Celebrating 25 Years of Our Native Plant Sale

On April 19, 1997, the 1st Annual Native Plant Sale was held in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.  Noted botanist and author Dr. Floyd Swink of the Morton Arboretum presented “Spring Woodland Flowers” at the Dorothy Buell Memorial Visitor Center, then located at US Route 12 and Kemil Road.  The plant sale was held in the parking lot under a huge canopy and Mother Nature even added snow flurries.  Thirty-one species were offered for sale with all being sold as either seeds, bulbs, or root stock; there were no potted plants.

The second year the Native Plant Sale was moved to the Indiana Dunes State Park Pavilion, taking over most of the second floor.  Customers would submit a filled-out order form and a Friends volunteer would then collect your requested plants and meet you at the check-out station.  No cash registers.  Every subsequent year saw changes and improvements, such as cash registers and credit card machines, the ability to pre-order your native plants, and eventually the opportunity to open shop and pick your own plants. 

For our 4th Annual Native Plant Sale, Dr. Swink returned to present a slide show on “Summer Wildflowers of the Indiana Dunes”.  This was one of Dr. Swink’s last public presentations as he passed away 4 months later.  The Friends still use “Plants of the Chicago Region” authored by Drs. Swink and Wilhelm as our guide to what plant species are native to our three counties – Lake, Porter and LaPorte.

In 2003, the Friends began to offer native trees and shrubs.  We chose Possibility Place Nursery in Monee, IL as our supplier due to their innovative technique for growing trees and shrubs in above ground root bags.  Their trees/shrubs would maintain all their root system, transplant easily, and quickly thrive.  Today all our plant stock is supplied by Possibility Place Nursery.

In 2015, due to rehabbing of the Pavilion, the Native Plant Sale location was moved to the Indiana Dunes National Park Visitor Center now within the Indiana Dunes Tourism building.  Our day of sale space was a little smaller but by this time over 50% of our available plant stock had been sold as pre-orders which were retrieved from the loading dock area of the building. 

2020 was a rough year for the Friends’ Native Plant Sale.  We were well into the pre-sale order period when the Covid restrictions were put in place.  The date of the sale was delayed three weeks in hopes of still having a face-to-face event, which was inevitably cancelled.  The pickup location was changed to the Friends’ house as all government buildings were closed.

This year (2021) the 25th Annual Native Plant Sale will again be Covid safe and Order Only.  Deadline for submitting a completed order form is April 10.  All orders will be scheduled for curbside pickup at the Friends house on the morning of Saturday, April 24th.