Resources for Native Plants
Come here to expand your knowledge of native plants! Choose from pdfs, recommended books, and other websites. Happy gardening!
USEFUL RESOURCES
Easy, quick reading. And best of all, it's free! Many of these files I can no longer find on their respective webpages, but if they do, then they are linked out to the credited source.
- North West Plants Field Guide 2012 Great little field guide for Native Plants with quick, concise information.
- Gardening with Oregon Native Plants West of the Cascades (pdf) Amazing guide for native plants from West Cascades Oregon, which shares similar native plants to B.C. Highlights wildlife values for each species. I just wish they had more plants written up!
- Native Herbaceous Plants in our Gardens Very wonderful and informative native plant series that organizes plants into different ecosystems.
- Garry Oak Ecosystem Gardener's Handbook The best resource to create a Garry Oak meadow, with lots of great pictures and ideas. The website www.goert.ca also has an extensive plant propagation page that is incredibly useful and accurate reading.
- Rare plants of British Columbia (pdf) Compilation of rare plants that are available from nurseries in British Columbia that I have found and can offer to your garden.
- source: http://victoria.tc.ca/Environment/Botany/rare.html
- Northwest Ethnobotany Field Guide (pdf) A University of Oregon study project compiled by students that has information about plant used by First Nations peoples. Great resource for those interested in Ethnobotany.
- Native Plants For Birds and Butterflies (pdf) A specific plant list to help songbirds and butterflies of the Victoria region. Strong overlap for Vancouver.
- Hellebore Guide (pdf) A great intro into the wonderful Helleborus family of plants by our friends at www.Pheonixperennials.com.
- Articles on Gardening in the Pacific Northwest. Articles on various gardening topics for Gardeners in British Columbia. This is from our own website.
- Maps and Keys There are many sites with range maps for native plants, but none are very accurate for British Columbia, and often contradict eachother. I believe this is the best Distribution map for native plants, although Pojar and Mckinnon is also very good. The website has the complete Illustrated Flora of B.C., which is detailed and probably too much information for the average reader, but here it is if you are interested.
- https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/pubs/docs/Mr/MR_IllustratedFlora.htm
USEFUL BOOKS
- Wild Flowers of the Pacific Northwest by Lewis J. Clark and John Trewlawny, 1998. Probably the best book for gardeners who want to plant native wildflowers. Lots of plants, information is beautifully written and informative with little tidbits of useful secrets from the author, and full color pictures. Only downside is it's not cheap, but worth every penny!
- Gardening with Native Plants of the Pacific Northwest by by Arthur Kruckeberg and Linda Chalker-Scott, 2019. A newly updated third edition to one of the foremost books on using native plants in garden settings. Great information for those just getting into native plants with full colour photos and easy language to understand.
- Trees Shrubs and Flowers to Know in Washington and British Columbia by C.P. Lyons and Bill Merilees, 1995. Great little wealth of information for plants, particularily in identifying varieties, and other species specific bits of information, along with good habitat descriptions for BC.
- Naturescape British Columbia: The Stewardship Series. Short, but useful in identifying the ranges of native plants specific for Ecotypes in British Columbia.
USEFUL WEBSITES
- Best Plants for Wildlife! Our own webpage that lists easily obtainable native plants for attracting pollinators, butterflies, and songbirds in the Vancouver region.
- Biodiversity of the Central Coast A great website with species information and understandable identification. Learn to identify native plants with ease. Also has fauna of British Columbia.
- 8 Tips for a Meadow Garden from John GreenLee A great article for creating a wildlife meadow garden. John GreenLee is one of our inspirations, and we hope you find his work enjoyable and informative as well.
If any of the links are broken, feel free to let us know!