We did it! The Orange County Chapter of the California Native Plant Society distributed 2,000 four-inch white sage (Salvia apiana) plants free to Southern California residents during our A Sage in Every Garden (SIEG) campaign.

Our SIEG team began planning for the giveaway campaign last July. We decided to focus entirely on white sage. We also decided how many plants to distribute and to keep the campaign to a four-month window from November 2022 through February 2023.

We created a logo, labels, and plant care sheets. We also partnered with Tree of Life Nursery to propagate the plants. Roger’s Gardens agreed to give away 1,000 plants, leaving OCCNPS 1,000 plants to distribute through our partnerships.

Sage Environmental stepped in with a donation to help fund the campaign, and the City of Dana Point also purchased 100 plants for an extra event.

OCCNPS would like to thank our partners who hosted the events: Tree of Life Nursery, The Ecology Center, Fullerton Arboretum, the Nature Interpretive Center at the Dana Point Headlands, Orange Home Grown Education Farm and Farmer’s Market, Heritage Garden at Concordia University, the Environmental Nature Center, Orange Coast Unitarian Universalist Church, Shipley Nature Center, and Roger’s Gardens.

We are also grateful for our SIEG volunteers: Lesley Bindloss, Tracey Daschbach, Marina Clark, Mel Letterman, Dan Songster, Richard Shemaka, Laura Camp, Rebecca Crowe, Sarah Jayne, Brad Jenkins, Merry Wong, Lori Resnick, Thea Gavin, Peggy Stewart, Kathryn McClelland, Jennifer Mabley, Ron Vanderhoff, Hugh Daschbach, Mary Oakes, Melanie Bergeland, and Suzanne Holmes.

If you missed the program, visit Tree of Life Nursery and buy more sage plants for your garden. The more native plants that grow in your garden, the better off our pollinators and wildlife will be. Thank you for caring.