Native Plants in Ontario, With Prices From 9 Sellers

A native plant is one that originated and grows naturally in this region, as the Toronto Master Gardeners define it. The City of Toronto's own list names 317 of them. The 15 common ones we checked all fit the GTA's hardiness zones, the map bands that show which plants survive the local winter. Buying them is the harder part in October. The big charity sales ran in May 2026, and none has posted a 2027 date. One butterfly milkweed cost $7 in a 4-inch pot at the May 9 sale of the North American Native Plant Society (NANPS). Sheridan Nurseries sells the same plant for $20.99 in the pot size it labels #1. Toronto groups can apply for a PollinateTO grant of up to $5,000 until October 21, 2026. And Toronto's 20 cm cutting rule covers lawn grass, not a planted native garden.

Which plants count as native in the GTA

Start with the City of Toronto's list. Its Native Plants, Trees & Shrubs tool reads from a public data file, and we counted it on September 28, 2026. Its tool shows 320 entries for 317 species, because three plants appear twice. This table counts the whole list by the conditions your yard really has. We counted the label on each plant card; the tool's filter buttons give slightly different totals.

Read it as a shopping filter. A shady yard still has 167 species to choose from. A strip beside a salted sidewalk has 131. "Caterpillar food" means the City's note names the plant as a larval host, a plant that butterfly or moth caterpillars must eat to grow.

All 15 plants we checked fit the whole GTA

A hardiness zone is a band on Natural Resources Canada's map that tells you which plants survive the local winter. On its 1991-2020 map, Toronto, Mississauga, Oakville and Burlington are 7a. Markham, Brampton, Vaughan, Pickering and Richmond Hill are 6b. Newmarket and Uxbridge are 6a, and Georgina is 5b.

We checked 15 common garden natives from the City's list against the agency's species maps. Every one's Canadian zone range takes in the whole GTA. A plug, in the table below, is a young plant grown in a small cell rather than a pot.

Check the label before you buy. A nativar is a named variety selected from a native species, written with its name in quotes. The Toronto Botanical Garden's 2026 sale list, for example, kept 64 native species in their wild form on one tab. It put swamp milkweed 'Soulmate' on a separate nativar tab. The Halton Region Master Gardeners advise that you "use the botanical (scientific) name so that you can be sure you are getting the species you want."

Where to buy native plants in the GTA

We checked 14 nurseries, sales and giveaways serving the GTA, each on its own page, on September 28, 2026. Thirteen sell or give away plants or seed, and nine publish a price. The fourteenth, the High Park Stewards' sale, now says plainly: "No High Park Native Plant Sales."

What's open in October

Most of the calendar is spring. The NANPS sale, the Toronto Botanical Garden's sale, Oakvillegreen's pickup and Blooming Boulevards' spring sale all fell in May 2026. Ontario Native Plants, an online grower, stays closed until February 27, 2027.

That leaves the shops. The Toronto Plant Market posts hours of 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday to Friday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at weekends. Claremont opens Thursday to Sunday. Sheridan sells its native collection online and in store. Phone ahead before you drive. The Halton Region Master Gardeners' list says many native nurseries "have limited hours, or are open by appointment only."

Seed is the other October route. Swallowtail Native Plants sells common milkweed seed at $6.00 for a packet of 150. Its seed guide says late November to early January "is the best time of year to sow seeds directly on the ground for most native plant species." Many native seeds need a cold, damp winter before they sprout, and sowing outdoors lets winter do that for you.

What native plants cost

Every price below is the seller's own, as printed on September 28, 2026. Pot sizes differ, so compare like with like.

Tax is not handled the same way everywhere. Richmond Hill, Claremont's kit, the Toronto Plant Market, Sheridan and LEAF price before tax. Blooming Boulevards, NANPS, Ontario Native Plants, Swallowtail and Claremont's boxes don't say, so read those as printed.

What each plant works out to

A kit or a tray lowers the price of each plant. We divided each published price by the number of plants it buys. The table is sorted on the unrounded result.

The cheapest plant here is Richmond Hill's kit, at $1.73 each, but only residents could buy it and the 2026 sale is over. Open to anyone now, the Toronto Plant Market's plugs work out to $3.33 each before tax, unless a plant is marked otherwise. Its stock list dated September 10, 2026 marked 40 of 53 plug species in stock, including wild bergamot and black-eyed Susan but none of its three milkweeds, so check before you go. Ontario Native Plants grows its plugs in cells 2.5 inches wide and 5 inches deep, then prunes them and puts them in 2.5 by 2.5 by 3.5-inch plastic pots for shipping.

Three terms matter once you order more than a few plants. Claremont's own truck delivers in Peel, York, Toronto and Durham only for orders over $700 before taxes. The fee runs from $80 plus HST in Durham Region to $115 plus HST in Peel. Its FedEx boxes, by contrast, go anywhere in Ontario with shipping included, though some premium plants add to the box price. Ontario Native Plants offers a "48-hour replacement or refund policy for any severely damaged or dead product," and it wants a photo of the plants. And a LEAF Full Service order of shrubs with no tree still pays the $100 plus HST site visit on top of the shrubs.

Grants and programs

Toronto's PollinateTO grant is the biggest program here. It pays up to $5,000 for a project that creates or expands a pollinator garden the public can see. Applications opened September 9, 2026 and close October 21, 2026.

Three conditions decide whether it fits you. First, you can't apply alone. A group needs at least three Toronto residents from separate households, or you apply as a charity or non-profit. Second, a backyard garden and a single front yard don't qualify. Three or more front yards on the same street or in the same neighbourhood do, and the City calls that a "pollinator pathway." Third, the planting has a recipe. Every funded plant must be native, and the mix needs at least one goldenrod. It needs at least two caterpillar food plants, one of them a milkweed. And it needs at least two species blooming in each of spring, summer and fall.

A boulevard garden, on the strip between the road and the sidewalk, adds two limits. Plants must stay under 70 cm when grown, and the City asks for salt-tolerant species. By our count of the City's data, 21 of its 317 species meet both. The City also warns that boulevard plantings "could be removed at any time in the future by the City or third party without compensation or replacements." Each garden must also be within 30 m of a reliable water source. Successful groups hear in February 2027 and plant from spring 2027. Before digging, they must ask Ontario One Call to find any buried pipes and cables.

The 905 programs we found on the municipalities' own pages are smaller, and all four have closed for 2026.

If your town isn't listed, check its environment page for a program of its own.

Toronto's long-grass rule and your native garden

Toronto's rule is Municipal Code Chapter 489, called Turfgrass and Prohibited Plants since January 1, 2022. It says an owner or occupant must cut turfgrass whenever it grows past 20 centimetres in height or length. Turfgrass means perennial lawn grasses "of a type that forms a dense, uniform turf if mown," and the City's page calls them "grasses typical of traditional lawn." A planted bed of native wildflowers isn't a lawn, so the 20 cm limit doesn't reach it. An unmown lawn is still turfgrass, though, and the limit does.

There's no exemption to apply for, and none is needed for a planted bed. The City's page says the by-law "has removed the process for natural garden exemptions." Instead, every garden must meet the conditions in section 489-2.1:

• Keep out the 10 prohibited plants on its list, including dog-strangling vine, garlic mustard, buckthorn and ragweed.
• Don't let plants block a sidewalk or roadway.
• Don't let plants block sight lines at intersections, driveways, sidewalks and walkways, or the view of traffic signs and signals.
• Meet any other health and safety condition the City's Executive Director considers advisable.

A ticket for any of those offences carries the City's set fine of $500.00. On conviction in court, the by-law allows up to $100,000, plus up to $10,000 a day while an offence continues. If an owner doesn't comply, the City can do the work itself, and the cost may be added to the property tax bill.

Two more rules sit beside Chapter 489. It leaves Ontario's Weed Control Act in force for noxious weeds, "including within a natural garden." Common milkweed isn't on the province's noxious weed list in R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 1096. And Toronto's zoning counts permeable soil or mulch areas that can grow plants as soft landscaping, while artificial turf doesn't count. The City's example: on a lot 6.0 m to under 15.0 m wide, half the front yard must be landscaping, and 75 per cent of that must be soft. Other lot sizes and zones differ, so confirm yours with Toronto Building.