It’s true that it can be expensive and time-consuming to plant natives. I think there are several things that contribute to that.
First of all, it takes time to even find a nursery that grows and sells native plants. Why do so few stores sell native plants? Part of it is lack of demand. If more people asked for natives, more nurseries would react to that demand by producing and selling them. We’ve had these conversations at our local Native Plant Society meetings and I think Audubon Society meetings as well. What came out of these discussions basically was that we need to start with generating demand so more nurseries will invest in selling natives and figuring out better production methods to make native plants more accessible and competitive at the stores. It seems to work as increased demand for native plants has been noted by growers.
But once they are in the stores, do enough people buy them to make that a worthwhile investment for the seller? I know of a local nursery that did try to sell more natives at some point but stopped because they were actually losing money doing that. People weren’t buying them when natives are offered side-by-side with “traditional” garden plants. As a result, natives become this sort of specialty item that’s hard to find for sale. It seems if a nursery sells natives, they usually go all in on that and become a specialty nursery for just natives.
A big part of that is production cost and know-how required. As noted, native plants are usually more expensive than the “traditional” gardening plants being sold. This has to do with the time and effort that needs to go into growing plants for sale. What is getting mass-produced to sell cheaply at the big box stores (e.g. the mentioned petunias at Home Depot) are annuals that are quick to germinate from seed and grow to flowering stage. Production greenhouses can crank these out in masses in 3 months going from seeds to flats of plants budding and blooming ready to sell at the store.
There aren’t that many native annuals that can be produced on such a tight schedule. In my area, most natives for sale are perennials including shrubs and trees. Perennials are more expensive than annuals regardless of whether they are native or not. Many have special germination requirements. A lot of those seeds need stratification (cold treatment for at least a month or more) to break dormancy, and a lot of these perennials don’t bloom the first year. People want to pick up blooming plants at the store. This means they are taking up greenhouse space for longer to grow them up to a size where they bloom so they can be sold. If more people were willing to buy plants that aren’t blooming until the next year, these could be sold faster and cheaper. But again demand drives the market as most people buy blooming plants.
Another factor is that native plants are usually only native to a small area to which they are adapted well. So offerings of native plants have to be tailored to the location. You can’t sell the same selection of “natives” in New England, the Southeast, California and the Pacific Northwest. Each of those areas would have to have their own selection of native plants for sale. This means a big production greenhouse is limiting its potential market reach by growing natives adapted for just one area. Part of the problem here of course is how everything cheap seems to get mass-produced for the largest market possible.
There are cultivars of native plants though that have been selected as more traditional “garden plants” and may pop up in store offerings. They usually aren’t marketed as natives though and sort of mixed in with all the other plants. If you’ve ever tried asking for native plants at one of the big stores, you probably know the employees are usually totally clueless what you’re talking about and may try to pass things off as native that aren’t (e.g. “wildflower” seed mixes that contain seeds from all over the world). So you have to do the research ahead of time and come well-informed, ideally with a wish list of plants. Once you have learned to pick out plants that fit your definition of native, you may be able to snatch up a deal here and there. It’s hard to plan for this though.
So to plant mostly natives, you have to do a lot more research yourself, think about garden planning more long-term (perennials vs. annuals), invest time in finding native plant nurseries or local sales, be willing to maybe mail-order from specialty nurseries, invest more money into getting plants, and/or plan ahead and start from seeds yourself to cut costs. Growing natives from seeds comes with a learning curve and a whole new set of frustrations that makes you appreciate why these plants are usually more expensive if you can find them for sale at all.
I agree it’s not easy and not really all that accessible to the general public. Our local Native Plant Society’s response has been to install a seed library box and ramp up the native plant sales we’re organizing. They have been a huge success with the community and our biggest fundraiser. So the demand is definitely there.
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