Designing a Native Plant Garden, Part IV: Where To Buy Native Plants

We are almost to the stage in the process of designing a native garden that goes beyond planning to actually planting - but not quite yet!  First, we have to figure out where to find these elusive native plants!  Unfortunately, buying native plants to incorporate into your design is not as easy as popping down to the garden center at your local home improvement store and picking up a few native manzanitas and salvias.  It's not even as simple as paying a visit to your local nursery, since most retail (and wholesale) nurseries dedicated to ornamental plants carry very few natives.  (At least that is true in my area; it may be different where you live.)  Finding native plants takes a little bit more effort.  And because of this additional effort, simply locating native plant nurseries and scoping out what varieties are available warrants a step of its own in this grand process.

First, let's recap our progress so far:
Step 1: Do your research!  (Hit the books and the internet to find out just what it takes to grow natives.)
Step 2: Analyze your site  (Grab your tape measure and sketch pad to find out what will grow best in your garden.)
Step 3: Visit local native gardens  (Head out to see how others have designed their native gardens.)

Step 4: Discover Where to Buy Native Plants... and Create Your Shopping List

Scout out nearby native plant nurseries to find sources for your plant material.  I purposefully listed this step before finalizing your planting plan because it can be all well and good to incorporate lots of wonderful plants you've read about and seen in other gardens into your plan, but if you can't actually find them for sale near you... it can be very discouraging.  (I speak from experience.)

If you have no idea where to begin, try using Calscape's nursery finder tool.  If you live in the Bay Area or Los Angeles area, you're in luck; if you live in the middle of one of the big empty patches on the map like I do, you'll have to look a little harder.  Try a Google search for nurseries that carry native plants.

Start to compile a list of nurseries that carry the varieties and cultivars you have selected for your landscape.  Scouring their websites is a good way to do this, as many nurseries keep updated plant lists.  Or you could always call ahead and ask!  (Probably the better way to go, actually.)  Finding your plants can either be a fun treasure hunt-type project, or an extremely frustrating undertaking.  Or, like it was for me, a little bit of both.  Where I live in the San Joaquin Valley, there are very few nurseries that carry a wide selection of natives.  Collecting all of my plants required three separate full-day trips to nurseries an hour or more away (two in Sonora, one in Davis, one in Prather), a visit to a local native plant propagator, a trip to the fall plant sale hosted by my local chapter of the California Native Plant Society, an online seed order from Theodore Payne, a quick stop by Las Pilitas Nursery while in San Luis Obispo for my cousin's wedding, and a trip to a local concrete recycling facility by the sewage plant that also doubles as a nursery and happens to grow a few natives for Caltrans landscaping projects (I was sure I'd turned into the wrong driveway that time!!).  Like I said, it was a treasure hunt!


When selecting your plants, remember that bigger is not better!  Choose smaller container sizes: 4-inch pots and 1-gallon containers are best.  Smaller plants suffer less transplant shock when they are planted out into the garden and quickly catch up to their larger counterparts in size.  They are also less expensive!  In some cases, you might want to go even smaller and choose to start your own plants from seed.  This is especially practical and cost efficient when you need more than a few of one type of plant to cover a large area.  And, if you live far from native plant nurseries like I do, seeds can be shipped at minimal extra cost.  Annuals, perennials and some shrubs are good candidates for starting from seed.  I've had good success with buckwheats, lupines, blue-eyed grass, columbine and of course poppies; I plan to start some grasses and milkweed next.



Online order seed sources:

Larner Seeds

Theodore Payne Foundation

I highly recommend finding your local chapter of the California Native Plant Society and visiting their native plant sale(s).  Most chapters have annual or biannual plant sales that are well worth checking out.  These can be great local sources for regionally-appropriate native plants and seeds.

A few of California's larger and well-known native plant nurseries are listed below:

California Flora Nursery, near Santa Rosa (north of San Francisco)

Yerba Buena Nursery, Half Moon Bay (south of San Francisco)

Las Pilitas, near San Luis Obispo (Central Coast)

Matilija Nursery, Moorpark (north Los Angeles area)

Theodore Payne Nursery, Sun Valley (Los Angeles area)

Tree of Life Nursery, near San Juan Capistrano (south Los Angeles area)

For more nurseries, try using Calscape's nursery finder tool.

Don't forget to ask for California native plants at your local nursery.  You never know what they might have tucked away somewhere, or what they might be able to order for you.  And by asking specifically for natives, we create a demand that nurserymen will begin to recognize.

Next up in the series, Part V: Finalize Your Plan & Buy Plants

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