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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Shop
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.
Resources
Wild Ones Princeton Design Packages
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
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
Deer hate them but we love them. Here are some of our favorite native shrubs that won’t get eaten up by deer.
Our Story
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.
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!
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.