Everywhere I've lived I've been fortunate enough to live in a county who - whether highly promoted or not - has brilliant native plant sales, offering an annual opportunity to obtain bare-root native plants, shrubs and trees, which here in the Pacific Northwest include everything from mock orange to flowering currant to columbines to rhododendron to coastal strawberry and so much more...for a MASSIVELY discounted rate. Most kick off in the fall or early winter, where you do your orders online then pick them up in the spring at a designated location. It's super fun and a great way to get your garden going, or fill in blank spots, with plants that are actually meant to live in your neck of the woods! This means they're going to be more drought (or water) tolerant, easier to grow, and less to maintain. It's pretty awesome...
If you're not familiar with these, here's the deal: Many of these sales are put on by your county's Conservation District, so do an online search for " (your county) Native Plant Sale" and you might be surprised at how many are in your region! I've shopped them in Portland, in my small Oregon Coast county, and now here in Seattle. Each one operates a little differently - here in King County, most items you have to buy in bulk (i.e., my Pacific Rhododendron, pictured above, came in a pack of 5 - perfect to create a future hedge), but in Multnomah and Clatsop Counties, I could pick and choose how many I wanted of each. Either way, it's a great way to get started down the road of native plants, gardening for the climate you live in...and finding a new excuse each year to keep adding to the garden!
"Native plants give us a sense of where we are in this great land of ours. I want Texas to look like Texas and Vermont to look like Vermont." ~ Lady Bird Johnson