Native Plant Talk & Sale

Native plants are adapted to our dry climate and seasonal rainfall patterns. Planting native is an excellent way to conserve water.

About this event

Join us to hear from Petey Mesquitey and Spadefoot Nursery on "local native plants that are seen in the wild and natives that can be found in nurseries.” There will also be stories of “Seed gathering, germination…and there will be poetry and song”.

Spadefoot Nursery was started in Cochise County in 1996. Petey and wife Marian are the owners, managers and laborers. In 2018 Petey Mesquitey’s daughter Katy and her partner Jared decided to expand the Spadefoot brand and sell plants in Tucson. The Tucson branch (ha, ha) has become the main nursery as Petey eyes retirement in Cochise County.

Petey Mesquitey was born and raised in Kentucky and came west to attend the University of Arizona. In the spring of 1980 after some years of college and ten years of playing country music in bars around the southwest, he applied for a job as a laborer in a wholesale nursery in Tucson. As he likes to say, some 40 years on, “Doggonit, I’m still a laborer in a nursery!”

In May of 1992 he recorded and aired his first Growing Native radio show on KXCI Community Radio in Tucson. Every week since he has regaled listeners with stories of the flora and fauna found in the wild borderlands of southeastern Arizona. The Plant Sale will not begin until after the talk and presentation are completed.

This will provide you with an opportunity to learn about some of the available plants.