Pollinator Rare Plants is a Certified Naturally Grown nursery specializing in rare, endangered and extinct plants from Southern Appalachia and around the world.
The goal of Pollinator Rare Plants is to increase the availability of garden-worthy, easy-to-grow plants that have been neglected by mainstream horticulture. After decades searching specialty catalogs, seed exchanges and my own backyard for some of the most rare and exquisite plants in the world, I’ve built up my personal collections enough to be able to share some of my favorites.
Gardening is important for the preservation of genetics of plants, for encouraging biodiversity, and for the general well-being of humans – how many people gave a pet name to the first houseplant they got during the pandemic? But wild biodiversity faces threats from development, and within the nursery world many historic cultivars are being lost. Over half of plants bought now are purchased in big box stores, many of which are genetically-identical clones grown by the millions in laboratories.
In the United States, upcoming generations of people have significantly less access to space, soil and sunlight than those before us. By focusing on seed-grown plants, local ecotypes, and plants ranging from microscopic to gargantuan for a wide variety of indoor and outdoor conditions, we hope to preserve plant genetics while making gardening accessible for everyone.
Collections
- Cove & Glade – Rare or endangered wildflowers from Virginia and surrounding states
- Cosine Alpines – Tough, tiny plants for low-maintenance outdoor container gardens
- Quixotics – Hardy tropical and subtropical plants sure to get the neighbors talking
- Esotericaceae – Hard-to-find temperate perennials for the dedicated plant nerd
- Perennially Abundant Vegetables – Effortless homegrown food, year after year
Our Growing Practices
The first Certified Naturally Grown rare plant nursery, our plants are grown without synthetic pesticides, herbicides, fungicides or fertilizers – our milkweeds are ready for your monarchs! To increase sustainability and bolster our plants’ resilience, we grow with the absolute minimum amount of added heat and humidity. We’re proud of our growing practices and welcome any questions you might have.
All plants are grown in a certified organic peat-free potting mix, and our manufacturer is working on eliminating perlite from their formula to create a 100% renewable growth medium.
Our pots are durable polyethylene Anderson band pots and will be washed and reused if returned to us. Each pot is labeled with a permanent, embossed aluminum tag that should be good for the life of the plant; some tags are attached to the pot with solid brass paper fasteners to avoid mixups on similar-looking plants. We recommend anchoring tags to the ground with heavy-gauge aluminum or stainless wire or nails as corvids and raccoons seem to love them too.
Plants are nursery-propagated from seed where possible, and we’re striving for all of our native plants to be from local ecotypes rather than commercial stock.