Promoting Native Perennial Plants for 29 years
All our plants propagated in Frenchtown, NJ

Toadshade is primarily a mail order nursery,
and the farm itself is not open to the public.

• Our Story
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• About Our Plants
• Recently Added Plants
• Blog
• Paperless Catalogue
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• How to Order
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• Garden with Wildflowers
• Seed Propagation
• Plant a Plant
• How to Create a Meadow

• About Milkweeds
• About Asters
• About Goldenrods
• About Penstemons
• About Violets
• About Yellow Violets
• About Cultivars

• Plants for Bees
• Other Sites
• Native Groundcovers
• References

When buying wildflowers, make sure they are propagated, not removed from the wild! If you have any doubt, ask! Some plant species have been driven to extinction in the wild due to the collection of wild plants!

Plant shipments have started!

Spring is a great time to get perennial plants established. To help you see what plants and seeds are available, we continuously update the online catalog. Hats, of course, ship out all year long.

Upcoming Events

We look forward to visiting with you at the many events planned for this spring.

On Saturday, April 11, 10:00 am to 2:00 pm: Toadshade will be selling plants and seeds at the Lambertville Green Fair at the South Hunterdon Regional Elementary School (formerly LPS) all-purpose room (200 North Main Street, Lambertville, NJ 08530). The Green Fair is free and open to the public, and pre-orders are welcome!

On Saturday, April 18, 8:30 am to 1:00 pm: Toadshade will be selling plants and seeds at the FoHVOS (Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space) Community Conservation Conference at Hopewell Valley Central High School (259 Pennington-Titusville Rd, Pennington, NJ 08534). For more information and to r egister for the conference, visit https://www.fohvos.info/event/cc-conference/. Toadshade pre-orders are welcome!

On Saturday, April 25, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm: Toadshade will be selling plants and seeds at the 3rd Annual Passaic County Earth Day Festival at Rifle Camp Park (387 Rifle Camp Rd, Woodland Park, NJ 07424). The Earth Day Festival is free and open to the public, and pre-orders are welcome! (Rain date is April 26th).

On Sunday April 26, 11:00 am to 5:00 pm: Toadshade will be selling plants and seeds at the 14th Annual Wild Earth Fest at the Watchung Reservation Loop ((Watchung Reservation Loop & Picnic area, W R Tracey Drive, Mountainside, NJ 07092). The Wild Earth Fest is free and open to the public, and pre-orders are welcome! (Event is rain or shine)

On Saturday, May 2nd, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm: Toadshade will be selling plants and seeds at the NJBA (New Jersey Beekeepers Association) Spring State Meeting at Morris County College (214 Center Grove Rd, Randolph, NJ 07869). For more information and to register for the conference, visit https://njba38.wildapricot.org/events. Toadshade pre-orders are welcome!

On Sunday, May 3rd, 9:00 am to 1:00 pm: Toadshade will once again be back selling plants and seeds at the Hunterdon Community Farmers Market at the Hunterdon Land Trust Headquarters property, the old Dvoor Farm on the Route 12 Circle in Flemington, NJ (111 Mine Street, Flemington NJ 08822). We’ll be there every Sunday through May and June (September, too!) and pre-orders are welcome!

On Saturday, May 16th, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm: Toadshade will be back selling plants and seeds at the Glen Ridge Art & Eco Fair (you’ll find us near the intersection of Ridgewood and Woodland Ave, Glen Ridge, NJ 07424). The Glen Ridge Art & Eco Fair is free and open to the public, and pre-orders are welcome! (Rain date is May 17th).

On Sunday, May 31st, 9:00 am to 2:00 pm: Toadshade will be selling plants and seeds at the Manalapan NatureFest and Native Plant Sale at the Eco Patio at the Manalapan Recreation Center (120 Freehold Rd [Route 522] Manalapan, NJ 07726). The Manalapan NatureFest and Native Plant Sale is free and open to the public, and pre-orders are welcome!

On Thursday evening, June 11th, 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm: Toadshade will be selling plants and seeds at the Union County Swap & Shop (at the Scout Camping Area of Watchung Reservation, 452 New Providence Rd, Mountainside, NJ 07092). The 'Shop' part of this event (that’s us) is free and open to the public. To participate in the ‘Swap’ part, you must register with Union County. We will post a registration link for that as soon as it is available. And yes, Toadshade pre-orders are welcome!

On Saturday, June 13th, Toadshade will be selling plants and seeds at the Lambertville Goes Wild Native Plant Sale (Lambertville, NJ 08530) - more details soon, but this event is always free and open the public, and – as always – pre-orders are welcome!

Plant shipments have started!

Spring is a great time to get perennial plants established. To help you see what plants and seeds are available, we continuously update the online catalog. Hats, of course, ship out all year long.

Going Paperless

Would you like to go paperless but still like paging through a traditional catalogue? Here is a link to a digital copy of our 2025 catalogue.

Even More Plants Added!

Check Out the Plants Added Back to the Web Site

Need a Toadshade Hat?

We originally had only intended these hats to make us more identifiable at events, but we were asked enough times if our hats were for sale that we finally caved, and for the first time we're offering Toadshade Wildflower Farm baseball caps. Since we've had ours for years, you can consider these hats very thoroughly field-tested; working outside as we do, we are not especially kind to hats here at Toadshade, but these hold up well, and don't easily fade. They make good gifts, and they keep the sun off your face (your dermatologist will thank you). They're soft and comfortable, a nice sage green color, and although they only come in one size, they're quite adjustable.

You would not believe how deer-resistant these things are.

Don't see what you're looking for on our online catalogue? Check back soon! We frequently make changes over the course of the season as more species become available. And if in doubt, ask! We'd love to hear from you!

Toadshade is primarily a mail order nursery, and the farm itself is not open to the public. We have, however, partnered with our wonderful local hardware store (Frenchtown Home & Hardware), which is a ‘pick-up’ point for orders, allowing order pickup 7 days a week in beautiful downtown Frenchtown . Any pickup order costing more than $50 must be pre-paid, but pickup is always free! If you would like to pick up your order rather than having it sent by mail, please simply let us know (with 24 hour notice, M-F), and you will be able to pick up your order at the hardware store’s address (Frenchtown Home & Hardware, 11 Kingwood Ave, Frenchtown, NJ 08825) after receiving pickup details and confirmation from us by phone or email.

Has your group considered a Lecture, Seminar, and Workshop? Randi is an accomplished lecturer and popular public speaker. If you would like her to come share her knowledge with your local group, be they a garden club, a university class, master gardeners, etc. let us know.

Check out our Educational Resources

Listen to her discuss native plants, how she got into growing them, some of her favorite parts of being a naturalist, and ways to make an ecological difference in an episode of Backyard Ecology with host Shannon Trimboli

Listen to her speak about Native Plant Societies with Jeff Nelson from the Kentucky Native Plant Society, Ellen Honeycutt from the Georgia Native Plant Society and of course, host Shannon Trimboli in another episode of Backyard Ecology

Or tune in to the Native Plant Society of New Jersey’s new podcast, The WildStory: A Podcast of Poetry and Plants (Randi’s not featured in this one, but she does speak in the central blurb, discussing the Native Plant Society of New Jersey!).

Randi was also interviewed for the Washington Post this year, talking about how to best help your local wildlife in your garden outside of the growing season.

And, for those of you who have always wanted to attend one of Randi’s lectures but haven’t been able to make it, you can now view a recorded version of her presentation Native Groundcovers: Sustainable, Living Mulch” on YouTube, courtesy of the Native Plant Society of New Jersey.

Don't forget to subscribe to our series of educational blogs.

Let us know if you would like a copy of our printed catalogue or sign up for our blog.

Our plant descriptions let you know how difficult each species is to start and we have a helpful guide that describe the various techniques that you can use to start native perennial seeds.

There is always music amongst the trees in the garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it.

Minnie Aumonier

All artwork on the Toadshade Wildflower Farm web site, including drawings and photographs is original © 1996-2025 Randi Eckel. To obtain permission to reproduce this artwork, contact Randi.