Deer-Resistant Picks

A fantastic garden cover crop and magnet for bees and syrphid flies. Lacy phacelia is largely a California species, but wild populations do occasio...

Occurring from British Columbia to Baja, spring gold is one of the first meadow plants to flower every year – typically first showing off its radia...

An iconic associate of vanishing meadows across the west. Despite the common name, California oatgrass is an extremely widespread meadow and savann...

An ancient and modern herbal remedy and wild food plant. Extremely long-lived and very early blooming – Fernleaf biscuitroot sometimes flowers shor...

Extremely attractive masses of cosmic-blue flowers rise up to a bit over 2-feet in height on this ultra-showy plant. Found throughout the inland No...

A charming canary-yellow wildflower with exploding seed capsules. Occurring across much of Western North America, the canary violet grows up to a d...

Our Most Deer-Resistant Plant! Occurring from British Columbia to California, this diminutive iris-relative grows ridiculously well in very wet, bo...

A beautiful blue/green/grey low maintenance turf and ornamental grass. Native to the Pacific Coast (from British Columbia to Mexico), sand fescue i...

This is not a Northwestern Native, but rather is a plant of the central and southern plains and the desert southwest (roughly Nebraska to Californi...

Humble toad rush is one of our favorite plants. At only 2 to 6-inches tall, this annual grass-like plant scarcely gets any attention. Yet for us it...

Edible and extremely drought tolerant Naturally occurring from southern BC southward to California, slimleaf onion arises in the spring with thin, ...

A rain garden plant for rare bees. Appearing like plant out of time, Navarretia is one of those few native wildflowers that still sometimes persist...

A mounding, tufted, native fine-leaved fescue for wild lawns, septic drain fields, parks, pet enclosures, and more. Western fescue is a widespread ...

Slough sedge is a cornerstone species in many damp meadows and wetlands along the West Coast. It extends from California to southern Alaska, and i...

One of the larger and more striking members of the Lomatium genus, Columbia biscuitroot (or Columbia desert parsley) is a native of the Columbia Ri...

Edible and extremely drought tolerant Naturally occurring from southern BC southward to California, slimleaf onion arises in the spring with thin, ...

A slender, fast-growing annual grass for quick soil cover. Almost true to its name, three week fescue can grow from seed to maturity very quickly!...

An extremely showy plant! Much like its relative arrowleaf balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata), Puget balsamroot forms clumps of thick, rough-textu...

One the most esteemed wild food plants of the continent ramps (aka wild leeks) are native to the woodlands of eastern North America -- yet we’ve fo...

Sicklekeel lupine reminds us of its close relative, riverbank lupine. The two have some physical similarities, and a tolerance for life in difficul...

A tenacious, architecturally beautiful, and under-appreciated plant with numerous uses. Found almost nationwide, path rush takes is named for its r...

An infinitely more attractive alternative to that non-native dwarf mondo grass (Ophiopogon japanicus) sold in big box nurseries…this beautiful, clu...

Long late-season blooms, and food for butterflies. We don’t know much about starting pearly everlasting from seed, but this perennial member of the...

This is a resilient and under-appreciated grass for damp spaces and wet meadows.   Spike bentgrass can hold ground against invasive reed canary gr...