Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour

Shop in-person Saturday, October 19, 2024 from 10:00-4:00, or online any time on Sat. or Sun. Oct. 19 or 20!

Shop in-person at Oaktown Native Plant Nursery in Berkeley, Down by the Bay in Hayward, East Bay Wilds in Oakland, or at The Watershed Nursery or Annies’ Annuals and Perennials in Richmond on Saturday, October 19 from 10:00-4:00 and a percentage of your purchases will go to support the Tour. See below for addresses, talk titles and times, and other details.

——–

Or… shop online

Order online from Green Thumb Works or Down by the Bay on either Sat. or Sun. Oct. 19 or 20, and a percentage of your purchase will go to support the Tour.

Now available from Green Thumb are Hummingbird Hangout and Beneficial Insect Haven plant bundles, consisting of hardy, beneficial one gallon plants for full to part-sunny areas. Browse Green Thumb’s online list of available plants here. 

Down by the Bay is a new native plant nursery located in Hayward that specializes in local natives and ecotypes found in Hayward and surrounding cities. Down by the Bay grows a numbers of keystone species that will make your garden a biodiversity powerhouse, while reducing your watering and maintenance efforts. Check out Down by the Bay’s inventory here, and please reach out about species you are interested in.

Save water, lower the amount of time you spend working in your garden (or the amount you pay for maintenance), invite birds, butterflies, and beneficial insects to your garden, support local ecology, and reflect the natural splendor for which California is known by gardening with California native plants from Green Thumb Works and Down by the Bay. 

——–

Be sure to include our own, local keystone plants in your garden; they are the best for wildlife, and include:

Best plants for shady areas: currant, huckleberry, wild rose, thimbleberry, ocean spray, woodland strawberry, goldenrod, aster, honeysuckle.

Shop in-person

Shop for native plants and garden art at these fundraisers for the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour on Saturday Oct. 19, from 10:00-4:00.

• Berkeley Oaktown Native Plant Nursery is located at 702 Channing Way, Berkeley, just west of 4th Street. The entrance ramp is on the south side of the street, just before you reach the railroad tracks.

  Oaktown grows and sells natives for home gardeners, landscapers, habitat restoration, and more. Use their “Plant Finder” to help choose the right plants for your garden. You can see Oaktown’s inventory here.

  Talks in the Nursery
  xx:00 “Title coming” by Suzanne Howard Carter

• Oakland – East Bay Wilds is located at 2777 Foothill Blvd., Oakland; note that the entrance is on 28th Ave. This nursery is normally only open to the public on Fridays, so don’t miss this chance to shop on a weekend! Owner Pete Veilleux grows more than five hundred kinds of natives that are particularly beautiful, reliable, and hard to find; he specializes in manzanitas, California lilacs, and natives that do well in pots. Ask about natives useful for specific landscape problem areas.
  

  While at East Bay Wilds, browse Pete’s extensive, eclectic collection of garden benches, tables, chairs, statues, planters, antiques, and tchotchkes available at great prices – a percentage of these purchases will also go to support the Tour. See the plant list here and see photos of gardens that Pete has designed and planted with natives here. (If you are interested in a consult, design, installation or maintenance for a California native landscape, email Pete at pete@eastbaywilds.com or call (510) 409-5858.

  Talks in the Nursery
  11:00 “How to combine native plants to create color and interest throughout the year for us – and the birds, butterflies, and bees” by Pete Veilleux, owner of East Bay Wilds

  

• Richmond –The Watershed Nursery, 601 A Canal Blvd. Richmond, (510) 234-2222. The Watershed Nursery, located in Point Richmond, offers hundreds of species of California native plants, and is dedicated to improving habitat from your backyard to the Bay. Use the nursery’s Plant Finder to match plants to your garden conditions, or ask their expert staff for help with choosing plants to suit your specific goals. You can see the list of available plants here.

  Free seeds! During the Extravaganza The Watershed Nursery will be giving away a free California native wildflower seed packet with each purchase (1 seed packet per customer per purchase).

  The seed mixes to choose from (dependent on availability) are as follows:

  California Native Blue & Gold Wildflower Seed Mix (Arroyo Lupine, Baby Blue Eyes, California Poppy, Yellow Lupine, Blue Flax, California Blue Bell, and Goldfields).

  California Native Wildflower Seed Mix (Arroyo Lupine, Pygmy-leaf Lupine, Yellow Lupine, California Poppy, Five Spot, Baby Blue Eyes, Sky Lupine, Chinese Houses, Tidy Tips, Godetia, Goldfields, Mountain Phlox, California Blue Bell, Beach Evening Primrose, Mountain Garland, Bird’s Eyes, California Goldfields, Blue-eyed Grass, Globe Gilia).

  Bay Area Wildflower Seed Mix (Yarrow, Elegant Clarkia, Winecup Clarkia, Red Maids, Purple Chinese Houses, Common Wooly Sunflower, California Poppy, Fremont’s Goldfields, Dense Flowered Platycarpos, Common Tidy-tips, Sky Lupine, Succulent Lupine, Coyote Mint, California Phacelia, Dotseed Plantain, Blue-eyed Grass).

  California Poppy Mix (Eschscholzia californica, California Mixed Poppies (white, pink, orange, and red)).

  California Native Pollinator Mix (Arroyo Lupine, Baby Blue Eyes, Five Spot, Gum Plant, Chinese Houses, California Poppy, Globe Gilia, Tansy Phacelia, California Blue Bells, Gold Fields, and Lupine Bicolor).

  California Native Low Growing Wildflower Seed Mix (Idaho Fescue, Sky Lupine, Pygmy Leaf Lupine, California Poppy, Chinese Houses, Five Spot, Baby Blue Eyes, Tidy Tips, Mountain Phlox, Godetia, Goldfields, California Bluebells, Bird’s Eyes, Beach Evening Primrose, and Blue Eyed Grass).