California is, botanically speaking, absurdly privileged. The state has more native plant species than any other in the continental United States, roughly 6,500, many of which exist nowhere else on earth. The chaparral hillsides outside Los Angeles look different from the redwood understory north of San Francisco, which look different from the Central Valley grasslands, which look different from the high Sierra meadows, which look nothing at all like the Mojave. Nevada, just over the border, adds Great Basin sagebrush steppe and Mojave desert to the conversation, an austere and deeply underrated plant palette with its own dedicated cast of characters.
If Willy Wonka were into plants instead of candy, he would definitely have a garden in California.
All of which means there is no single answer to “which native plants should I grow in California or Nevada.” There are a few thousand.
This guide doesn’t try to cover all of them. It covers the ones most likely to succeed in a home garden, organized by region, with enough specifics to get started and enough honesty to tell you when a plant is not right for your yard. It also covers the impostor question: what are all those plants in California and Nevada yards that everyone assumes are native but are actually from South Africa, Australia, or the Mediterranean? We’ll get to that, too.
We’re going to get into some stellar native plants, but before we do, an introduction:
Meet your new friend: CalSCAPE.
Let us give credit where credit is definitely due. There is an online tool that makes everything easier: CalSCAPE. CalSCAPE (California Native Plant Landscaping Exchange), run by the California Native Plant Society, is a database that lets you enter your zip code and get a list of native plants for your specific area. No matter where your yard is within the full buffet of California plant communities—coastal sage scrub, valley grassland, mixed evergreen forest, Mojave desert—they’ve got you.
How to use CalSCAPE
Enter your zip code. Filter by sun, water, and plant type. Get a list of species that are genuinely native to your backyard’s habitat. They even include links to native-friendly nurseries to find the plants you love.
Every species page includes photos, growing advice, and a list of nurseries in your area that carry it. It is the most useful single tool for native plant gardening in California, and it is free.
Nevada gardeners: CalSCAPE is California-specific.
For Nevada native plant sourcing, the Springs Preserve native plant database and the USDA PLANTS Database are the most reliable starting points.
Statewide standouts: the plants that work almost everywhere
Most native plants are regional specialists, adapted to specific conditions in specific places. A handful are different: native across such a wide range of California and Nevada habitats. Here are some of this wide-ranging California icons.
Ceanothus (California lilac)
The Ceanothus genus contains roughly 60 native California species ranging from low ground covers to 15-foot tree-like shrubs, blooming in shades from white through pale blue to deep cobalt. There is a Ceanothus for almost every California climate and garden situation.
The common denominator: full sun, excellent drainage, no summer water once established, and an explosive bloom in spring that turns the plant into a solid wall of blue and brings every native bee in the neighborhood to your yard.
Read our California lilacs (Ceanothus) profile for more.
Southern California: chaparral and coastal sage scrub
The landscape of Southern California from San Diego to Los Angeles and inland to the Inland Empire is chaparral and coastal sage scrub, two shrubland plant communities so intertwined that most homeowners couldn’t tell them apart.
They share a palette of aromatic shrubs, drought-adapted perennials, and scattered oaks that is both beautiful and nearly indestructible once established. The plants below are the workhorses of Southern California native gardening, the ones you’ll see at Theodore Payne, at Rancho Santa Ana, and in the yards of every native gardener who has been doing this for more than a season.
The Central Valley: an underrated palette
The Central Valley is the most transformed landscape in California: an agricultural region where native plants have been largely replaced over the past 150 years. What remains of the native palette, along restored river corridors and in patches of remnant valley grassland, is genuinely beautiful and surprisingly garden-worthy. Valley gardeners have access to plants adapted to the Central Valley’s specific combination of hot dry summers, cold wet winters, and heavy clay soils that most other regions don’t share.
Great Basin Nevada and the Mojave: the high desert palette
Nevada is a range of botanical territories. Most of the state falls into a cold desert environment dominated by sagebrush and bunchgrasses at elevations above 4,000 feet. It’s a tough place to be a plant, unless you’ve been there for thousands of years.
And then the southern tip of Nevada, around Las Vegas and the Mojave, is a different world: lower, hotter, with Mojave desert plants including Joshua trees and creosote bushes that don’t survive the harsh winters in northern Nevada. Both deserve their own attention.
California Native Nurseries
Norcal
- Blue Moon Native Garden (Carmel Valley)
- California Flora Nursery (Fulton)
- California Native Landscapes (Mill Valley)
- Central Coast Wilds (Santa Cruz)
- Down by the Bay (Hayward)
- Double Dogwood Nursery (Nevada County)
- East Bay Wilds Nursery (Oakland)
- Fairfax Native Plants (Fairfax)
- Friends of Sausal Creek Nursery (Oakland; check website for plant sales)
- Floral Native Nursery (Chico)
- Ghost Pine Native Plant Nursery (Redding; appt only)
- Grassroots Ecology Nursery (Palo Alto)
- Homegrown Habitats (Marin)
- Mountain Sage Native Nursery (Groveland)
- Native Here Nursery (Berkeley)
- Oaktown Nursery (Berkeley)
- Regan Biological & Horticultural Consulting Nursery (Carmel Valley)
- Ruth Bancroft Garden & Nursery (Walnut Creek)
- Siskiyou Arboretum Nursery (Yreka)
- Sonoma Native Plant Nursery at Sonoma Garden Park (Sonoma)
- Turtle Bay Nursery (Redding)
- UC Botanical Garden California Native Plants Nursery (Berkeley)
- UCSC Arboretum (Santa Cruz)
- Villager Nursery (Truckee)
- Watershed Nursery (Richmond)
- Walker Avenue Nursery (Santa Rosa; appt only)
- Watershed Nursery (Richmond)
- Wild at Heart Natives (Leggett)
- Yerba Buena Nursery (Half Moon Bay)
Central Valley
- Blossom Hill Natives (Oakdale)
- Blue Oak Nursery (Springville)
- Botanica Nursery and Gardens (Sebastopol)
- CalWild Landscapes (Loomis)
- Educated Gardener (Santa Margarita)
- Escondido Nursery (Galt)
- Intermountain Nursery (Prather)
- Las Pilitas Nursery (Santa Margarita)
- Mariposa Native Plants (Mariposa)
- Mother Natives (Sacramento)
- SacValley CNPS Nursery (Rancho Cordova; check website for plant sales and availability)
- Sacramento Valley Conservancy Nursery (Sacramento; check website for plant sale dates)
- Walkers Wildlands (Vista)
Socal
- Amongst the Flora (Los Angeles)
- Arroyo Seco Foundation Nursery (Pasadena)
- Artemisia Nursery (Los Angeles)
- Californica Nursery (Long Beach)
- Desert Straw House Nursery (Palm Springs)
- Grow Native Nursery at California Botanic Garden (Claremont)
- Huntington Botanical Gardens (Huntington)
- LA Native Plant Source (Los Angeles)
- Manzanita Nursery (Solvang)
- Matilija Nursery (Moorpark)
- Mission Blue Nursery (Brisbane)
- Moosa Creek Nursery (Valley Center)
- Native West Nursery (San Diego)
- Neel’s Nursery (Encinitas)
- OVLC Native Plant Nursery (Ojai)
- Santa Barbara Natives (Gaviota)
- Santa Barbara Botanic Garden Shop (Santa Barbara)
- Theodore Payne Foundation (Sun Valley)
- Tree of Life Nursery (San Juan Capistrano)
- Walkers Wildlands (Fallbrook)
- Walter Anderson Nursery (San Diego)
- Wings of Change (Fallbrook)
- Wildflower Seed Company (St. Helena)
Nevada
- Native Plant Farm (Washoe City, appt only)
- VitalBeeBuds (Gardnerville)
Wow, inspired yet?
California’s native plant community is one of the most active and well-resourced in the country. CalSCAPE will tell you exactly what’s native to your zip code. The Theodore Payne Foundation’s bloom hotline will tell you what’s blooming right now. The California Botanic Garden will show you what a yard can look like when you’ve been doing this for 80 years. Nevada gardeners, start at the Springs Preserve and work backward from there.
The common thread in all of it: start with one plant that fits your conditions, watch what it does, and let that be the reason you plant the next one. Nobody arrives at a yard full of native plants all at once. Happy planting!
Written by
Emily Lessard
Founder & Editor, The Plant Native
Emily Lessard is the founder and editor of The Plant Native, the site that helps homeowners across North America get started with native plants. She holds a Sustainable Landscapes certificate through the Pennsylvania Landscape & Nursery Association, is finishing a Native Perennial Garden Design Certificate at Temple University, and is the author of World of Native Plants (Quarto, February 2027). She gardens outside Philadelphia in the 8.3 Southeastern Plains ecoregion.
