It's a great year to grow native Illinois plants

Driving the news: Last month, the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance allowing plants on city parkways (patches of grass across the sidewalk from your lawn) to grow as high as 36 inches, which many native plants do.

State of play: Unlike more popular garden plants, native species can be planted through the summer and into the fall, but they are not always easy to find at your local big box store.

Yes, but: More specialty nurseries have been offering them with some now selling natives exclusively.

• Red Stem Native Landscapes is hosting a pop-up from 8am to 1pm Saturday at 3057 N. Rockwell in Avondale.
• Deep Roots Native Nursery hosts pop-ups nearly weekly in Lombard and Tinley Park with the next one on July 4.

Friction point: Deep Roots founder Jake Hayes launched his native plant business this spring with some clever but spicy social media posts.

• One anti-hosta video got some local gardeners hopping mad, but he stands by his disdain for the non-native plant with popable purple flowers.
• "Hostas are just boring," Hayes tells Axios. "But when you tell people that what they're planting actually evolved thousands of miles away and they're mindlessly planting the same things over and over again, when we have the right stuff right here, that strikes a chord with people."

What's next: Hayes will be hosting pop-ups and preaching the native gospel on social media through the fall in hopes of getting more folks hooked.

• "After I started growing them from seed, the inner gardening spirit inside me just kind of got sparked," says the set designer by trade.