What a great couple of days we had for an outdoor sale! Our Fall 2025 Native Plant Sale back in early October was wonderfully attended on two of the most gorgeous, pleasant days of the year to date. Hundreds of native plants went home with happy customers who will give their plants the advantage of a good start in relatively warm soil, with most of the rainy season still ahead. By next summer, these fall plantings will be well-established and will not need the very close monitoring that a late-spring planting needs.
Heartfelt thanks to our many volunteers in the nursery, in advertising, and on the ground during the week of the sale when it all came together! It simply could not have happened without you. With Thanksgiving coming up, I will be thankful for all of you this year!
Photo taken by MaryAnn McCrary.
As our members already know, our fall sale will continue online through November 18. Orders placed at our online store (https://cnps-shasta.square.site) will be placed on our pick-up table (near the Horticulture Department office in building 4500 on the Shasta College campus) by noon on the next Wednesday or Friday immediately following the date of the purchase.
An exciting addition to our offerings this fall is our packaged seed collection. Late fall is prime time to sow native seeds. Our seed selection can be found on page 2 in the online catalog and includes an annual sunflower called common madia (Madia elegans; featured on the fall sale poster), showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa), evening-primrose (Oenothera elata), California goldenrod (Solidago velutina ssp. californica), wavy-leaved soap-plant (Chlorogalum pomeridianum), and blue-eyed-grass (Sisyrinchium bellum). These are all very good plants for pollinators.
It has been a pleasure to offer diverse native species suitable to thrive in our North State growing conditions. As you may already know, proceeds from our native plant sales support scholarships for plant biology students, and internships for horticulture and natural resource studies students at Shasta College. In addition, plant sales fund Shasta Chapter’s Acorn and Oak Tree grants, which help establish native plant gardens at schools, churches, and other community organizations.
Thank you for planting native plants and helping sustain our local ecosystem! ~Nursery Manager, MaryAnn McCrary