Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour

Shop in-person Saturday, February 22, 2025 from 10:00-4:00, or online any time on Sat. or Sun. Feb. 22 or 23!

Shop in-person at East Bay Wilds in Oakland, or at The Watershed Nursery or Curious Flora in Richmond on Saturday, February 22 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.

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Or… shop online

Order online from Green Thumb Works or Down by the Bay on either Sat. or Sun. Feb. 22 or 23, 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 number 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. Feel free to reach out about plants you are interested in, if you would like to pick them up at another time.

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. 

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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 Feb. 22, from 10:00-4:00.

• Hayward Down by the Bay Native Plant Nursery is located at 2363 Catalpa Way, Hayward (sales are made from this address only during Extravaganza events.) Down by the Bay carries plants local to South Alameda County. Not sure what plants will do well in your garden? Check out the plants in the native garden at the nursery, and feel free to ask the owner, Josh, for help. See Down by the Bay’s native plant list here.

  Talks in the Nursery
  1:00 “Using sheet mulching to start the creation of neighborhood pollinator pathways – visit the six recently-planted native plant demonstration gardens within an easy walking distance” by Josh Rubietta, owner of Down by the Bay

• 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
  12:00 “Gardening for birds: The plants that will bring them to your garden” by Pete Veilleux, owner of East Bay Wilds

  

• Richmond – Curious Flora is at 740 Market Ave. Richmond, (341) 215-8734​. Curious Flora Nursery is a wonderland where plants, people, and community continue to thrive in the footprint of the former location of Annie’s Annuals and Perennials in Richmond. The native section has been moved into the main area: ask if you can’t find it.

  Talks in the Nursery
  10:00 “Title coming soon!” by Colleen Wheeler, owner, Curious Flora

• 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.

  Talks in the Nursery
  2:00″ Container Gardening with California Native Plants” by Aaron Bluestein from the Watershed Nursery