Here's a little more about who we are, what we do, and why!

Our Story

Toadshade was founded in 1996 to help make native plants more readily available for purchase, when it became clear to Randi just how difficult it was for the average gardener, researcher, habitat restoration project, or plant enthusiast to find clearly, accurately identified straight-species (not cultivar) native plants for sale. With her research background in entomology, Randi has always been very conscious of the important roles native plants play in the landscape, and started Toadshade with the goal of making sure that not only the plants themselves, but the knowledge of why they’re so incredibly important, was available to people across the country. We've always been as much about education as about selling plants, and Randi has written articles and given hundreds of lectures over the years to municipalities, garden clubs, nature centers, classes, master gardeners, landscapers, and conferences–educating on topics from basic ecology, to insect identification, to garden design, and an enormous number of other related subjects. Toadshade is essentially a case study in what happens when you let a small group of incredibly passionate academic nerds run a family wildflower farm: you should see our shelves of botany texts.

Luckily, over the years since 1996, more of the country has learned what native plants are, and why they’re important. Toadshade is no longer a total outlier in its business model of offering exclusively native plant species for sale, but our dual missions continue: not only to offer clearly and accurately identified straight-species native plants and seeds for sale, all propagated sustainably here on our farm (never dug from the wild!) in as wide a variety as possible, but also to educate. Toadshade now works with over 800 species of native plants and seeds, almost always has around 400 species for sale, and also produces a number of publications educating people on native plants. Our most easily-accessible educational resource is right on our website, where we offer a full list of all the plants we offer throughout the year, as well as plant descriptions of all of the native species we offer, including their range, their preferred growing conditions, their full scientific name, what species rely on them, and how to grow them from seed. And yet, for all of this, we're only a group of four!

Meet The Team:

Owner and Founder: Dr. Randi Eckel, PhD

(She/Her)

Randi is the owner and founder of Toadshade (founded 1996) She also acts as office manager (if you email or call Toadshade, she’s most likely who you’ll get in contact with- unless you catch Sarah, instead), lecturer, and consultant. Our most highly-educated plant expert and most accomplished photographer, she makes sure that our nerddom is always of the very highest quality, and runs our live educational programs, hosting webinars and speaking to groups around the East Coast about the value of native plants in the landscape. Bear in mind, if you call the office, you might not reach her right away! It's very possible she's up to her elbows in plants, or hiding somewhere writing. (Sit tight! She or Sarah will call you back.)

Propagation, Data, and Shipping: Isaac Eckel

(He/Him)

Isaac Eckel (15+ years working for Toadshade) is our propagation manager, but he also manages plant shipping, seed harvesting, and data management. If you’ve visited us at the Hunterdon Community Farmers Market in the past several years, you’ve probably met Isaac there! He can sometimes be found hiking in the rain with our morale manager, Maddie the dog, or staring meaningfully into large botany books in the middle of remote trails.

Orders and Office Management: Sarah Harrison

(She/Her)

Sarah Harrison (12+ years working for Toadshade) is in charge of managing all of our plants and seeds for sale, but she also keeps track of the ever-shifting sands of state quarantines, manages plant and seed orders, and acts as assistant office manager. In the Toadshade ecosystem, essentially a keystone species. Our resident spider expert, she spends a lot of her free time doing deep dives into plant research and geeking out about stinging caterpillars.

Communication and Transplanting: Nina Eckel

(She/Her)

Nina Eckel (15+ years working for Toadshade) is in charge of transplanting our plants for sale, writing our catalog, writing new plant descriptions, managing our social media pages, and writing our monthly emails (although she still lets Randi get a word in edgewise, every now and then). She also wrote this page (hi!), and has taken many of the photos that appear on our website. She can often be found chasing butterflies through meadows with a camera or staring blankly into the middle distance trying to think of new and interesting ways to describe Ovales sedges.

Morale Manager: Maddie

Maddie (in dog years, who knows?), is our morale manager, who can usually be found directly underfoot, very certain she's helping, looking unbearably cute.
...She's helping. She's definitely helping.