Oct 24th – 2026 Fall Plant Sale

Our 2026 Fall plant sale will be on Saturday, Oct 24, from 9 AM (members of CNPS and FOMM) or 10 AM (general public) to 2 PM at the Madrona Marsh Nature Center. Profits from the plant sale support chapter activities.

Our sale date is a few weeks later in October than usual and consequently our regular Monday meeting will shift to Oct 26th.  We hope that the later date will give the plants a better establishment period in the nursery and in your garden. For your convenience, we will have a list of South Coast Chapter’s CNPS members as of August, so we can check your membership, but if you are a CNPS member newer than August or associated with another chapter, please bring membership confirmation.

We will be updating this page with additional information as we get it or as we evolve the sale, so check back from time to time.

• • This page has been updated 9/16 with added information about our milkweed Buy-Two-Get-One promotion and other minor items
  • This page has been updated on 8/11/26: revised sale dates, revised plant list.

Our long time relationship with Tree of Life Nursery sadly ended when they closed their doors earlier this year, but we are working with a new vendor,  El Nativo Growers, and they’ve been super easy to work with – recommended.  One of the exciting things about a new supplier is that they will have a slightly different selection of plants, so be sure to check their availability list for plants that you would like to special order.  Normally, El Nativo restricts sales to wholesale customers, but if you place a special order* through us we will work with them to get you your plants.  We will also still be sourcing plants from the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy (PVPLC), so rest assured that your local plant genetics will also be well-represented.  They too can accommodate special orders – see the PVPLC plant list for the range of possibilities.

Volunteer Opportunities Abound!

On Friday Oct 23 we will be unloading and staging the plants as they come in from our vendors and we would deeply appreciate some volunteers.  At around 9:30 we’ll need a smaller crew to unload the truck from El Nativo, inventory, identify plants (they come with labels this year!) and help Tony cross-check the manifest.  Then, starting around 10:30, we’ll need a larger crew to ferry the plants indoors, label them, and get them displayed.

Saturday Oct 24 we will need some help with sales (8:30 orientation, 9:00-11:00 will be our busiest time).  Neither of these days requires a deep knowledge of native plants, but if you are native plant knowledgeable then your help is valuable – things like doing quality checks on plant labels and helping with customer questions might suit your skills!

Email SouthCoastCNPS@gmail.com to add your name to the volunteer list!

Thank you, Special Orders, Plant Inventory, Free Seeds, etc.

• Thank you for being a CNPS member.  You don’t need to be a member to shop the sale and you can join or renew your membership at the sale.
  • We will open our doors early (9:00 am) for current CNPS members and for current Friends of Madrona Marsh members
• Narrow Leaf Milkweed Special – Monarchs do best with massed quantities of their favorite plants, so to encourage you to plant more than just a couple milkweeds, we are offering a three-for-the-price-of-two 4″ milkweed special, while supplies last.  Don’t stop at three: Get 6 for the price of 4!  We ordered a lot of milkweed, so there should be enough to get that critical amount needed to attract and feed monarchs.
• *Special Orders: Do you have a large number of one or more particular plants that you want? Do you have a special (usually large pot, or grown in small numbers, or available at the nursery but not at our sale) plant that you’d like?  You can pre-order (email us or contact Tony Baker directly) and we can set them aside.  Pre-ordering is helpful to us and to the buying public because it keeps our “general sale” inventory at reasonable levels in order to accommodate more casual plant sale patrons.  You also won’t need to rush the opening hour of the sale – we will set aside your purchase.
• Plant Inventory: Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see our expected inventory.
  • Each year we make plant requests of our vendors, but growing conditions can vary, so the request list evolves over time.
  • We will have PVPLC nursery stock, including Narrow Leaf Milkweed – rest assured that these plants are grown with truly local seeds.
• We’ll have free seeds of garden annuals to give away – your donation (of seeds, time, or money) is appreciated, but not necessary.  We have Clarkia unguiculata (Elegant Clarkia), Sisyrinchium bellum (Blue-eyed grass), Eschscholzia californica ‘maritima’ (California Poppy coastal variety), and more in various quantities.  We are sensitive to the genetic pedigree of our wild places, so seeds and plants are for garden use only.  We will keep to cuttings and seeds in order to prevent the accidental spread of plant pathogens.
  • We’ll have a copy of Dara Emory’s book, SEED PROPAGATION Of Native California Plants, for quick reference as well as a few other works.
• Coffee and a special sample of foods and drinks prepared with native plants available for tasting
• Our credit card provider charges a 3% fee that comes off our top line – If you can pay by Zelle, cash, or debit card that makes your purchase price go further towards our fundraising.

Questions and Answers

• How can I find out more about native plants for my garden before I get to the sale?
  • Review the planting guide HERE (https://chapters.cnps.org/southcoast/2022/10/10/planting-guide/)
  • If you want to check into plants that would be viable in your garden before the sale, Calscape (for plants) and Bloom California (for philosophy and design) are great starting points.
  • Don’t forget to check Tree of Life Nursery‘s web site (the site is still a good resource even though they have departed) and the PVPLC web site as well – they are chock full of information.
• How can I find out more about native plants at the sale?
  • Don’t forget that the Madrona Marsh Nature Center is surrounded by a beautiful demonstration garden
  • Also don’t forget that the Madrona Marsh itself is open to the public and may provide inspiration
  • Our volunteers are skilled at growing many native plants in their own gardens – ask one of us!

2026 Plants on Sale (List dated 8/11/26)

**denotes plants that are native to our local area and have been grown by the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy from locally sourced seeds.
The above list is a compilation of the California native plants that we expect (hope) to have available for our 2026 plant sale at the Madrona Marsh Nature Center on October
24th . We can’t guarantee that all the listed plants will be available and we may need to adjust our list.

The list is in alphabetical order using scientific nomenclature since common names are inexact. By looking up a common name, the scientific name can be accessed. Some scientific names have changed in the recent past, so I put synonymous names in parentheses.