Native Gardens & Plant Sale

Explore Our Native Gardens

Native plants are featured throughout the grounds of the Lake Hopatcong Foundation, located at 125 Landing Road in Landing, NJ. Visitors are welcome to explore our interpretive gardens, which highlight the beauty and benefits of native species through informative signage and seasonal displays.

We have three main garden areas. 

1. Our Specimen Garden showcases a wide variety of native plants that bloom at different times of the year, offering inspiration for incorporating natives into home landscapes.
2. Our Mass Planting Garden is packed with color and texture, and shifts from year to year as different species thrive, making it an ever-changing and dynamic display of native plants. 
3. Our Shoreline Buffer Demonstration Garden shows how simple it can be to establish a native buffer along lakefront property. These strips of vegetation help filter runoff, prevent erosion, and protect Lake Hopatcong’s water quality.

Whether you're new to native plants or looking for ideas for your own yard, our gardens are open for self-guided visits and offer practical, local examples of sustainable landscaping. For a virtual look at some of the plants in our garden, click HERE. 

Plants in our gardens

Annual Native Plant Sale

Support Local Ecosystems—One Plant at a Time

Each spring, we host an annual native plant sale featuring a wide variety of New Jersey native species. Native plants support pollinators and wildlife, improve water quality, and strengthen local biodiversity. In 2026, we sold more than 800 native plants to the Lake Hopatcong Community, helping create a healthier, more resilient local ecosystem.

Why Native Plants?

Native plants are species that grow naturally in a region and have adapted over time to local conditions. Because of this, they typically need less water, fertilizer, and maintenance once established, making them an environmentally friendly choice for your yard.

They also play a vital role in supporting healthy ecosystems. Native plants provide food and habitat for birds, native bees, butterflies, bats, and other wildlife. They are especially important for pollinators like the Monarch butterfly, whose populations have declined in recent years. Pollinators are essential for producing many of the fruits and vegetables we rely on, as well as for maintaining healthy plant and wildlife communities.

Natives can even improve water quality. With deeper root systems than grass, native plants more effectively hold soil in place and help filter out pollution from stormwater runoff, allowing heavy rainwater to be absorbed into soils rather than overflowing into storm drainage systems, protecting our waterways, and reducing flooding 

By choosing native plants in your yard, you are not only helping wildlife, you are creating a healthier place for yourself, your family, and your community. You are also making choices that are beneficial to the health of Lake Hopatcong, its watershed, and even the planet. And, they're beautiful!