{"id":239,"date":"2026-05-24T12:05:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T12:05:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=239"},"modified":"2026-05-24T12:05:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T12:05:52","slug":"once-dismissed-as-weeds-native-plants-are-flying-off-the-shelves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=239","title":{"rendered":"Once Dismissed As Weeds, Native Plants Are Flying Off the Shelves"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This story was originally published by\u00a0<\/em>Grist\u00a0in partnership with\u00a0Chicago Public Media,\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0is reproduced here as part of the\u00a0<\/em>Climate Desk\u00a0collaboration.<\/em><\/p>

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Renee Costanzo cranked <\/span>on the rusty pulley with both hands, watching the greenhouse roof creak open in sections. A breeze of spring air swept over 12,000 seedlings lined up in plastic trays in the Kilbourn Park greenhouse.<\/p>\n

Costanzo, the Chicago Park District\u2019s only full-time employee at the north-side greenhouse, spearheads a months-long effort to grow more than 15,000 plants, including vegetables, greens, and flowers, to get them ready in time for the Kilbourn Park\u2019s annual plant sale.<\/p>\n

The massively popular sale, which took place earlier this month, typically draws upwards of 1,100 people every year, with local gardeners lining up around the park waiting to snatch up plants at $4 a piece. But this year, attendance broke records \u2014 more than 2,300 shoppers turned out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe generally start these annuals at the end of February,\u201d said Costanzo, pointing to rows of popular annual flowers like zinnias, marigolds, and geraniums, which provide bright blooms all summer long before dying at the end of the season. \u201cSo we\u2019ve been coddling and loving these babies for months now, and we just want to get them into happy homes.\u201d<\/p>\n

For decades, Chicago gardeners flocked to the Kilbourn Park sale to pick up tomatoes, cucumbers, and some annuals \u2014 the standard starter kit for backyard gardeners. But this year, the park responded to a relatively new demand: Nearly 1 in 5 plants for sale are native plant species that have adapted to the local climate and wildlife and are generally low maintenance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJust in the last five years, people have asked for more natives, which is why we\u2019ve been increasing our production,\u201d said Costanzo, who experimented with 30 different native species in November ahead of the plant sale this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For a long time, native plants were seen as little more than weeds, but their value has grown significantly in recent years. Other local plant sales across Chicago and the country are incorporating native species at a pace surprising to even veteran horticulturalists who remember a time when they couldn\u2019t give them away.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve watched this for 44 years, from almost zero to now,\u201d said Neil Diboll, the president of Prairie Nursery, a Wisconsin-based nursery dedicated to growing and shipping native plants across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a fad,\u201d Diboll said. \u201cThis is a long, steady climb.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last year, Diboll said his nursery experienced a 7 percent increase in native plant sales. This year, they\u2019re shipping out about 500,000 plants and even more seeds. Back in 1982, when Diboll first started selling plants, business was tougher: The company grossed just over $13,000. These days, he said, \u201cyou can add a few zeros on there.\u201d<\/p>

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That relatively new mainstream demand has been driven, in part, by concerns about dramatic declines in insect species and climate change-powered extreme heat, drought, and flooding. The caterpillars of the Monarch butterfly, for example, depend on native milkweed as a food source. But\u00a0as land use patterns have changed, local milkweed species have disappeared, leading to\u00a0\u00a0in Monarch populations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNative plants have been adapting to change for thousands of years,\u201d said Tiffany Jones, who leads habitat education throughout the Great Lakes region for the National Wildlife Federation. \u201cThey need less water, less maintenance, and they\u2019re incredibly resilient \u2014 not to mention they help flood prevention with their deep root systems and provide habitat for all kinds of crucial species and pollinators. They\u2019re practical and beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Minnesota, Becky Klukas-Brewer, co-owner and head of marketing and sales at Prairie Moon Nursery, a popular native plant nursery, said the Midwest greenhouse is shipping more plants and seeds than ever before. \u201cIn the last seven years, we have seen a 350 percent increase in sales, which is pretty awesome,\u201d said Klukas-Brewer. At the same time, the 44-year-old nursery has seen its orders triple. She credits that success, in part, to the growing number of local plant sales across the country, drumming up interest in ecologically-minded gardening.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For nearly 50 years,\u00a0Wild Ones, a national nonprofit, has been educating the public about the benefits of reintroducing native plants back into their habitat. What started as a gardening club in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has ballooned into a nationwide organization with over 14,000 gardening enthusiasts putting on plant sales, seed giveaways, and exchanges. The group has also been noticing an uptick in native plant sales.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Over 110,000 native plants were sold last year through the organization\u2019s 107 plant sales, according to Josh Nelson, development director with the Wild Ones. He added that another 40,000 native plants were distributed as part of the group\u2019s various programs.<\/p>\n

As the native plant business continues to grow, the annual Kilbourn Park plant sale is helping meet some of that demand. To make it happen, a team of local volunteers came out on a weekly basis over several months to help sort, pot, and move seedlings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s completely worth it,\u201d said Lourdes Valenzuela, a retired schoolteacher who has volunteered at the north side plant sale for 12 years. Valenzuela is part of the Friends of Kilbourn Park Greenhouse, a dedicated group of local volunteers who fundraise to help expand the resources at the nursery. With help from funds collected at previous plant sales, they\u2019ve been able to buy benches, a shed, and even a patio \u2014 increasing the footprint of the educational center. The goal this year was to raise $25,000, about half of the total projected cost, for a new outdoor learning center. But Valenzuela said the plant sale was a huge hit, and they easily surpassed the goal. The Chicago Park District confirmed the sale generated approximately $48,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe literally sold every possible plant, all the compost, lots of baked goods,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re not fighting against the climate here. We\u2019re working with it because it\u2019s what\u2019s native to this area, and they\u2019re beautiful.\u201d<\/p>

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Gardeners are flocking to climate-resilient species amid concerns about extreme heat, flooding, and pollinator survival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment"],"yoast_head":"\nOnce Dismissed As Weeds, Native Plants Are Flying Off the Shelves - Moving and Mortgage Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=239\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Once Dismissed As Weeds, Native Plants Are Flying Off the Shelves - Moving and Mortgage Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gardeners are flocking to climate-resilient species amid concerns about extreme heat, flooding, and pollinator survival.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=239\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving and Mortgage Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-24T12:05:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/fd5c6a445129bc3633beda4ece306b4c.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1124\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=239#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=239\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6b7c79bcfd888d98f34c5413df7e81a2\"},\"headline\":\"Once Dismissed As Weeds, Native Plants Are Flying Off the Shelves\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-24T12:05:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=239\"},\"wordCount\":1030,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=239#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/a7c9dde3328c7647d3f07678a6ce4164.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Environment\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=239#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=239\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=239\",\"name\":\"Once Dismissed As Weeds, Native Plants Are Flying Off the Shelves - 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