About The Plant Native
Native plants.
Made easy.
For everyone.
We help homeowners across North America put native plants where the lawn used to be. No Latin name required, no degree required, no whole-yard overhaul. Just one plant at a time.
750,000+
Visits a Year
205+
Native Plant Profiles
7
Regions Covered
2021
Site Founded
What we do
We turn native plant research into something you can plant on Saturday.
Many other native plant resources are written for an academic crowd. We are here for the just-starting-out.
We promise
Plant profiles that are accurate and friendly
205+ deep, beginner-friendly profiles for plants that are relatively easy to source and are great for landscaping. Every profile includes what the plant looks like in your yard, and then gets into tips and nerd storytelling.
We deliver
Regional guides made for real yards
We cover seven North American regions because what works in coastal Maine is not what works in Phoenix. Pick your region, get the short list, plant something this weekend.
We provide
Shame-free answers to beginner questions
Here are the FAQs we wish we had found: will this look messy, what will the neighbors think, what is a cultivar? Count on us for an answer that is shame-free, joyful, and scientifically sound.
Why this exists
I felt a little lonely when I started out.
Sorry to take you back to spring 2020, but that’s where this story begins. During the dark days of COVID, I planted a patch of native plants in my suburban yard. I had no idea what I was doing, so I picked plants with marketing-polished names: sweetshrub, redbud, and cardinal flower.
Within a month, I saw my first hummingbird. It was the first one I had ever seen in my yard. I barely gave the new plants attention and they had thrived.
I went looking for books and websites to tell me what I could plant next. Everything I found was academic, buried in language that made it sound like I might make a mistake. But I knew from experience: native plants were beginner-friendly.
So I started The Plant Native as a place for others just starting out, with the info I wished I had.
If you found this site looking up a specific plant you saw in a yard or on Instagram, welcome. You are exactly who The Plant Native is for.
—Emily Lessard
The team
A small team of real gardeners, all writing to one rule: keep the weird.
The Plant Native is a small team of writers covering native plants across North America, one yard at a time.
Contributor
Emily Lessard
Started The Plant Native in 2021 and edits every page before it goes up. Gardens outside Philadelphia.
Contributor
Rachel Toward
Keeps the site growing: researching, editing and running our written interviews with growers and gardeners.
Contributor
Dawna Kelley
Writes about the plants she grows at home and photographs them in every season, mess included.
Contributor
Louise Lerner
A science writer at the University of Chicago by day and a gardener on the weekends.
Contributor
Becky Band Jain
A communications consultant and former VP of the Wild Ones Nation’s Capital Chapter, converting her Maryland yard to natives.
Contributor
Kat William Hiland
An Ohio native studying horticulture at Temple University. Favorite flower: any magnolia.
Our editorial promise
Every fact traces back to a credible source.
We write like we’re talking to a friend, but we’re also here for science. Every article and plant profile we publish is cross-referenced against institutional sources and peer-reviewed research. You’ll find our sources at the bottom of every page.
01
We name our sources.
Every profile lists the institutional and academic sources behind it: Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, NC State Extension, Xerces Society, USDA, Mt. Cuba Center trial data, and peer-reviewed journals. No anonymous “experts.”
02
We review and revise.
Every plant profile, guide and FAQ shows the date we last updated it. When the science updates, the page updates. When a reader catches an error, we fix it and credit them if they want the credit.
03
A named human is accountable for every page.
Humans verify every plant fact against our trusted sources. The byline on every page is a real person who edited and approved the piece. No anonymous AI output, no unverified facts.
04
We disclose who pays for this.
The site ran founder-funded from 2021 to 2026. We added Raptive ads in 2026 to pay our writers and contributors. We do not have sponsored content. The Plant Native is independently owned.
Featured in
Where our work has shown up.
When this site started, it got 10 visitors a day (thanks, Mom!). Thanks to the generosity of other writers, partners and blogs, fellow plant nerds now stop by more than 750,000 times a year.
Recommended as a resource by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell Cooperative Extension and Virginia Cooperative Extension.
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