Where to Find Native Plants: 6 Locally Owned Nurseries in the Southwest

Oct 7

Every pressed flower in my studio starts as a living plant, and the best ones start in the ground where they belong. When people ask me how to bring more of the Southwest's wildflowers home, my answer is always the same: skip the big-box garden aisle and go to a nursery run by people who grow the plants themselves.

Native plants are built for our sun, our wind, and our long dry spells. Once established they ask for little water, and they feed the bees, moths, hummingbirds, and birds that evolved alongside them. Locally owned nurseries matter just as much. They propagate from regional seed, they know which penstemon will survive your elevation, and the money you spend stays in our communities.

Here are six independent native plant nurseries across the Southwest that I love and recommend.

1. Plants of the Southwest — Santa Fe and Albuquerque, NM

Plants of the Southwest has been selling Southwest native plants since 1976, which makes it one of the region's true pioneers. It's a small, local nursery and seed store with locations on Agua Fria Street in Santa Fe and on 4th Street NW in Albuquerque.

This is where I go for seed. The shelves hold native wildflower, grass, shrub, and tree seed, alongside trees, shrubs, grasses, cacti, and perennials in pots. Their philosophy is low-work gardening: plant the right natives, get them established, and let them thrive on their own.

Good to know: They no longer take mail or online orders, so plan a visit. Both stores are open Tuesday through Saturday; check the website for current hours and payment options before you go.

2. Desert Survivors Native Plant Nursery — Tucson, AZ

Desert Survivors is a native plant nursery with a mission that reaches well beyond the garden. The Tucson nonprofit provides meaningful, dignified employment for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and the nursery itself operates as a horticultural therapy setting.

The plants are Sonoran Desert natives and desert-friendly species, and education is part of the work: helping the community understand and protect the desert's fragile ecology. Every pot you carry out supports both the land and the people who grew it.

Good to know: Members get a discount on nursery purchases all year, with a bigger discount during the annual plant sale days.

3. Borderlands Nursery & Seed — Patagonia, AZ

Borderlands Nursery & Seed is the native plant program of the nonprofit Borderlands Restoration Network. It was founded in 2012 by restoration practitioners who saw that the Sky Islands needed locally produced plants for habitat work.

Today the program grows more than 100,000 native plants a year, organically and without chemicals. Its regional seed center holds over 2,000 native seed collections. Projects like Agaves for Bats and pollinator corridors across the Madrean Archipelago make this a nursery where every purchase feeds a bigger restoration story.

Good to know: Shop during the spring, monsoon, and fall plant sales, on open nursery mornings (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, 9 a.m. to noon), or by appointment. You can order online for pickup. Seed ships; container plants do not, but they run pre-order delivery events to Tucson, Bisbee, Sierra Vista, Tubac, and other border towns.

4. Spadefoot Nursery — Tucson, AZ

Spadefoot Nursery is a tiny family operation with deep roots. Peter Gierlach, known to Arizona radio listeners as Petey Mesquitey of KXCI's Growing Native show, started Spadefoot in Cochise County in 1996. In 2018 his daughter Katy Gierlach and her partner Jared McKinley opened the Tucson nursery, which is now the main location.

They grow native plants from the southwestern U.S. and Mexico, chosen above all for the wildlife they feed: larval host plants for butterflies, nectar plants for bees and hummingbirds. Everything is grown without pesticides. They also champion plants in their "uglier" dormant seasons, which I love. A pressed-flower artist learns quickly that a plant's quiet stages are part of its beauty.

Good to know: The shop at 2831 East Broadway is open Friday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can browse live inventory online and reserve for pickup; they don't ship plants.

5. Agua Fria Nursery — Santa Fe, NM

Agua Fria Nursery has been a fixture on Agua Fria Street since 1975. It's a local, organic nursery and garden center, and for decades it has been one of Santa Fe's go-to sources for native perennials, trees, shrubs, succulents, and cacti grown and propagated on site.

Longtime owner Bob Pennington's own garden at the nursery shows what's possible: a collection of Western natives, most thriving with no supplemental water once established. It's a good place to see mature plants before you commit to them in your own yard.

Good to know: Agua Fria is a full garden center, so you'll find non-natives too. Ask staff to point you to the native benches, and check seasonal hours before visiting.

6. Gila Native Plant Nursery — Safford, AZ

The Gila Native Plant Nursery began in 2013 with a single, practical job: growing cottonwoods and willows to replace invasive salt cedar along the Gila River. Run by the nonprofit Gila Watershed Partnership, it has since grown into a regional source for locally adapted native plants of southeastern Arizona.

Staff collect seed in the region and adapt their growing methods to produce tough plants for arid conditions, many of them pollinator-friendly and drought tolerant. Proceeds support the partnership's work on water quality and watershed habitat in Graham and Greenlee counties.

Good to know: Retail sales center on the spring and fall plant sales at the nursery on the Eastern Arizona College Discovery Park campus. Plants are pickup only, so watch their website for sale dates.

Not nearby? Shop online

Several of these nurseries sell online, so distance doesn't have to stop you. Borderlands Nursery & Seed ships native seed and takes online plant orders for pickup or delivery events. Spadefoot and the Gila Native Plant Nursery list plants online for reserve-and-pickup. Live plants generally don't ship, so plan to collect them in person.

For seed delivered to your door, I also like Great Basin Seed in Ephraim, Utah. This family seed company has been rooted in the Great Basin since 1974 and grows most of its native seed there. Its catalog includes native grasses, wildflowers, shrubs, and hand-collected seed, and it ships nationwide. It also sells pasture and lawn seed, so shop from the native seed section.

How to shop a native nursery

Go in fall. Autumn planting gives roots a cool, quiet season to settle in before summer heat. Many of these nurseries hold fall sales for exactly that reason.
Ask where the seed came from. Plants grown from regional seed are adapted to local soils, elevation, and the pollinators that depend on them.
Choose seed-grown over cultivars. Straight species usually offer more to wildlife than plants bred for showier blooms.
Plant for every stage. Seedheads, dried stalks, and winter silhouettes feed birds and shelter insects. They're also some of my favorite things to press.
Call ahead. Small nurseries keep small-business hours, and several sell only during seasonal sales.

Wherever you live in the Southwest, there's a grower nearby who knows your plants by name. Visit them, ask questions, and bring a few home. Your garden, and the creatures that share it, will thank you.