San Antonio’s H-E-B grocery chain partners with Native Plant Society of Texas

When the largest independent grocery store chain in the country partners with the Native Plant Society of Texas (NPSOT) to offer non-niche gardening customers a variety of native plants, the gardening community takes notice.

“That is exciting!” said Karen Guz, vice president of conservation at SAWS, San Antonio’s municipally owned water utility, when she first learned about the H-E-B Texas Native Plant Celebration partnership with NPSOT.

Guz oversees the utility’s GardenStyleSA program, which encourages the use of native and well adapted plants that conserve water. “The extreme weather conditions of the past few years have really underscored the value of native plants that evolved under Texas tough conditions.”

“Great selection, and all appropriate,” said David Rodriguez, Bexar County horticulturist for Texas A & M Agrilife Extension, upon reviewing the selection of plants featured in the initiative.

Ashley Bird, a practicing gardener and educator at her company, Blooming with Birdie, said she was surprised and delighted when she went on her weekly shopping trip to H-E-B and was greeted by a barrage of native plants. “I was especially glad to see Bee Balm, one of my favorites, and kind of hard to find,” said Bird.

The initiative, started in the fall of 2023, has grown to include a spring plant sale that extends over several weeks and offers various Texas native plants at more than 200 of the company’s 360 stores in Texas.

Anahi Villarruel, project manager in H-E-B’s environmental affairs department who oversees the native plant initiative, said the company will be distributing  24 species, all grown by Spring Creek Growers, a family-owned and operated wholesale nursery based Magnolia, Texas, just outside Houston.

Villarruel praised NPSOT members’ deep knowledge of plants and their education efforts, adding that the Native Plant Celebration meshes well with H-E-B’s ongoing sustainability projects as detailed in the company’s Our Texas Our Future website.

“Over 300,000 native plants will be headed to Texas homes,” said Villarruel, adding that the two dozen curated species were selected with the assistance of NPSOT to match different ecozones throughout the state.

Her favorites?

“I really really love Gulf Muhly and Turk’s Cap, because they’re so easy to take care of,” said Villarruel, who interrupted an afternoon of gardening chores to discuss the initiative. “I also love Mealy Blue Sage.”

A sample of the native plants featured at H-E-B this month. –Photo courtesy NPSOT

For years, native plant enthusiasts who choose to reject water guzzling grass lawns and exotic non-natives have struggled to find natives at big box stores and commercial nurseries. Folks seeking a Coreopsis or Wine Cup plant would often have to wait for seasonal pop-up sales, or drive long distances to boutique nurseries. Having the plants displayed and available at the entrance of local grocery stores which the community routinely visits to buy bread and milk will expose a new audience of gardeners to the whys and hows of planting native.

“I don’t see Drummond Phlox often around town. Glad to see it there,” said Joan Miller, a native plant aficionado and NPSOT member, upon reviewing the plant list.

This weekend, March 22 – 23, the NPSOT is staffing tables at select H-E-B stores featuring the plants. Volunteers will answer questions and provide insights about why planting natives is a timely and appropriate choice in today’s world. See the plant list and the stores that will host NPSOT tables here. 

According to NPSOT Executive Director Meg Inglis, the partnership began in 2023 when she, Laura Leggett, and Haeley Giambalvo, all NPSOT board or committee members, decided to work together to convince H-E-B to start including natives in their vast nursery offerings.

“It’s like the stars aligned,” said Inglis of the Austin chapter. Leggett, president-elect of NPSOT, is a member of the Hill Country chapter while Giambalvo serves in San Antonio.

NPSOT volunteers will be available at select H-E-B stores this weekend to answer questions about native plants the grocery store chain is offering. –Photo courtesy NPSOT

“We found each other through a quarterly NPSOT meeting and all felt like ‘I wanna be on the team–let’s just make this happen!'” said Ingles. Giambalvo’s husband worked for H-E-B and was able to make the connection for a meeting, which took place in the spring of 2023.

“We came up with a plant list that was pretty generalized–from San Antonio to Dallas/Ft. Worth. The idea was: ‘Here’s some plants that you can sell to a good portion of the state,'” Iglis recalled.

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The first event occurred in October of 2023 and has evolved into a full-blown campaign of education, outreach and getting people to understand the importance of native plants in their yard.

Boutique native plant nurseries that have opened in recent years chimed in their support of the native plant awareness being raised by H-E-B.

“H-E-B is showing their support for the mission, while making it accessible and affordable to the public,” said Drake White, owner of the Nectar Bar, San Antonio’s first native plant nursery. “A rising tide lifts all ships.”

Donald Gerber, co-founder of Pollinatives nursery in Converse, agreed, calling the H-E-B-NPSOT  partnership “a great step forward in making native plants more accessible to people across the state.” Gerber dismissed concerns about H-E-B as competition. “The more people plant natives, the better it is for Texas landscapes, wildlife, and water conservation.”

Brandon Kirby, a partner at Rainbow Gardens, a nursery which has two San Antonio locations, also endorsed the effort. “We hope by encouraging native plants, our community will experience planting success which will translate to continued support for our local green goods industry and the overall ecological well being of our state,” said Kirby.