Incorporating native plants into your landscape design is an easy way to help support your local wildlife. Native plants support native insects. If we keep our native insect populations healthy and thriving, it helps support native birds, who eat the insects as a food source. The chain of positive impacts that planting native plants provokes stretches throughout the food chain of organisms and can even help ward off potential threats such as blights or pest outbreaks.

Below, you’ll find some of the best native plants for Northern California.

1. ‘Sunset’ Manzanita

Name: Arctostaphylos × ‘Sunset’

USDA Hardiness Zones: 7 to 9

Size: 3 to 5 feet tall and 6 to 8 feet wide

Conditions: Full sun; well-drained soil

A coppery mound of soft foliage is what makes sturdy ‘Sunset’ manzanita a charming addition to the drought-tolerant landscape. New, petite reddish-orange leaves eventually turn shiny olive green. Urn-shaped white flowers in spring attract bumblebees. An excellent candidate for a hedge, this manzanita’s flowing, soft growth habit responds well to shearing. Most manzanitas are considered iron tough, with rough peeling bark and stiff leaves. ‘Sunset’ is soft and cuddly, and better yet, it’s drought tolerant and deer resistant.

2. Santa Cruz Island Buckwheat

Name: Eriogonum arborescens

Zones: 9 to 10

Size: 2 to 3 feet tall and 3 to 5 feet wide

Conditions: Full sun; well-drained soil

If attracting butterflies, bees, and birds without resorting to the usual prosaic perennials is for you, consider Santa Cruz Island buckwheat. Every summer, broad flat heads of pink flowers smother the gray-green rosemary-like foliage on this sturdy shrub. It is a frothy mound of heaven for butterflies. Spent flowers offer songbirds a rich source of food in fall. Once established, this drought-tolerant shrub has a thick, mounding growth habit that is attractive all year long. No summer water is needed. It thrives in coastal gardens, where wind and salt harm many landscape ornamentals.

3. Ceanothus ‘Joyce Coulter’

Name: Ceanothus ‘Joyce Coulter’

Zones: 8 to 10

Size: 2 to 3 feet tall and 6 to 8 feet wide

Conditions: Full sun to partial shade; well-drained soil, some summer water

In these days of California drought, a cool green lawn is forbidden, but a sea of lime green ‘Joyce Coulter’ is perfect. This sprawling woody ground cover is fast growing, uses little water, and requires minimal care once established. The coarse, rich green leaves are crinkled, thickly covering long stems. In the spring, clusters of medium blue flowers attract bees and butterflies. Songbirds eat the seed heads. As an added bonus, it is a fire-resistive landscape plant that helps protect a home in wildfire-prone areas.

4. Bush Anemone

Name: Carpenteria californica

Zones: 8 to 10

Size: 6 to 8 feet tall and 3 feet wide

Conditions: Full sun on the coast and partial shade inland; well-drained soil, some summer water

In the summer, baggy clusters of white anemone-like flowers gather at the ends of stems and branches of this slender native evergreen shrub. While some native shrubs and trees are workhorses in the landscape, bush anemone is considered royalty. When in full bloom, this plant brightens up a shaded, woodsy area. The shiny green leaves are attractive all year long. Use bush anemone as a specimen or as an informal hedge or screen. Just a little water during the dry summer months is all that is needed to keep bush anemone robust.

Terry Kramer is a horticulturist and site manager for the Humboldt Botanical Garden in Eureka, California.

Fine Gardening Recommended Products

The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees

Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs.

The Nature of Oaks reveals what is going on in oak trees month by month, highlighting the seasonal cycles of life, death, and renewal. From woodpeckers who collect and store hundreds of acorns for sustenance to the beauty of jewel caterpillars, Doug Tallamy illuminates and celebrates the wonders that occur right in our own backyards. He also shares practical advice about how to plant and care for an oak, along with information about the best oak species for your area.

Buy at Amazon

Planting in a Post-Wild World: Designing Plant Communities for Resilient Landscapes

Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs.

Featuring gorgeous photography and advice for landscapers, Planting in a Post-Wild World by Thomas Rainer and Claudia West is dedicated to the idea of a new nature—a hybrid of both the wild and the cultivated—that can nourish in our cities and suburbs.

Buy at Amazon

Pruning Simplified: A Step-by-Step Guide to 50 Popular Trees and Shrubs

Fine Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs.

Pruning Simplified shows you exactly how to do it. This must-have guide offers expert advice on the best tools for the job, specific details on when to prune, and clear instructions on how to prune. Profiles of the 50 most popular trees and shrubs—including azaleas, camellias, clematis, hydrangeas, and more—include illustrated, easy-to-follow instructions that will ensure you make the right cut the first time.

Buy at Amazon