Plant Sale FAQs

Sale Logistics

  • We have two sales a year. The first is our spring sale which goes online in late April, with pickups the first weekend in May; the fall sale goes online in late September, with pickups the first weekend of October.

    This is an online only sale. Simply navigate to the online store then add plants to your cart. You will be prompted to choose a pickup time at checkout. Pickup details (date, time, location) are emailed after your order is confirmed. Our location is in West Olympia, near South Puget Sound Community College.

  • When the sale first opens, many plants sell out quickly, and that can lead to frustration and confusion when trying to check out.

    We want to help you not lose out on plants you really want, so if you are struggling with checking out, please reach out to us immediately with these two options:

    1. Email: nativeplantsalvage@gmail.com – include your phone number, because the fastest way to help is for us to call you!

    2. Text: 360-545-0795. Please do not call, just text. Calling will disrupt our calls with another customer & will take longer for us to return your call if we have to listen to a voice message.

    We’ll be monitoring both systems and will contact you back as soon as possible (note: the number that we call you back from may be different than the text number above).

    We are constantly working to make the sale as friction-free as we can. But until we can find an online ordering platform that can overcome the problems of the heavy shopping traffic in the early hours when the sale launches, some of these problems are unfortunately common. 

  • You will know that your order has been confirmed in two ways: receiving an email and seeing a message on your screen as soon as you finalize your order.

    When your check-out is successful, your checkout screen will display a message similar to this (with your specific order number and order status):

    #06869 (Pending fulfillment)

    If you don’t see an email or a message like that, it could mean any of the following:

    1. You did not successfully submit your order. Did you definitely finalize the check-out process? Please go back to be sure (1) that your shopping cart is empty; (2) your checkout screen confirms your order; and (3) you have an order confirmation in your email inbox.

    2. Your order confirmation is not in your primary inbox.  If you don’t see an email confirmation, check your spam/junk, “updates,” “promotions” or similar other folder/tab/lesser inbox in your system.

    3. You used an autopay system with outdated info. Be sure to check what info you have associated with your autopay; we find that customers run into problems when their autopay setup uses an email account they no longer use, or an account that they rarely check. Please be sure that we have the best email address for you (we will never share it or spam you!) as we will send all confirmations and pick-up instructions to that email address.

    4. You made a typo when you shared your email address. This is a common problem! Just contact us and we’ll forward your order on to you.

    If none of these seems true, contact us right away so we can search on our end for your order.

  • You will pick up your plants during the time slot you chose during checkout. The week before the pickup weekend, you will receive an email reminder with instructions and directions to our nursery located in West Olympia, which is near South Puget Sound Community College.

    If you haven’t received the email by the Thursday before the pickup weekend, and it’s not in a spam folder, please reach out to us at nativeplantsalvage@gmail.com!

    NOTE: If you use an autofill payment service such as Apple Pay, Google Wallet, etc. please check that your contact information within those apps is up to date. They may have filled in an old email or phone number. If so, please update us.

  • Each pickup slot will be in 15-minute increments.
    Friday evening pickups begins at 4 PM and ends at 6:15 PM.
    Saturday pickup begins at 10am and ends at 12:30 PM.
    Sunday pickup begins at 2:00 PM and ends at 3:15 PM.

    Before finalizing your order, take a look at the checkout page and consider the timeslot(s) that will work best for you. This will save everyone time later in rescheduling.

    If you are unavailable during any of the given slots, simply click the option that says you need to choose a different pick-up date. We will be in touch with you after the regularly scheduled pickups.

    If you place more than one order, please choose the option, "I've already ordered once; please bundle this order with my previous order(s)."

  • Unfortunately, no. This sale is pick-up only.

  • We ask that you stick to your allotted pick-up slot as much as possible! There is no need to arrive early. We have created the 15-minute slots to account for check-in, loading, and any last-minute questions you may have! We have less space in our lot than usual this year and have to get creative with creating a safe and cohesive flow of traffic. Too many cars trying to navigate the nursery can pose safety issues for everyone. If you cannot make your original time slot, please email us as soon as possible.

    1. Know the plants you want (and have alternative choices at the ready) is a great way to set yourself up for success for the sale. Check out our resources page or our sortable plant table if you’re having trouble figuring out what plants will be best for your project!

      We try to release an inventory list a few days before the sale launches so that folks can prepare their “wish list” to have on hand when the sale goes live.

    2. Do you use Apple Pay or another auto-fill payment system? Double check that your phone number and email are up to date in that system. If your payment auto-fills at checkout, it may override other manual entries, and you may not receive important communications regarding your order and pickup.

    3. Plan in advance for pickup. The Spring Sale pickups occur the first weekend in May; the Fall Sale pickups occur during the first weekend in October, both starting on Friday evening. While we can offer some alternative appointment times, keeping your schedule open during some part of the designated pickup weekend will ensure you get your plants as fast as possible.

    4. Read through the rest of the FAQs, especially if this is your first time shopping with us. The sale can be admittedly overwhelming due to speed at which items fly out stock during the first few hours, the number of choices, the filter system, and the language we use to describe certain plants. We recommend reading through the rest of these FAQs and reaching out to us prior to the sale’s launch if you have a question that wasn’t answered.

    5. Prepare your vehicle for pickup. You will want a tarp, boxes, and/or straps to help secure your plants in your car so that they do not move around or fall over as you drive home. You may need another tarp for your backseat if you have very tall plants that need to be laid across rather than stay upright.

      Some folks with large orders rent or borrow a pickup truck for a couple of hours during their pickup day.

    6. Confirm you have the correct address. We provide you with the address for pickup in your confirmation email. Do not look us up on a map, it will take you to our office, not our sale location.

      The sale location is not a public space and is only accessible during certain events such as the plant sale. This is why it is not listed on the map.

      If the link we provided you takes you to Carpenter Rd, you have the incorrect address and should contact us immediately.

  • We post a plant list a few days in advance of the sale’s launch. We try to get the list released a full week before the sale, but we are constantly adding and removing plants as we get closer to launch, so we recommend continuing to check the list even after we post it. We appreciate your patience and understanding!

  • The short answer is as early as possible! We might be able to help source certain plants and have a limited ability to assist with fully custom orders. See the answer for “Can I order plans outside of your spring and fall plant sale?” below!

    If there’s currently a sale in progress, go ahead and check out with what you do want from the online offerings, then reach out to us by email to see if we have something specific available or can locate it for you in the region. We’d love to support you having great native and waterwise plants filling your dream landscape!

  • We’d like to support you in your native and water-wise planting goals, so please reach out to us -- sometimes we can offer you plants we’re currently growing or propagating from salvages, or source plants for you outside of our sale seasons.

    We know that zone 1 rain garden and hedgerow plants can be hard to find; we are actively growing those plants to support those important ecological practices.

Navigating the Sale Website

  • The sale will be linked to our home page with the rest of the navigation titles.

  • Our filters will help you narrow your search depending on the type of plant you’re seeking and, in some cases, its sun/shade tolerance.

    • Each filter dropdown menu uses “OR” logic — choosing both Full Sun and Part Sun means the selection of plants you see will be suited to either full sun or part sun. If you have values selected in two or more filter dropdown menus, “AND” logic applies between them — choosing Full Sun and Part Sun as well as Pink and Purple means the selection of plants you see will be suited to either full sun or part sun AND must be pink OR purple. Both light requirements show up, and both colors, but each plant must satisfy one of the values in each dropdown.

    • Most woody plants will be in the “trees/shrubs” category, but some very low-growing woody plants may also be in “subshrubs.” Also, in the “subshrubs” category will be semi-woody perennial herbs, such as Teucrium (germander) and Hyssopus (true hyssops).

    • Although the ornamental grasses are also “perennials,” we give them their own category, along with grass-like plants such as rushes, sedges, bulrushes, and even lilies that look like grasses. You’ll have to read their cultural requirements carefully to be sure you are siting them appropriately.

    • “Vines and ferns” have their own place in the landscape, so we’ve made it easy to find those.

    • Rain gardens are a popular tool to take charge of your drainage and to be part of the solution to our polluted stormwater problem. The plants at the bottom (Zone 1) must be both drought tolerant and tolerant of some standing water in winter; thus, we call out these plants specifically.

    • If you have a bog, pond or a year-round saturated area, you might find interesting native species in the “pond/bog” category. (These are some of the few plants offered that are decidedly not drought tolerant.)

    • If you want to segregate those plants most resilient to deer, great for pollinators/beneficial insects, or evergreen, you can segregate just for those features across all types of plants using the “Other Qualities” filter.

  • No. Because of a technical limitation, adding an item to your cart does not hold the item for you, so try not to leave your cart in limbo for extended periods or you may return to find that some of your items have been sold to others. If you do try to check out and an item is no longer available, see if there are other sizes before moving on!

    If you have something in your cart that is sold out by the time you try to checkout, you may get an error message.

  • We’re occasionally able to add more stock as the sale progresses. We sometimes hold stock back, and we can decide to release it if there is great demand, or we can sometimes order more stock of a plant during the sale. Adding yourself to the waitlist enables an automatic email that will notify you if a sold-out product is back in stock.

  • Send us an email right away via nativeplantsalvage@gmail.com and let us know that you need help. Please leave a description of the issue you are having and attach a screen grab of any error messages that may pop up. Please provide a phone number in your message for faster help or in case the issue is too complicated for us to understand/resolve via email.

Definitions

  • “Native” plants: Strictly speaking, a native plant is one that has been part of one of our local ecosystems and has co-evolved with native wildlife for thousands of years, and we generally refer to plants that were growing here prior to colonization by Europeans. In our sale, we also stretch a little bit to include regional native species — that is, allowing for a little south or east of our county, or native to a higher elevation, but still well adapted to our lowland Salish Sea region. Almost all the plants found in this category will also be “waterwise,” with the exception of those noted for bogs and ponds, which definitely need year-round moisture!

    “Waterwise” plants: Those plants categorized as “waterwise” have many of the benefits of native species, but are not indigenous to our region, and they are particularly called out as beneficial to local water resources: they are drought-tolerant, so don’t require supplemental irrigation once established; they don’t require supplemental chemical inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides, so they don’t harm local waterways and groundwater aquifers; and they can be planted as part of a diverse, multi-layered landscape that slows down stormwater and prevents runoff. This category includes the cultivars of native plants, such as the dwarf form of the Tall Oregon-grape (Mahonia aquifolium ‘Compacta’). We don’t consider cultivars to be strictly indigenous, though sometimes there are naturally occurring hybrids found in nature.

  • “Restoration Grade” plants: This refers to some of the native plants that may seem small in the pot but will become mighty in the ground! Despite us providing TLC — sometimes for years, as we rear plants from seeds, cuttings, or small salvage specimens — we find that many species do not flourish in the pots: they are eager to escape the bounds of their plastic prison and run free in your landscape!

    Additionally, our sale times do not always correspond with the ideal time for all species to be at their best. In early May, some native perennials are just starting to peek out of the pots, so you’ll have a robust plant, it just will not be fully showing yet. Conversely, during our fall sale, native spring ephemerals like Trilliums are completely missing! You’ll have a beautiful plant in your pot, but you won’t be able to enjoy it until the following spring.

About our Plants & Follow-up Care

  • Our plants come from a variety of sources:

    1. Our number-one source is the hard work and years of dedicated love and nurturing provided by our volunteers and staff! We coordinate with local developers to seek permission to rescue some plants before the bulldozers arrive. We also do a lot of propagation of plants, both from seeds and cuttings. All of these “home-grown” sources take years of labor and materials to bring native plants from source to your shopping cart! For instance, one small huckleberry may be in our care for 3-5 years before it’s ready for our customers.

    2. Further development of bareroot stock, plugs, and bulbs. We also seek out interesting native and regionally native species available from wholesale specialty nurseries throughout our region. Buying these plant parts in bulk allows us to bring consistent plant material to our customers, and test out its hardiness for our local conditions (some of these regional native species end up failing for us, so we know not to share them).

    3. Regional wholesale nurseries. We have relationships with Thurston County nurseries as well as large suppliers from northern Washington to southern Oregon. We track new varieties, hard-to-find specialty plants, and tried-and-true native and water-wise species that thrive in our local conditions. When we find plants we think our customers will like, or that we want to trial first in local sustainable landscaping projects, we do our best to bring them to our nursery, and ultimately to you. We work with nurseries that do not use neonicotinoid pesticides, and we do our best to buy stock that has been grown organically — mirroring the practices of our own nursery.

    4. Donations. We accept a limited number of donations from divisions from reliable sources (mostly our own volunteers or local non-profit organizations known to use organic practices and maintain weed-free sites). We then nurture those new plants, bulbs, or cuttings until they are ready for their new life making habitat and protecting water resources out in our local community!

  • Potted plants grow in containers that range from very small to very large. Here is why we offer plants throughout this range of sizes:

    1. “Good things come in small packages!” This is our motto wherever possible, especially when it comes to herbaceous perennial plants, which tend to grow fast. We like to offer as many 4-inch and quart-sized perennials as we can, because the price is much more affordable than a large plant, and the small plant you purchase will grow faster in your landscape than in a pot. (And with prices escalating in recent years, especially for “fancy” plants like Hellebores and Epimediums, we really try to go small and less expensive when we can.)

    Contrast that principle with:

    1. “I don’t have time to wait!” When it comes to plants that will ultimately be large in your landscape, we try to offer larger sizes from the start if we can. We all love “instant landscape” if we can afford it! But we err on the side of a reasonable “large” size, as again, the bigger the plant, the more we’ve invested (and you will have to pay) and also the more water it will require for you to get it established. Especially with both slow-growing plants (e.g., native huckleberries, some native deciduous trees and shrubs), and screening or hedgerow plants (e.g., broad-leaved native and water-wise evergreens in the 6-10 ft. range), if we can offer you a 3-5-gal plant, we will do so. Some of the trees/shrubs we offer in 5-gal to 20-gal pots would cost hundreds of dollars in regular retail nurseries.

  • Some of the native plants we sell may seem small in the pot, but will become mighty in the ground! Despite us providing TLC — sometimes for years as we rear plants from seeds, cuttings, or small salvage specimens — we find that many species do not flourish in the pots: they are eager to escape the bounds of their plastic prison and run free in your landscape!

    Additionally, our sale times do not always correspond with the ideal time for all species to be at their best. In early May, some native perennials are just starting to peek out of the pots, so you’ll have a robust plant, it just will not be fully showing yet. Conversely, during our fall sale, native spring ephemerals like Trilliums are completely missing! You’ll have a beautiful plant in your pot, but you won’t be able to enjoy it until the following spring.

  • Fall Planting

    Fall is an ideal time to plant all types of plants! Think about bulbs: we plant in fall to give them time to develop roots for a long healthy life. This is also true for our trees, shrubs and perennials.

    Here are some basic Do’s and Don’ts when planting. For more general information, please navigate to our Fall Planting page.

    Do

    • Plant newly purchased plants right away if you can! The sooner you get them in the ground, the faster they can make new roots for next spring and summer and be safe from winter freezes.

    • Ensure that both the new plant and the planting hole is moist.

    • Massage the roots to open them up so that the healthy roots make direct contact with the soil.

    • Dig broad holes with roughened sides and cultivate to loosen the soil to aid root penetration.

    • After planting, make a small dam/watering well outside the perimeter of the plant to slow and focus water, ensuring it penetrates the roots.

    • Apply a coarse woody mulch and ensure the trunks and/or stems are not buried.

    • Err on the side of planting a little above the ground level; this allows room for mulch application and ensures that as the plant settles into the soil it won’t be too deeply planted (which leads to waterlogged roots).

    • Stake, but only if necessary to stabilize the roots, and only for the first year.

    • Gently water in.

    • Monitor the root ball for the first few weeks to ensure it does not dry out. Even if it has rained, the moisture does not necessarily get to the root ball.

    Don’t:

    • ⊘ Do not prune top growth, except for broken or dead branches or clearly spent flower parts. Top pruning at planting encourages the plant to put energy into top growth instead of root development and cutting off green parts of perennials before they’ve gone dormant eliminates an energy source the plant is still using.

    • ⊘ Do not plant too deeply. Plant up to 1 inch above the planting hole, and then mulch to the edge of the roots.

    • ⊘ Do not amend the soil directly in the hole! Use only coarse woody mulch on the top of the soil surface.

    Winter Protection

    If you cannot plant your newly purchased plants until spring, there are ways to protect them. Even hardy plants will not tolerate frozen roots: they must be protected from freezes, heavy winds and other winter hazards.

    A few things you can do to protect your potted plants:

    • Place the containers in a protected location, where they’ll stay warmer and out of the wind.

    • Ensure that the roots do not dry out.

    • If a cold snap is expected, cover the containers with leaves, straw, burlap, old bedsheets or lightweight blankets.

    • If you have a lot of small pots (especially 4-in., quarts, and 1-gal), make a winter storage bed by using an old kiddy pool (shop used!) to arrange your pots, then be sure they are well insulated with woodchip mulch or other bulky organic matter (or burlap) that can insulate the interstitial spaces between plants. Punch a few holes in the bottom so it doesn’t hold winter rains.

    Resources for more detailed information

    Fall Planting (Native Plant Salvage Foundation)

    Winterizing Your Yard (wsu.edu)

    Preparing Perennials for Winter (wsu.edu)

  • Yes, we’ll have a pot donation day a little while after each of our sales.

    Otherwise, we will accept pots, though we need to connect with the donor in advance to plan to meet them at our nursery (which is not open to the public) and to share what pots we can actually use (if you have others not from our sale). Please select “plant pot donations” in our contact form here, and someone will get back to you about a date and time to meet at our holding beds.

    Dropping pots off when picking up plants from the sale can also work if you give us some advanced notice.

    Generally, we accept 4" pots, quarts, and ideally 2-gallon and up, though we will accept 1-gallon if they are hard-sided pots (preferring hard-sided overall, but sometimes willing to take soft-sided #2/3 if they are in good shape).

    Thank you for thinking of us!

Getting Involved / Learning More

  • You read our minds! The sale would not be possible without the huge force of volunteers that help every fall and spring. Check our plant sale page or our calendar to find our plant sale volunteer form.

  • Visit our Resources page for a whole lot of great info! You can also visit our Naturescaping page to enroll in our self paced "Naturescaping for Water & Wildlife" online course with over seven hours of content. If you cannot afford to purchase this $35 course, please reach out to us about a scholarship.

  • Absolutely! Check out our free online course and other resources by clicking here.