blue Mistflower
(Conoclinium coelestinum)
SOLD OUT: Butterfly Weed
(Aclepias tuberosa)
SOLD OUT: Cardinal Flower
(Lobelia cardinalis)
SOLD OUT: Christmas Fern
(Polystichum acrostichoides)
SOLD OUT: Columbine
(Aquilegia canadensis)
SOLD OUT: Coral Bells
(Heuchera villosa)
SOLD OUT: Culver’s Root
(Veronicastrum virginicum)
SOLD OUT: Curly Wood Sedge
(Carex rosea)
SOLD OUT: Dense Blazing Star
(Liatris spicata)
SOLD OUT: Eastern Star Sedge
(Carex radiata)
SOLD OUT: Foamflower
(Tiarella cordifolia)
SOLD OUT: Lyreleaf Sage
(Salvia lyrata)
SOLD OUT: Obedient Plant
(Physostegia virginicum)
SOLD OUT: Pussytoes
(Antennaria neglecta)
SOLD OUT: Scarlet Beebalm
(Monarda didyma)
SOLD OUT: Shining Blue Star
(Amsonia illustris)
SOLD OUT: Showy Goldenrod
(Solidago speciosa)
![]("https://www.greatswamp.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Showy-Goldenrd-Thumbnail.jpg)
SOLD OUT: Sideoats Grama
(Bouteloua curtipendula)
SOLD OUT: Stonecrop
(Sedum ternatum)
SOLD OUT: Swamp Milkweed
(Asclepias incarnata)
SOLD OUT: Tall Anemone
(Anemone virginiana)
Plant It Forward!
Help GSWA staff to spread the joy of native plants to schools throughout the Passaic watershed. Your donation will help us buy plants to be installed in Paterson, Newark and other rain gardens.
- A $30 Donation buys 15 plant plugs
- A $50 Donation buys 25 plant plugs
- A $100 Donation buys soil amendment
- A $250 Donation buys 2 native trees and 3 shrubs for rain gardens.
SOLD OUT: Pollinator Pathway Garden Sign – $10 or $20
Help spread the word and order a 6″ or 12″ metal sign showing your yard is on the Pollinator Pathway.
SOLD OUT: NEWLY DESIGNED Plant for Pollinators 2023 Baseball Cap – $30
Show your pollinator pride as you wear and share your love to Plant for Pollinators.
Plant Sale Discount of GSWA Membership – $40
Please help us achieve our mission to protect water and land for a healthier environment now and for the future. Become a member of GSWA and enjoy all the benefits of members until May 2024.
Quick Start Gardening Guides
Each garden kit comes with a garden owner’s manual including a sample garden design. Download the manuals early to help you prepare your garden.
- Dry Shade Kit Manual
- Red, White and Blues Kit Manual
- Pink, Purple and Yellows Kit Manual
- Sidewalk / Container Kit Manual
- Best-Behaved Kit Manual
- Rain Basin Kit Manual
The sample kit designs are just guidance and assume plots with a shorter plants in front and a taller plants in back. But pollinators care only about convenience, not design aesthetics. Be creative to achieve what you want in your garden!
- For a garden that needs lower edges on more sides spread one kit around, buy extra plants of the lower species, or use multiple kits
- Change the shape to be rounder or deeper or wider.
- Blend the kit into other flowers, groundcovers and shrubs
- Buy extra plants of individual kit species that you particularly love.
- Treat yourself and the pollinators to a few of the amazing non-kit individual species. All 8 are first-class favorites!
Care Requirements
The Sun Loving Species needs Sun to Part Sun (6+ hours of sun per day to 4-6 hours of sun per day with some of it in the afternoon) and moist soil.
The Shade Loving Species needs Part Shade to Moderate Shade (4-6 hours of sun in the AM or dappled tree canopy shade all day) and moist soil.
(In our area neither should need any supplementary water after they are established).
Moist soil is the most common garden condition in our area but it does not cover all cases. For planting a garden with dry soil or wet soil, assemble your own selection of Individual Species whose descriptions show that they are compatible in that situation (including many of the plants within the kits).