Create Your Dream Garden 
Meghan’s Picks: Native Plant Database
Submitted by Meghan Shinn on August 13, 2010 – 7:00 pm4 Comments
Here’s a great resource if you’re interested in growing native plants. It’s the Native Plant Database at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. There are thousands of plant entries, all detailing the plants’ natural habitats, their growing requirements and other useful info, such as how to propagate them and what wildlife they attract (or don’t attract, such as deer!).
If you know what you’re looking for, you can look it up by its Latin or common name. Or if you’re just looking for some ideas for what to plant, you can search by your North American location, light requirement, soil type, time of bloom and more.
Visit the Native Plant Database
What is the website for this native plant database?
Hi Donna, you can find it at http://www.wildflower.org/plants.
Thanks for stopping by!
—Meghan Shinn, editor
Native Plant Database at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is an excellent resource. One important aspect of the site, is that it aligns itself with the USDA plant profile and photos as well, and the photos of individual native plants typically include a link to the USDA entry for the same plant; very useful. Now, if only they would also include links to on-line Flora of North America (when available, as the FONA project is not done yet), that would be even more useful. However, if one uses one of the links to the USDA Plant Profile page, the USDA always includes links to the Flora of North America entry when available, and to other pertinent sites for this species, including the wonderful Calphotos site (http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/) when photos of the subject plant species exist.
Mark, glad to hear you recommend the Native Plant Database too. Thanks for sharing the tips regarding the USDA site. I agree, Calphotos is a great resource. I also like the PlantFinder at the Missouri Botanical Gardens site (http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Alpha.asp). Aside from its cultivation info, I find it valuable for confirming plant names. They do a great job of presenting both the trademarked “selling names” of plants and the true cultivar names. We try to print both in Horticulture, when both exist.
—Meghan Shinn, editor