A Tour Of Pizzo Wholesale Native Plant Nursery

Pizzo Native Plant Nursery is a massive native plant growing operation that probably grows the best root systems on any native prairie plants for the Midwest that I've seen. They're a family-run operation and everyone that works there seems to love it.
To order non-wholesale plants hit up www.naturalcommunities.net
Thanks to everyone who helped make this video possible and for tolerating me showing up on a late Friday afternoon to film including Jack Pizzo, Kyle, Mandy, Jack Jr., David, Gino, Susan, Tyler and anybody else I'm forgetting.

[@Danboi.]

Growing natives everywhere, every country, should've always been a global priority. Good to see,👊🇦🇺

[@raclark2730]

100 % mate, 👊 AU

[@donnavorce8856]

We're slowly learning to leave nature alone to do her thing. Something most indigenous peoples have always known. (lol and we believed we were the smart ones. ha)

[@raclark2730]

@@donnavorce8856 Indigenous peoples had plenty of affect on landscapes and eco systems. They just had better standards of natural observation and did not F everything. Here's to getting back to that.👍

[@donnavorce8856]

Exactly !@@raclark2730

[@af8828]

Go back to whatever dingy backwater you came from then lmao. YOU are an invasive species to the continent as well buddy

[@KR-rs3sj]

Joey, I don't know if you'll see this or not, but if you do I'd like you to know how thankful I am for what you do. Today I was hanging my head low after hitting a brick wall in college and feeling like I really wasn't seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for my conservation degree, as well as the workloads for STEM degrees. However; I put your videos on and its like I get this completely new energy of "What the fuck am I thinking? I'm learning how to save some of the coolest shit on Earth for a career". You vicariously instill me with the deep appreciation for mother nature that I can't experience 95% of the time unless I'm lucky enough to get out of the classroom and do some fieldwork. You're like God's greatest smack in the face, a wake up call to appreciate things. Thank you.

[@bartendersdaughter6003]

Even if Pizzo doesn’t want you to do a commercial, you just did one. Thank you!!

[@donnavorce8856]

THANK YOU for the reference. I'm going to let Pizzo know you were the guy who steered me to them. I've already made email contact with them. My wholesale order to Pizzo will be entered this week. Thanks so much for everything you do. For sharing your knowledge. For encouraging everyone to create a spot of pollinator friendly ground. FYI: I'm hosting a kid workshop next saturday for native wildflower seed bombs. I'm secretly hoping to create a bunch of guerilla gardeners. lol - Cheers from Nebraska

[@allyson--]

:~) keep up the great work!

[@elizabethyow1165]

That’s super cool! 🌸🌻🌼

[@jdata]

All of your videos preaching the righteous cause of native plants, especially the Midwest prairie stuff, hits close to my heart. Some of my favorite stuff on KZbin.

[@nickbono8]

As a landscaper, I’ve noticed the uptick in people wanting to incorporate native plants into their yard over the years. If I’m picking plants for someone, I will try my best to at least do a quarter to a half natives. It’s really exciting to see.

[@katehartley2333]

Ty for encouraging your clients to do the right thing

[@JeffBostick222]

Very encouraging. Nice to see folks working for balance and restoring health. Eff the stiffs.

[@8cupsCoffee]

I'm so glad to hear you say that! We have some really well behaved natives that look great in the home garden.

[@mitchgleason7242]

It pains my soul knowing how many Euonymous(winged burning bush) are out there in the world spread it their seed all over the country side because of my hands.

[@WilliamAmelang]

1/4 to half? Why not 75-100%? Baby steps are for babies. We need fast change at scale - which means “everyone doing everything all the time”. It’s not enough if some people recycle, sometimes, and some people use native plants, mostly…. We all need to do everything we can, 100%.

[@LoreTunderin]

Director of Fire has to be the coolest job title ever

[@katiekane5247]

My mind goes right to Beevis & Butthead. 65 year old adolescent 😂

[@Clarytee217]

I just wrote and deleted that because you said it already 😂 Thank you to Ologies for teaching me what that means.

[@microbet.4081]

It's definitely up there.

[@vapormissile]

​@@katiekane5247fire. heh.

[@goiterlanternbase]

You mean, bash your head against walls, until it (your head, not the last wall) will inevitably break and left you with a asocial personality? Sound like so much fun at the job😏

[@RobinMarks1313]

Second comment. Yes, Tony is correct about a gateway to nature through teasing the psychoactive properties of plants. I'm old, so back in the day, I was labelled being a bad apple at school. This led to some damage, which led to self medicating when I reached adolescence. Since, grass was very illegal and stigmatizing in the 1980s, I started growing. This led me to want to understand the plant. Which then led me to appreciate the plants all around me. When I was 19, I moved from the country to the city. I did not like it, and it wasn't until I filled my apartment with potted plants, I then knew what I was missing. Nature. Once, for seven years, I had the gift of living in the far north and really embracing the wilderness. Oh, nature not only makes my life better, nature saved my life. Not that long ago, I was on my knees begging the "experts" for relief from my severe depression. I was begging them for ketamine since I had heard it provided temporary relief. But, since the drug had no clinical evidence, I was being denied any real help. So, I said to myself, "Why am I so stupid? Why don't I get some magic mushrooms (which I hadn't had in decades) since they are hallucinogenic just like ketamine." Well, long story short. mushrooms worked for me. I was blown away when I finally met a doctor to discuss ketamine, and he told me that mushrooms were not just anecdotally therapeutic, but were in fact clinically beneficial. It was weird, I showed up at the doctor's office to be fixed, but I wasn't broken anymore. I only showed up because I am a dedicated person and didn't want to miss the appointment. But, I wasn't the only one with their mind blown. The doctor was dumbfounded when I told him how I weaned myself off opioids with no help from a "professional expert'. It's all in your head. Everything is in your head. Nature is beautiful. Nature is ugly. Nature can kill. Nature can save. It's all connected. Abolish everything. peace and love. Have a nice day.

[@Toofer69]

Its awesome to hear that sales of native plants are blowing up. Great video, I love this stuff.

[@phasmata3813]

I wish that the pay and benefits for restoration workers would go up along with the increased interest. I didn't work for Pizzo, but I did work for a couple other restoration companies in the Chicagoland region of northeast IL over 9+ years (I did work with a number of people over the years who either came from or went to Pizzo as we all went through our churn in the career trying to make a living), and the pay was depressingly low with mediocre benefits no one on those wages could ever afford to actually use. It is a career that demands education, repeated certifications, and is physically grueling with quite a lot of hazards, and you barely earn more than someone working at a Starbucks.

[@allyson--]

Preach

[@MostlyAlone]

My favorite part about working the nursery trade is getting paid the same as a McDonalds fry cook but working next to people who constantly scream "I don't get paid enough for this ****! I should just go work at ****ing McDonalds!!!!" but they NEVER EVER LEAVE because in people's hearts a lot of them know they'd rather deal with the grueling outdoor conditions, mediocre pay, and danger, in exchange for doing a job that doesn't feel like the final moments of death dragged out over an 8 hour shift. There is so much stuff that sucks ass about working in agriculture, but at least my day to day work actually has some sort of meaningful influence on the world around me. You'd have to shoot me dead and fist fight my skeleton if you wanted to get my ass behind the cash register at a Starbucks.

[@phasmata3813]

@@MostlyAlone I know what you mean. Some of my former coworkers languish there to this day. However, like me eventually most of them found their breaking point and abandoned the job for something else. One went to IT, another to lab work, I think one now works for a library, one now works with Urban Rivers and was in Joey's vid about their work on the Chicago River, another became a vanlifer who does carpentry work or some such thing, another just went back to retail... I started my own auto detailing business; I now make more money for less work which both affords me the time to enjoy life the way restoration never allowed me to and still leaves me time to do some restoration work on my own or with volunteer groups from time to time.

[@Iluvtogekiss]

Yes this is me

[@pjk9225]

"Interest in native plants is so high we're having trouble finding seeds" Love to hear that from these guys, awesome video, I'd love to work at/run this sorta thing in the northeast by Boston.

[@oscarflip8561]

Tony: Asks a million questions Evan no matter the question: It depends on the species 😏

[@patrickkish6662]

This episode is epic. Lots of seeded thoughts. Tons to learn!

[@patrickkish6662]

Those two dudes totally rubbed off on each other by the end of the episode. Nice horizontal gene transfer, guys👌🏼

[@galeparker1067]

​@@patrickkish6662🤣🤣🤣. 👍👍

[@ShakespeareCafe]

Very encouraging to see a botanist who isn't using his knowledge in the production of the ultimate cash crop. The amount of land devoted to lawns in the USA is equivalent to the size of West Virginia. This is a herculean battle to restore the native ecosystem.

[@happytimes6687]

I love this! You are a legend, I even bought my son who is in horticulture your "kill your lawn" T-shirt! Thank for all you do!

[@ez8664]

What a treat for Sunday morning! Thank you!

[@freerun_dragon]

Lmaoooooo "that's how you get the kids caring about ecology" ngl that's how I got into morning glory family and then the world of plants opened up from there! ☠️

[@TryAmazonPrimeToday]

Wow, that is an amazing native plant nursery! I would love to have the space for a large scale nursery like Pizzo. Thank you (Crime Pays) for showing your viewers the importance and beauty of native plants. I've been studying and propagating native plants as a hobby ever since I began watching your videos 2 years ago. Majority of my propagated specimens are donated to local outdoor clean-up/restoration groups. The remainder are kept for out planting wherever I hike, so I can replenish diminishing local populations. I do not sell my propagated specimens. I simply enjoy the fascinating phenomena of seeds and clones coming to life. It gives me the power to do something meaningful for the land that gives me a place to live.

[@PlantNative]

My hope is more straight species, less cultivars. If Pizzo is having trouble getting seeds, it gives me hope that people will buy straight species. I planted Maryland Senna by seed, plant is about four inches tall and I’m seeing Sulphur Butterflies for first time in our garden. 💛

[@CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt]

Cultivars are terrible

[@threeriversforge1997]

I generally disdain cultivars unless they are just a smaller or more manageable version of the straight species. That said, sometimes the cultivars can be the gateway to people getting access to the straight species, and it's a learning experience that betters everything.

[@thewefactor1]

A childhood friend's mother was in the eyes of land developers at least from the beginning years of the 1970's (my awareness) until her passing away... and always upfront about saving native plant species (almost militant) just to the North of were you are at now, including those along the Great Lakes. I didn't grasp it back then... but I appreciated her yard, it was not like the rest of the neighborhood. Her husband collected Model T fords and others I cannot identify as well.

[@RobinMarks1313]

A nice, long Sunday morning video. Better than church.

[@michaelperrone3867]

Fun fact about switchgrass; the military found it's a much more efficient source of fuel than corn based ethanol: it generates biomass like 8 times faster.

[@sawyerstudio]

What a fantastic video. Operations like these should be supported and started all over the continent. Let's fix this. ❤

[@lindsay6518]

I live in Southern Ontario and started planting natives the last couple of years. So many of these plants are the same and I'm discovering some new ones that range up here too!! Love the longer episodes!! Thanks Joey!!!

[@tonyjovan-hm7cz]

Check out the remnant prairies in Windsor and Walpole Island.

[@themarkofpolo]

St. Louis, Kansas City, and much of Missouri are really seeing increased demand for natives. As far as the living retaining wall systems, visit St Louis for more examples. There's an excellent 'vertical Prairie' along 370 in St Charles.

[@scottberresford9486]

I would love to work with plants all day.

[@donnavorce8856]

And get paid for it. Hell yeah

[@stephensaintamant6850]

Shared on twitter for a little change of scenery over by dare. My little contribution to maybe stopping WW3 who knows.

[@allyson--]

🤭 funny

[@redbloodedbutterfly]

Thank you so much to Tony and Pizzo Native Plant Nursery for this video! It's always cool to see how nursery production is done. I live in the Midwest, so this video is extra interesting. :-)

[@maxmanx1294]

Its fascinating to see behind-the-scenes of a grower. I grow as as a hobby & enjoy seeing how someone else harvests, stratifies, propagates, etc.

[@MostlyAlone]

Seeing the tiny little Verbena hasta plants chock full of roots is entertaining. I learned about Verbena hasta when I had to deal with it for a custom planting in my line of work. It looks like hell by the end of the season, but it attracts an ocean of pollinators and it doesn't seem that picky. The plants want a lot of moisture to germinate because it's usually a marginal plant near bodies of water, but once the seedlings get going in the spring they can reach maturity and be in flower by mid summer. It does better with more moisture but it can handle pretty average garden conditions. Also seems to have pretty forgiving nutrient requirements in a healthy ecosystem. Upside: Produces a TON of seed. Downside: Produces a TON of seed.

[@clivebrittain4928]

"A medieval whac'em tool" 😂 fukn love it.

[@neidoodle]

Thank you for your videos! I appreciate how much time you give the nursery to show what they are doing and the excitement you two share about native plants. I´ll be in canada soon on the working holiday visa (I´m from germany) and as a gardener who fell in love with perennial plants I´d love to get a chance to work and learn at a nursery like this. Maybe somebody has a good address for me? ;D

[@ceciliajones7816]

When he said it’s growing so fast, man, tears in my fucking eyes! I’ve been a broken record to my friends for years. Finally people are listening!

[@Schoohness]

So cool ☆ thanks for sharing Midwest peeps

[@j0-zef]

ahaha - where do you go after you've been told to go kill your lawn - classic CLASSIC Tony

[@cockballs6888]

rogue italian forcing stem nerds to do on the spot improv. it warms my heart

[@AndreaDingbatt]

Awesome to see that people are doing this!! Cool as Feck!!❤

[@aLfPlaysGames]

This place is so cool.

[@allyson--]

24:12 awww, gushing about his big bluestem tattoo

[@katiekane5247]

I've been watching the Tephrosia growing here in north Georgia. The foliage stays so interesting all season. Busy spreading it further 😊 Love seeing this nursery, thanks guys!

[@tracyguillemette6255]

I'm that person - I found blue eyed grass near my compost piles so I moved them out into a short plant area of my mini meadow in CT - they are thriving! And I can't wait for my coreopsis tripteris to reach 9 ft!!!

[@panduhfight]

Thank you so much for this stuff. I live in in western IL near Iowaand lways appreciated our native species and these videos are a phenomenal showcase of them.

[@soilcreepsandgardengeeks71]

Thank you so much. Love Pizzo. Phenomenal insight.

[@natchezglenhouse5138]

Pizzo Nursery are legends ✌️💚

[@awildapproach]

What a wonderful tour of a really badass place! Loved everything about this. 👏👏👏

[@calnative4904]

If I only had a yard, I would 100% have all native plants, so much nicer than a manicured lawn.

[@threeriversforge1997]

You can start with a pot on the windowsill. Asclepias tuberosa would love naught more than a 5-gallon bucket in a sunny spot, which includes an apartment balcony, and the Monarch butterflies will thank you.

[@jefftee7354]

That's Adam Connover (Adam Ruins Everything) in this video, and you can't convince me otherwise.

[@flyemhard]

what a great start to the day...thanks to everyone involved

[@gracepeterson7483]

"Wal-fart!" 😁 Super interesting. Thank you for taking us along.

[@PlantNative]

Chipmunks ran back and forth all summer collecting Blue Eyed Grass seedheads with stuffed cheeks. Doves love seeds too.

[@unclefrogy743]

looking the root growth in those plug flats I thought no wonder then early settlers on the prairie made houses out of the sod. In my mind and from my experience I saw domestic turf sod now it is much clear what was happening and why.

[@jezuzac1444]

Super appreciate the tour! I hope Mr. Pizzo doesn't ban you from da germination chambers. It was very insightful seeing a large-scale operation. I'd love to see them working more on the seed preparation / germination side of things.

[@sicko_the_ew]

Those retaining wall stones have been around quite a while, now. They're called Löffelstein, or "spoon bricks", and can hold back quite a high bank of soil (using roots as "reinforcing wires", I think). If you just build an old "brute force retaining wall" there's a whole iceberg below what you see poking out in the front. To hold back soil the old fashioned way, you have to build "castle-thick" walls. They taper, so the tops don't give any indication of how much money (in concrete) is down at the base of the wall. The Löffelsteins can be stacked just about vertically, create space for things to live and grow (lizards seem to like them where I'm from), and hold back as much soil as the stupid lumps of olden times.

[@LoreTunderin]

That's really cool. I bet the pavers heat up in the sun and would be really comfortable for lizards and other cold blooded species, especially with shade cover and cool soil only a few inches away.

[@AndreaDingbatt]

❤ Awesome Information!! Thank You!!❤

[@sicko_the_ew]

@@AndreaDingbatt Glad to hear it was of some use or interest to you. :D

[@wadestanton]

You may enjoy a couple 'retaining wall' vids over at this channel.(Mike Haduck Masonry) He shows a few examples that were meant for hundreds of years.

[@sicko_the_ew]

@@wadestanton Now that's what I call a nice big selection of retaining wall videos! Looks like I'll need to visit there occasionally. Thanks.

[@kidman2505]

I've managed a grow shop for the last 2 decades, one of the cooler things is watching my customers realize they have actual plant skills, and they start actually gardening. You aren't wrong about getting them hooked on the psychoactive plants. Weed is a gateway plant 8)

[@hudcummings2979]

so cool so cool to see this occurring. i'm 65 now. My father & i were doing this when we were young. He started when he was a boy. Still actually have seeds from the wilds of my locale. The junkies, thieves & so on just wouldn't let us succeed. Pop died at 83. i ended up going postal, employed by corporate america. Did not belong there! i'm a grower. A seeder. With everything taken from us, jobs created by society's child was the virtual death of me. But this is wonderful to see happening. It's now or never cuz "when the legends die" the children better have a clue

[@michaelnancyamsden7410]

This is a great video. Learned a lot. More please.

[@oscarflip8561]

I was just eating some popcorn and thought there was something nasty in the popcorn… I was just spreading penstemon seeds around 🤔🤔🤔 never knew(or realized I guess) the seeds smelled bad.

[@hectic6981]

As a laymen but an enthusiast of gardening in general. Looking at the seedling plug roots, it seems like "air pruning" some of the more modern designs of seedling pots have openings in the sides allowing airflow around the root ball and eliminating the root binding you generally see in pots. Definitely looking healthy. Hopefully one day you'll head up to Ontario Canada and highlight sonw of our native habitat, like the Carolinian or the Boreal (I think we have so little Carolinian and the former native range of it is primarily urban, suburban and farm land so we could definitely use more folks planting some of the natives in their gardens, or even restoring a portion of their lawns.

[@Fabdanc]

I DESPISE boxwoods. I'm all for people designing their garden the way they want to enjoy it, but using something like a boxwood is just so unimaginative. It is just as important to show other growers how to utilize these plants in different ways so that they will get used more and the demand will increase.

[@threeriversforge1997]

I've been recommending Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria) as a substitute. Not only is it native and evergreen, but it makes for a lifetime supply of tea that's every bit as good as the tea we buy in the stores. Folks get the boxwood look with a whole bunch more benefits.

[@Garblegox]

Drugs got me into botany as a youngster. Doing those drugs got me into nature. Spending time out there got me fully connected to the topic. No harm in starting with the most interesting factoids first.

[@chuxmix65]

That was great! Thanks! Looking forward to part 2!

[@RoseConstruction33]

I’m calling Pizzo now too

[@MAC-op5fc]

Fantastic video. Your knowledge is inspiring!

[@Frank-dv4zu]

very enjoyable episode, thank you, i am already looking forward to part 2

[@thartwig]

so wonderfully nerdy

[@benwest8448]

24:56 it's funnyi used to only care about plants for the psychoactive quality but through you and just hiking and learning more about native plants in my area that has become so far from my focus. Thank you for sharing all that you do.

[@gardengatesopen]

7k+ views! Nice! That website for native plants gunna be busy, busy busy!!!

[@mjturner916]

I have Blue eyed Grass in my yard here in coastal Maine, clumps like a sedge

[@duncanpage1556]

Great video! let it be natural. Love it ! From a Canadian Arborist and sciences and Carnivorous Grower.

[@hippycertified]

Yall are giving me faith in my startup! 👍

[@Highnoonshred]

I love this video!!!🤘🤘🤘🤘

[@jz6350]

crazy how many of these species are native to my neck of the woods too! Love me some blue eye grass and joe pie weed

[@dangotang8918]

Love this return to chicago series, Tony- I'm gonna be slaughtering my lawn this winter thanks to your inspiration 🫡

[@LostInThisGardenofLife]

My favorite plant daddy is helping the earth. 🥰

[@braveandcrazy1051]

I can only imagine the beauty of thousands and thousands of acres of native land before we raped it and planted corn fields

[@patrickkish6662]

Maybe we can retract the collective wiener of human time, observe, and aid in repair? We're hopin'?🤔

[@braveandcrazy1051]

@@patrickkish6662 I would love to see that. ❤️ I hope people will see this and start turning the tide.

[@gup8175]

Great vid Joey! Thx! GFY:D

[@MichaelMikeTheRussianBot]

Re Coreopsis tripteris "...afraid of the height..". Yeah. I've been in the biz for 30+ yrs, & I've seen that change. People's expectations have gotten much smaller. Now a "HUGE" plant is anything 3' tall or more. 2' is frequently "Big" , even for shrubs. "I want a tree...no more than 5-6' ..deer resistant...evergreen if possible." :PPPP Me, in my head "TREE ? 6' or LESS? WTF?" I am often asking "How big is 'BIG' ?"

[@humdingermusic23]

The lengths of the root systems on some of the plants, if you want to understand why a lot of countries are suffering from flooding on a large scale you need to understand why the water is running OFF the land so fast and why the land is slipping so much...

[@chiseldrock]

Amazing! Thanks Joey

[@vapormissile]

I like the cut of that guy's jib.

[@pondponder]

I know Leland from my Shabbona days. Good to see FIBs doing good work.

[@bumbleguppy]

Very little lends me hope these days, but this did. Thanks, Tony.

[@ThyBookie]

If you can you should try to visit Missouri Wildflower Nursery! They’ve got an awesome set-up and their soil mix seems pretty unique

[@MichaelMikeTheRussianBot]

@23:00 " People underestimate the value of texture...." So true! When I get home, most evenings, that is the thing that is most evident . I try to tell people (I'm in the biz), but 95+% of them don't care. & most that do , do so after I point it out, never having considered it before, though being dissatisfied in their landscape, & not understanding why.

[@Shadowfax2121]

I have fantastic results with Compost Tea, my plants really exploded with growth this year. Loving the native selection I'm seeing in this video! :D

[@straightupninja]

Can’t wait for part 2❤🎉

[@awakenacres]

Exciting! I’ll definitely be checking out their website!

[@PredictableEnigma]

Thank you so much for this midwest series. I don't have a lawn to kill, just a large 3rd floor balcony at an apartment. I adore native prarie gardens though. My old college campus had them and one was just added near my office building. Most of these plants aren't suited to containers but I'll keep trying.

[@jimjimgl3]

"just big enough for a little bumblebee's ass to be stickin' out of..." Precisely.

[@junkettarp8942]

This guys organized.

[@evasartorius9528]

Awesome!

[@galations22o]

Love what you are doing!! Praying for your success

[@MichaelMikeTheRussianBot]

Re Iliamna remota, I mixed some old charcoal from the (last used 3 yrs ago) fire pit into the soil I put in the plug trays (Nov '21) , & soaked some charcoal in a watering can, overnight, with which I watered those trays. Almost all came up last spring . All that I kept [gave 1/2, or more away] flowered this year.

[@HarryCandles123]

Nice

[@Gangxisiyu]

Man I need a break down like this for Long Island Prairies. They were almost all wiped out during the colonial period.

[@canadiangemstones7636]

5:58 Illinois rocks & minerals poster, respect!

[@King_Clone_]

Desmanthus illinoensis is psychoactive but it also contains gramine which is toxic.

[@sayeager5559]

Hyped to see the New England Aster. Beautul!

[@jimmycincinnati3714]

We are not going to eat any root bark, but we appreciate it when you describe the chemistry.

[@moefuggerr2970]

They been putting them in the bag.