Understand, Protect, & Grow

Our changing climate poses one of the most far-reaching and complicated challenges humans have ever faced. While the solutions will come from a variety of sources, we can turn to native plants to gain insight into this critical issue. Careful study of native plants’ responses to climate change can help us understand the scope and speed of change. Learning how to support native plants and habitats helps build the resilience necessary to thrive in an uncertain world. Through native plant horticulture, research, conservation, and education, we’re identifying patterns and looking for solutions to the climate crisis. 

Native plants form the foundation of ecosystems across the planet. Starting with the tiniest insects and invertebrates, native plants nourish and provide habitat for survival. In turn, those insects feed other organisms in a complex and dynamic web of relationships. This vast biodiversity is one of the reasons for us to find hope in the face of a changing climate. By studying biodiversity, starting with native plants, the Garden helps build an understanding of how to adapt and thrive in virtually any condition.

Breathe in and exhale. With that breath, you are exchanging carbon dioxide and oxygen with plants — a precious interplay that we often overlook. Beyond this, plants, specifically native plants, provide year-round food, pollen, and nectar for caterpillars, bees, and a host of other pollinators that enable California’s vast food production system. Since time immemorial, native plants have provided fiber, building materials, and food to support entire civilizations. In return, humans have thanked, cared for, and tended plants. We invite you to reconnect to the natural world by planting and spending time among native plants.

California’s Mediterranean climate means that we experience a seasonal drought from around May until about October nearly every year. Planting native plants that are adapted to our Mediterranean climate and more specifically, your local conditions, will help ensure their success with little to no irrigation, once established. Additionally, harvesting rainwater through grading berms, swales, rain tanks, and laundry to landscape systems, can help reduce your water bill and your impact on a precious resource. 

If you’re ready for a garden that is full of life and saves you water, time, and money, here is a guide to the most beautiful and reliable native plants available for our local gardens. 

One of the best reasons to garden with native plants is that native plants attract native wildlife. Starting with pollinators and beneficial insects, native plants support diverse systems that will add color, activity, and interest to your garden. 

Whether you are looking for year-round color, seasonal interest, or a certain growth form, native plants can provide the attractive beauty you want in your garden. From plants that remain green year-round to those that go summer dormant, there is beauty in the seasonality of native plants. A curated selection of native plants can produce year-round blooms, even in the heat of summer. 

For many people, gardening is about growing food. Adding native plants in and around vegetable gardens can have a variety of benefits for your harvest. Native plants attract native pollinators, which, in turn, help ensure bountiful fruits and seeds. Incorporating native plants into any garden can also help attract and retain beneficial insects, from ladybugs that eat aphids to beeflies that eat the larvae of numerous pest insects. 

You can plant natives with your vegetables. One thing to keep in mind is to keep plants with similar needs together. This means planting water-tolerant natives close to heavily irrigated vegetables and growing more drought-loving natives farther away.