Going Native Garden Tour 2019

South: Sat, May 04, 2019, 10:00am to 4:00pm
North: Sun, May 05, 2019, 10:00am to 4:00pm

Since 2003, the Bay Area's pioneering native garden tour has showcased gardens featuring California native plants. This community-based tour is free of charge to the public. Each tour features up to 60 gardens, most of them private home gardens, which are open on tour day in a do-it-yourself, open house format.  Native plant sales at select gardens. Free of charge to the public. Registration required at GNGT.ORG. Organized by the California Native Plant Society (Santa Clara Valley Chapter) in association with UCCE Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County.

Native Horticultural Symposium - 2016

Creating Habitat in the Dryland Garden

The symposium was held on Saturday, September 17, 2016, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills. 

Landscaping with California native plants is a proven technique for creating low-water, low-maintenance gardens that also provide refuge for wildlife and repair the damage to our urban and suburban areas.  As gardeners, we appreciate pretty flowers and beautiful greenery, but a garden can also provide movement by feeding and housing our fellow creatures. Watching hummingbirds nectar, seeing a caterpillar grow and change, and viewing baby birds as they leave their nest for the first time are delightful experiences that transform how we view our gardens’ role within the local ecosystem.

Videos of the presentations at the 2016 symposium are linked below:  

• The Importance of Being Local for Habitat and Design: Judith Larner Lowry, author and owner of Larner Seeds, talks about the deep reasons to use locally native plants in the habitat garden from the perspectives of the purist, the bees, and the designer.
• Native Bees Need You!: Sara Leon Guerrero, researcher at the Urban Bee Lab, U.C. Berkeley, describes how native pollinators benefit our gardens, showing some of the most common local bees with their favorite nectar and pollen-rich plants to grow in your garden.
•  The Butterflies of San Francisco: How They Relate to Your Garden: Liam O’Brien, illustrator, lepidopterist, and conservationist, describes the butterflies in the tiny geographical area of San Francisco.
• Hedgerows as Habitat: Frederique Lavoipierre, Director of Education at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, shows how you can take a boring, monoculture hedge and transform it into a magnet for wildlife.
• Designing your Habitat Garden: Bart O’Brien, author and Manager, Regional Parks Botanic Garden, describes easy, practical steps which you can take now to create a landscape rich in wildlife and movement.

CNPS Santa Clara Valley Native Plant Sales

Conserve water and make your garden beautiful with California native plants. Bring habitat value and a sense of place to the garden. Our chapter nursery has periodic plant sales through our online store and a sale at our nursery in the fall. An illustrated list from Calflora of the species (this does not include cultivars) we have grown at the nursery is available here. The list includes plants that may not currently be available -please check the online store for availability.

https://california-native-plant-society-santa-clara-valley-chapter.square.site/

After purchasing plants online, scheduled pickup is available at the nursery. Plant orders can also be delivered between Belmont and San Jose. Please see the online store for details.

You do not have to be a member to buy plants from our online store. We will do everything we can to fill your orders quickly and get your plants to you, but we are all volunteers. We are adding new stock on a regular basis, so if you don't see what you want, please keep checking the store. We do not have an online inventory outside the store -- what you see in the store is what's available.

All proceeds from the nursery go toward supporting our Chapter's activities. Thanks so much for your support!

2024 Fall Sale

Fall is an excellent time to plant, when the summer heat has dissipated and rain is just around the corner. Come spring, you will be rewarded with a stunning display of wildflowers. Our Fall Sale will be held on October 19, 2024. 

Our Native Plant Sales provide the majority of the operating funds for the Chapter.