Getting Started — Links & Tools
- Homegrown National Park - Doug Tallamy and Michelle Alfandari’s movement to turn private yards into a distributed “national park.” Its Ecoregion Finder gives you your EPA ecoregion and a keystone-plant list by ZIP code, and the Biodiversity Map lets you register your own plantings alongside ~50,000 other participants. Their “10 Things to Get You Started” page is a good first stop for anyone new to this.
- National Wildlife Federation Native Plant Finder - enter a ZIP code to get a list of native plants ranked by how many butterfly/moth species they support, built on Tallamy’s research. Good complement to the Homegrown National Park tool.
- Xerces Society Pollinator Conservation Resource Center - region-specific native plant lists, habitat establishment guides, and local seed vendor lists for pollinator habitat. Their Pollinator-Friendly Plant Lists are useful for choosing plants for bees, butterflies, and moths specifically.
- Tennessee Invasive Plant Council (TNIPC) - the go-to for identifying invasive plants before you start removing/replacing anything. Their Landscaping page has an “Invasive Plant Primer for the Home Landscape” walking homeowners through ID, control, and post-treatment native replanting. UT Extension’s companion publication, A Guide for the Identification and Management of Invasive Plant Species (W 1198), is a downloadable PDF field guide.
- UT Extension Soil, Plant and Pest Center - $15 homeowner soil tests (lawn/garden). Get a sample box from your county Extension office or use a zip-top bag; results come back by email in about a week. A sensible first step before planning any planting.
- Tennessee Native Plant Society (TNPS) - Nashville-based nonprofit (est. 1978) for Tennessee flora. Publishes field guides (Wildflowers of Tennessee, Guide to the Vascular Plants of Tennessee, etc.), maintains the Tennessee-Kentucky Plant Atlas, and runs field trips, talks, and plant sales/swaps which are a good way to meet other native-plant people in the state, not just a reference source.
Reading List
- Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard - Douglas W. Tallamy. The headliner. Tallamy’s argument that because most U.S. land is privately owned, public conservation land alone will never be enough - private yards, neighborhoods, and cities have to become a distributed “Homeland National Park.” Practical in the back half: which native “keystone” plants matter most, and how to do this without starting a fight with your HOA or neighbors.
- Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens - Douglas W. Tallamy. Tallamy’s earlier (2007) and foundational book, the one that introduced the core idea that most native insects can’t or won’t eat non-native plants, which is the ecological argument the rest of his work (and this movement) builds on. Read this for the “why,” Nature’s Best Hope for the “how.”
- The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees - Douglas W. Tallamy. A deep dive on one keystone genus, oaks, and everything from caterpillars to birds to soil health that depends on them. Useful if a property has (or could have) oaks and you want the case for keeping/planting them.
Native Plant Nurseries & Vendors — Middle Tennessee
- GroWild, Inc. - Fairview, TN (Williamson County). Retail & wholesale, 1,000+ species/cultivars of native perennials, wildflowers, trees, shrubs, ferns, vines, and grasses. Visits are by appointment only (Wed–Fri, call ahead).
- Wonder Gift & Garden - Kingston Springs, TN (1114 US-70). A native plant focused garden center that also includes an amazing assortment of nature-inspired, intentional gifts.
- Bates Nursery & Garden Center - Nashville, TN (3810 Whites Creek Pk.). General retail garden center with a dedicated TN/ Southeast native plants section (native shrubs, perennials, trees), plus an online shop with live inventory. Open daily. The easiest option on this list if you want a walk-in retail experience rather than an appointment-only specialty nursery.
- Gardens of Babylon - Nashville, TN (900 Rosa L Parks Blvd). A large garden center and landscape designer with a dedicated native plant section.
- Cheekwood Estate & Gardens - Native Plant Sale - Nashville, TN. Not a year-round vendor — an annual one-day sale hosted by the Garden Club of Nashville (19th annual sale held April 2026), featuring native plants, flowers, and shrubs, with garden experts on hand. Worth putting on a calendar rather than treating as a drop-in resource.
- Tennessee Native Plant Society - plant sales/swaps, not a nursery itself, but TNPS organizes sales and swaps (in addition to field trips and talks) that are good sources for locally sourced genotypes, not just nursery-grown cultivars.