By Virginia Bruce

It’s been hard for local gardeners to find native plants for their gardens, because all the native nurseries are far away. Vi Nguyen and her husband Jimmy offer a solution. “I started thinking about how difficult it can be to find a good selection of native plants on the west side. And when you do find them, they can be pretty expensive. With the cost of just about everything going up, I wanted to make native plants more accessible and affordable locally. Native plants help restore local habitat, support pollinators, and thrive in Pacific Northwest conditions with less water and maintenance.”

This is a good time to plant natives, especially bulbs. The coming rainy season gives them time to develop strong roots so they’ll be ready to thrive next spring. Vi can help you figure out the best plants for your conditions and plans.

“We don’t really consider ourselves a business per se as our mission is more to increase accessibility of native plants on the west side rather than make money, which is why we offer mix-and-match bulk deals, so that community members can access a variety of native plants for their gardens at an affordable price. We use the name Cedar Hills Native Plants mostly to identify ourselves to nurseries when we establish new partnerships.”

She created a Google Doc with her plant list loaded with pictures and information about each of the plants she has available, how to order, and background on why and how she does this. She says her particular interest is procuring plants that are more difficult to find or are expensive at retailers.

She partners with wholesale businesses around NW Oregon to bring plants to her home, so local gardeners can order and pick them up. Viewing and purchasing plants is by appointment only. Payment is by cash, Venmo, or Zelle at time of or prior to pickup.

She says it was hard at first to create partnerships with the nurseries. She got her Nursery Dealer license with the Oregon Department of Agriculture, and “it made it a lot easier for me, though it is still hard, since many wholesalers have a very high minimum order that I would not be able to achieve.

We found her through a post on Facebook, but she says, “Facebook Marketplace has been the biggest source of people finding me. I also use Nextdoor, Craigslist, and I’ve made a couple threads on Reddit that were popular, which have brought in a lot of customers.” She has an email list where interested gardeners can get updates on plant sales, sign up here.

She is planning for her endeavor to be year-round, although the selection will change quite a bit seasonally, which will be reflected on the Google doc. “I’ll continue offering plants through the Fall while I have inventory, and then things naturally slow down over the winter. I’ll start building the inventory back up in late winter/early spring as plants become available again.

“Email is probably the easiest way to reach me, especially for larger orders or questions about specific plants. People can also message me through Facebook Marketplace or my phone number which is a Google Voice number that both Jimmy and I can access and respond to. The Google Doc is the best place to see my current inventory and pricing since inventory changes pretty frequently.

“My husband Jimmy is very involved. By trade, he does data analytics and he created the brilliant spreadsheet that tracks all of our inventory and calculates the total for orders which can get complicated with all the bulk deals we have and all the different plants we carry. Since I work in a clinic and he works from home, he is able to pull orders or help people with plant viewings while I am at work.

“Cedar Hills Native Plants is a family affair. Our dog Lupita is our Head of Security and Groundskeeper. She notifies us whenever someone is here for pickup. Additionally, she generously rented her backyard space for us to store our plants!