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Spring Opening Saturday, March 25th
Tue - Fri 10 a.m - 5 p.m & Sat 9 a.m - 4 p.m

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Native plants

Grown with love

Redbud Native Plant Nursery offers excellent quality container-grown native plants for the mid-Atlantic region.

The nursery is open from mid-March through November, Tuesday to Friday 10 to 5, Saturdays 9 to 4.

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Are you a new gardener, not sure where to begin? An avid gardener looking for that hard to find native plant? At the nursery, expect our kind, courteous, and knowledgeable staff to help you with plant selection based on your site conditions and planting goals. We can assist with the selection of the most appropriate native plants for your planting projects in a variety of ways, whether in conversation at the nursery or through the variety of services (link to this section) we provide.

Our availability changes daily, so check in by email (link) about current availability and let us know what you are looking for. If you are preparing for a trip to the nursery, knowing your sun patterns, soil conditions including typical moisture levels and dimensions of the space is very helpful for us to help you. We are a retail nursery, not wholesale, but we can work with you on custom orders.

For more information on events and special programs, follow us on social media or join our mailing list.

Why Native Plants?

Native plants offer immeasurable benefits over non-natives. By selecting plants that are indigenous to our Mid-Atlantic region, you are choosing plants that are well adapted to our climate and co-evolved with local wildlife and pollinators. Most of the land in the U.S. is privately owned, making private property the biggest opportunity to buttress long-term ecological health if we design and maintain private land to nurture life. Sustain the natural world where you live, work, and play by gardening to foster local flora and fauna and the habitat you steward will sustain you.

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The mid-Atlantic region has a wide range of topography, soils, and micro-climates, supporting incredible ecological diversity. The wide range of native plants supports an equally wide range of bThe mid-Atlantic region has a wide range of topography, soils, and micro-climates, supporting incredible ecological diversity. The wide range of our local plants support an equally wide range of beneficial insects and pollinators. Perpetuating the flora and fauna of our region makes our landscapes functional and healthy, preserving the food web we need, keeping us healthy. Introducing a variety of natives into your landscape will create wildlife habitat and provide high-quality food in the form of fruits, berries, nuts, leaves, and nectar to mammals, birds, insects, reptiles, and amphibians as well as millions of organisms too small to see! The more native plants you tend, the more biodiversity you support, the healthier our environment is. Cultivating a rich habitat is one of the most significant actions you can take to counter climate change and collapse of biodiversity, not to mention the built-in self-care! Beneficial insects and pollinators. Perpetuating the flora and fauna of our region makes our landscapes functional and healthy, preserving the food web we need, keeping us healthy.
Native plants are usually the best sources of nectar and pollen for native pollinators. Incorporating native wildflowers, shrubs, and trees into any landscape promotes local biological diversity by providing shelter and food for wildlife.

Sustain the natural world where you live, work, and play. Most of the land in the U.S. is privately owned. Private property is the biggest opportunity to foster long-term ecological health if we design and maintain private land to sustain life. It is the plants and animals that surround us that support our lives.

Introducing a variety of natives into your landscape will create wildlife habitat and provide high-quality food in the form of fruits, berries, nuts, leaves, and nectar to animals, birds, insects, reptiles, and amphibians as well as millions of organisms too small to see! The more natives you plant, the more biodiversity you support, the healthier our environment becomes. Providing a rich habitat is one of the most significant actions you can take.

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Our Plants

We strive to offer retail customers the most diverse selection of native plants in the region with extensive options to suit many garden types, such as exuberant perennial and pollinator drifts, for woodlands, meadows, hedgerows, shrub borders, rain gardens or riparian buffers, and restoration projects.

Our plants are nursery propagated, container-grown - never wild-collected - and are available in a variety of sizes. Herbaceous perennials, grasses, and ferns are available in container sizes ranging from plugs, quarts to 2 gallons. Trees and shrubs are available in containers from 1 to 15 gallons. See this chart to understand size options. (we are making this graphic and will place in the Shared Images Folder)

Our practices always have our shared environment and health in mind. We follow non-toxic management practices and care for our plants without the use of pesticides, such as neonicotinoids, or herbicides. We gladly advise customers on plant selection.

Our Services

In Your Garden

Gardening is part art, part science, requiring a creative partnership with nature. But that creative partnership can be equivalent to a chess game because there are so many variables and choices. Sometimes all that is needed is an experienced opinion to help you work through your next moves. Redbud's team of landscape architects, designers, and horticulture professionals can provide the expertise to help you achieve success with your garden.

Our kind, courteous, and knowledgeable staff is always available to help during trips to the nursery. But, when more is needed, we offer coaching, evaluation, and preliminary design consultation to full design processes for your landscape in collaboration with Julie and Lisa’s design studio, TEND landscape architects.

Garden Coaching

Garden Coaching offers personal attention designed to support you with your gardening questions and challenges. The service is offered in two ways to meet your needs. You can either schedule a Private Appointment at the nursery or schedule a Private Appointment in your garden.

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Garden Consultation

A well designed garden can turn an ordinary landscape into an outstanding one. Our Garden Design Consultations with experienced landscape designers help you assess what you already have and provide direction for achieving the garden that benefits your lifestyle and brings you joy.

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Garden Design

Garden design focuses on the art and process of imagining and documenting the layout, planting and details needed to implement a garden. If that seems overwhelming to you, this is our wheelhouse, let us help.

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Specialty Orders

Is your organization hosting a native plant sale or a fundraiser? Or do you need specific native plants for a project installation? Advanced orders can be arranged. Confirming specialty orders often is best to do in advance of the planting season, for instance be in touch in January for a spring planting.

Julie and Lisa are both professional, extremely knowledgeable and very helpful. I came to Redbud with just some simple ideas for our front garden and they listened to my needs, brainstormed, and provided some creative ideas. I am excited to continue to work with Redbud this Spring!

— Betsy, Bryn Mawr, PA

Shop

The Redbud Shop Collapse

We love books and a good shovel. Inside the Redbud shop, you’ll discover a curated selection of books on gardening, design, plants, birds, and insects as well as inspiration, poetry, novels and reference. The shop is stocked with our favorite gardening tools like a weeding knife and by-pass pruners. Gifts and cards from local artists and maker friends such as Bee Our Guest bee’s wax wraps, Pluma Avis Domus bird houses, Sarah Draw’s illustrations and stickers and our bespoke cards created in collaboration with artist Jackie Small of Small Print Studio. The third series of our card collaboration is out now, featuring native birds and berries they feed on.

Gift Cards Expand

Give a gift that keeps on growing. Redbud Gift Cards are available 24/7 through our website. All gift cards are electronic, purchased via the website and are delivered via email to the recipient and buyer. If you are looking for a physical representation for a gift, email us.

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Online Store Expand

Occasionally, we offer a limited number of items for purchase online, often aligned with the season such as fleeting bloomers known as spring ephemerals. To preserve healthy plants and allow you to see them before they are in your possession, online purchases must be picked up at the nursery; we do not ship or deliver plants purchased online.

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Resources

Wild Ones Princeton Design Packages

March 9, 2023

Redbud and TEND are pleased to announce our participation with the Native Garden Design Program of Wild Ones, a Wisconsin-based national advocacy and educational organization focused on native plants and […]

How to Protect Your Young Tree from Deer

September 2, 2021

Planting a native tree is one of the most important ecological contributions you can make. But if you live in deer country, you need a plan in place to ensure […]

The Guide to Deer Resistant Native Shrubs

August 25, 2021

Deer hate them but we love them. Here are some of our favorite native shrubs that won’t get eaten up by deer.

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Our Story

Redbud Native Plant Nursery - Lisa and Julie talking with Catherine
Lisa and Julie talking with Catherine, at the original Redbud location in 2014.

Catherine Smith opened Redbud in 2002 to establish a nursery focused solely on native plants to positively impact our regional environment, knowing that native plants support biodiversity of our local ecosystems. After seventeen years, Catherine passed the trowel to Julie Snell and Lisa McDonald Hanes in 2020, knowing they would be good stewards to continue Redbud’s purpose. The nursery continues to provide diverse stock at a physical location where customers can see, touch and smell native plants in person and interact with knowledgeable staff.

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As Redbud’s owners, Julie and Lisa, bring many years of experience in the horticulture field and exceptional plant knowledge. Their educational and professional background includes horticulture, art and landscape architecture. Julie and Lisa are also founding principals of TEND landscape architects. The two businesses are co-located in Media, with each business cooperating with the other, such as TEND’s landscape design services offered to Redbud customers. Julie and Lisa bring a deep range of personal and professional experience to their roles as owners/operators of Redbud. Julie holds a Masters in Landscape Architecture and maintains professional credentials as an ISA Certified Arborist. Lisa holds a Bachelors in Landscape Architecture and is a licensed Landscape Architect in PA and NJ.
As a company, Redbud values the range of ecological and health benefits landscapes provide and strives to extend the knowledge base of gardening with native plants suitable to our Mid-Atlantic location. Redbud values sustainability at all levels of production and sale of nursery plants. This value guides our business decisions, operating procedures, plant care, material sourcing, energy choices, and waste disposal. We share a passion to steward landscapes for the needs of today while providing the structure for resiliency to adapt and thrive with tomorrow’s challenges.

Julie and Lisa, as landscape architects attuned to the design of environments that reach the heart of a place, are committed to participating in work that is personal, requires care, and has the potential to change the value of landscapes. They know from experience that fostering connections between people and their environments make a measurable difference in quality of life, both physically and emotionally, cultivating landscapes like our health depends on it.

Events

Redbud hosts free Yard Talks outside at the nursery. These events are typically a 30-45 minute talks that range from plant focused presentations, author events and book signings, to interactive workshops such as plein-air watercolors or horticulture therapy exercises. The events will be posted here, announced in our newsletter and social media. While the talks are free, we ask that attendee register ahead of time. 

Yard Talks at Redbud

No upcoming events at the moment, but check back soon!

See a list of past events

Winter Market

After the nursery closes for the season, Redbud is host to our Winter Market, which typically held on the weekend after Thanksgiving. The 4th annual Winter Market will be on November 25 & 26, 2023. Redbud hosts local artist and makers for this 2 days event at the start of the winter season. Redbud will also have cut stems, evergreen wreaths, and berry branches on offer. And you’ll find a full schedule of speakers and demonstrations featuring seasonal topics such as wreath making 101, How to create a seasonal planter, or how to start native plants from seed.

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FAQs

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Do you guarantee plants? Expand

Plants, like puppies, are living beings that require care, and just like puppies, all have their life destiny. After a plant leaves the nursery, there are many variables - proper transport, planting, watering, and maintenance - that conflict with offering a guarantee. We guarantee that we only sell plants that we consider healthy, vigorous, and likely to succeed in the appropriate location. A guarantee would be like insurance, and we do not fold this into our pricing as other garden centers may.

Proper site selection is critical to the survival of native plants. Our staff can help you choose plants that match your site conditions and advise on planting. If you have a problem after planting, we can help troubleshoot. Email us with a photo and description of the issue, and we’ll do our best to assist.

What is your return policy? Expand

Hard goods (books, tools, containers) can be returned with the receipt within 30 days of purchase. We do not accept the return of plants. Why? See above regarding all the variables after plants leave our care.

When is the best time to plant? Expand

Technically you can plant anytime the soil is not frozen or too wet, AND you can provide supplemental watering as needed. It is best to avoid times when the weather is too hot – if you’re wilting, your plants will be too!

The absolute BEST time to plant is in the Fall. Planting in September, October, and November (and some years, even into December) allows the plant’s roots to settle in and grow during the cooler season. The plant will be less vulnerable to high temperatures and water stress by the time next summer rolls around. Planting in the Spring is the second-best time to plant, but you’ll need to be more vigilant with monitoring watering needs during the summer.

It may take 2-3 years for your new plant to establish after planting (woody plants longer than herbaceous). It is critical to monitor and provide supplemental water during these first few years. Make sure to weed around your new plants and mulch - only apply to the soil over the rootball – no mulch on crowns, stems, or trunks! See below for more about mulch.

Should I mulch when I plant? Expand

Mulch helps prevent weeds seeds from germinating, increases water-holding capacity in the root zone, and is a visual cue to keep mowers and string trimmers away from the base of the plant.
Covering the surface of the soil beneath new plants is good practice. Be sure to use mulch on soil that is already weeded. There are several types of mulch – formerly living material such as chopped leaves, straw, salt hay, wood chips, shredded bark, pine needles, or ‘green mulch,’ a living groundcover plant.

When mulch is an organic material, it will improve the soil as it decomposes. When using formerly living materials, use only a 2-3” thick layer over the entire root zone of the plant. Keep mulch about 1-4 inches away from crowns, stems and trunks as mulch piled against the crown or stems of perennials or grasses or against the trunks of trees can cause rot.

Due to the low-growing and quick spreading tendencies of groundcovers, these plants are a logical choice for ‘green mulch’. Instead of traditional mulch that must be applied year after year, a base layer of low-growing and fast-spreading plants can be used to create a green backdrop. Plant these groundcovers in large masses along the base of trees and shrubs. Utilizing their natural tendencies, these plants will cover the ground, denying weeds access to light and space to get established. In addition, they will provide garden interest and biodiversity to the ground layer.

Should I fertilize when I plant? Expand

There are different kinds of fertilizer. Synthetic chemical fertilizers are formulated to make nutrients immediately available to plants. However, depending on many factors (soil pH, plant species, existing soil physical and chemical conditions, etc.), the plant may not take up all available nutrients from this source. The rest will run off into groundwater and end up in the nearest water body and eventually the ocean.

Organic materials used for fertilizer (such as compost, bone meal or chicken manure) are not immediately available to plants. It works by being processed by soil micro-organisms that break down the fertilizer feedstocks into nutrients available for plants to take up. Healthy soil has billions of micro-organisms, mycorrhizae, and pore space to allow air and water flow. The plants and the soil work together to exchange and use nutrients.

We don’t recommend synthetic fertilizer anytime. Depending on existing soil conditions, adding organic materials as fertilizer at planting may be beneficial. You don’t want to overly enrich the planting hole and discourage the roots from growing out of the rootball into the surrounding soil.

What is compost, and should I add it to my garden? Expand

Compost is formally living material (organic) rich in carbon and other nutrients that can be used as a soil amendment. Compost should not be smelly; if it is, there was too much nitrogen-rich (green) material and not enough carbon-rich material (brown) in the mix. Properly managed compost heats up to 140 and kills any weed seeds or pathogens.

Compost can be a great benefit to soil. It can improve water-holding capacity, aerate soil, lessen compaction and increase the activity of soil organisms that will help provide nutrients to your plants over time. Compost contributes to healthy soil. Apply the correct amount of compost to your planting area as adding too much compost may be harmful. Applying a layer of compost, a quarter-inch to 1-inch deep, to the planting surface each year may be enough.

Do you use pesticides or neonicotinoids? Expand

At the nursery, we maintain our plants without synthetic pesticides, fungicides, or neonicotinoids. We use a peat-free planting medium and use certified organic fertilizer when needed. We source our plants from responsible growers who use sustainable practices, with minimal input, without neonicotinoids, and in many cases, propagate from local eco-type seed sources.

Are your plants organic? Expand

Our plants are not certified organic as that is a paid program through the USDA.

Deer are eating my plants; what can I do? Expand

According to PennState Extension, the number of deer in Pennsylvania has significantly changed our forests over the last 50 years. We see far fewer young trees and very limited biodiversity. In many areas, deer have overeaten the forest, and the diversity in the vegetation layers is gone. As gardeners, we know that gardening in Pennsylvania and New Jersey means managing impacts from deer. Deer are “browsers.” They primarily eat the leaves, twigs, and shoots of young trees, shrubs, and wildflowers, but they may rub on trees too. No plants are deer-proof, but many are less palatable to deer and will be more resilient in the event of deer browse. Our staff can help you choose the best plants for your site conditions and advise on deterrents and physical barriers for plants that need protection during establishment.

Do you offer discounts or have sales? Expand

We set prices as competitively as a small, independent retail business can. We do not hold sales or otherwise discount merchandise. Organizations providing a Pennsylvania Certificate of Tax Exemption will not be charged sales tax. A 10% discount is offered to those in the trade with proof of business operation.

Julie and Lisa love what they do! They love the plants they offer and they love seeing pictures and stories of the plants that leave their custodianship and are adopted by their customers.

Since patronizing Redbud, my world has never been filled with so many butterflies! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being the best!

— Beverly, Ardentown, DE

Find Us on Instagram

Spring ephemerals available now in our online stor Spring ephemerals available now in our online store (link in profile). Order now for pickup later (estimated 3/25-4/15). Limited quantities will also be available in the nursery. We reopen on March 25. 
#mertensia
#claytonia
#trillium
We’re looking forward to seeing you when we reop We’re looking forward to seeing you when we reopen this month. Have a wish list for spring planting? Email us!
We are in love with Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (bearb We are in love with Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (bearberry) this Valentine’s Day. Not only fun to say but looks great in mid February - what’s not to love! What are you loving in your garden today? #nativeplants #winterest #bearberry
Your valentine doesn’t care if you’ve been foc Your valentine doesn’t care if you’ve been focused on 🦅🏈
Lucky for you, we have the perfect gift #ValentinesDay #plantlovers #linkinbio #giftcards
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Hours

The nursery is closed for the season.
Open by appointment -- call or email to schedule.
Reopening March 25, 2023.

Location

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904 N. Providence Road
Media, PA 19063 

Say Hello

610.892.2833
info@redbudnative.com

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