Oaktown Native Plant Nursery - Berkeley, California

Franzen Lisa

This is an awesome place to get native plants ! The staff are friendly and knowledgeable. I needed to purchase native plants for a school rewilding project. I had very specific requirements for the plants: They had to be good for pollinators, drought tolerant and non toxic. The staff guided me to make excellent selections. The prices are more than reasonable. I was able to buy far more plants than I expected to be able to. All of the plants I purchased were healthy and are now thriving in my school garden.

J P

I LOVE this nursery for California native plants. It's easy to get to although parking can be hairy. The selection is lovely. The plants are very healthy and the prices cannot be beat. They stock varieties that are hard to find, and well-adapted to the East Bay. The staff are incredibly knowledgeable and sweet. I've been shopping here for almost a decade and everything I've put into the ground has flourished just remember to do your homework and make sure you're planting the right one for the location you want 😉 You can't blame others if you've made bad choices about plant location. I appreciate that they stock plenty of plants in 4" pots, because who has time to dig a gallon+ size hole!? You can go on their website to check out their current inventory. Very helpful for planning.

jumping out windows

So much variety in the plants and really helpful staff to help choose what to buy. They really support the native healthy garden, and have very knowledgeable staff.

Robert Y

The folks there were nice on our first visit. They seemed knowledgeable and were genuinely trying to help us find the right plants. Like another reviewer, after leaving, I noticed we were overcharged so be careful upon checking out. About a week or two later after taking home the plants and repotting per the instructions, the plants definitely had some issues. Tried calling back several times for advice and they just ignored. 🙁 I do love that they sell native plants but really unfortunate as my experience with other nurseries is that the owners are responsive. This place could do better.

Krystal Dove

Oaktown Native Plant Nursery is a beautiful nursery that carries a great variety of herbs and trees . They are knowledgeable on there medicinal herbs and plants. They have rare plants that you can’t find elsewhere. The workers are very friendly and helpful . This is one of our go to nurseries. You will find many native plants to California, they stock up on many herbs . We have a collect in our garden . I’m thankful that they are open during these tough times , we highly recommend you check them out . Peace and blessings

Olivia

Absolutely love this nursery. I've gotten lots of plants from them over the past few years for my garden. The folks who work there are so kind, friendly, and knowledgeable and always help me find the perfect plant for shady, sunny spots, pots, whatever I need. I always enjoy going there. It's all outdoors so safe too!

Timothy Wong

Of all of the native plant nurseries in the Bay Area, Oaktown is a hidden gem. Despite their modest size , this nursery is a propagation powerhouse full of unique and diverse offerings at a very reasonable price. Looking for difficult to find native bulbs, California Pipevine, Goldback fern or a great selection of wildflowers? Oaktown has it often when others don’t. Their staff are extremely knowledgeable, friendly, and accessible via social media channels- even if you need to drop by last minute. Their demonstration garden provides an excellent display of natives to observe in established plantings in addition to being an excellent pollinator oasis.

Smita Joshi

I love this wonderful little nursery. It is close to Berkeley Bowl West and across from Vic's wonderful food, so it is super convenient for me to stop by and check what is new, between my grocery and food runs. Though conveniently located, as I walk up the path, I am transported to what looks like someone's private cottage garden. The birdsong is almost deafening. There are always hosts of new plants each season--from annuals to perennials, from trees to vines to succulents. And they are all California natives, many very local. I am on Kristen's email newsletter list, and have learned a lot from it.

I love the fact that anything I buy at this nursery is going to bring more wildlife to my garden. Ever since I started patronizing this wonderful nursery three years ago, my garden has been buzzing with gorgeous humming birds, native bees and dragonflies of all kinds. However, I did not get any butterflies the first two years. So this past year, Kristen and the staff has been advising me on what plants to choose to bring butterflies to the garden. Turns out the butterflies need very different flower shapes to land and sip from than the bees or the humming birds need. My new planting area for butterflies is just getting established, but I have already noticed a difference in the number of butterflies hanging around.

My neighbors and all ages of walkers on my street stop by my garden and marvel at the variety of flowers I have. Many of these flowers they have never seen before, and assume that I hunt high and low for rare, exotic plants from around the world. I love seeing their astonishment when I tell them that they are all California natives, many even super local natives, that I get from a local native plants nursery.

I love the fact that Oaktown Native Plants Nursery is a woman-owned business. The plants here are cheaper than at many other local nurseries where natives are available. The variety of plants is amazing. And all the staff is always very helpful and enthusiastic. They have helped with plants for pots that cope with drip irrigation, plants that cope with shade, and plants that cope with sunny, dry conditions--basically for all parts of my garden. My own success rate with the plants bought from this nursery is almost 98%. I killed a couple of them that I did not water well initially on hot days. But that is definitely on me.

I recommend this place most enthusiastically.