From a small tree to a large shrub, the Vine Maple has elegant form and texture. Airy and delicate, often multi-stemmed, this native is as beautiful as any imported species. 

A charming native, similar to and often found with Vine Maple, the Douglas Maple also has brilliant fall color. Twigs and buds are red in the winter, adding to its year-round beauty. Use it to lighten and brighten a conifer planting, in a mixed border, or as an attractive specimen. 

This large native maple is handsome all year, and a good tree for wildlife. It can easily dominate the area where its planted. The Big-leaf Maple goes well with Alders, Ninebark, and Douglas Spirea along a waterway.

A good choice for bird-lovers, this is an important riparian plant. Not a tree for the small yard, it is important along streams and in wetlands. If you have a spot for it, you can expect to enjoy the wildlife attracted to it: birds use alders for cover and nesting, eating the seeds, buds, and the insects they find there. 

Often found in avalanche chutes, this is perhaps the prettiest of the small native alders. Use the Sitka Alder for its beauty, erosion control, bird habitat and stream enhancement.

Western Serviceberry, also known as Saskatoon, is a delightful native shrub cultivated for its racemes of adorable, 5-petaled, star-shaped, white-pink flowers, and its fine autumn color and fruit.

A distinctive native, the Madrone is prized by those who have it, and worth trying to find a spot to put it. Because it resents excessive water, it is a good choice for dry sites along with manzanita, mountain mahogany, and other drought tolerant species. Excellent provider of food and habitat for a wide variety of wildlife. 

A well-known native of our east side high desert, Sagebrush is well adapted to hot dry sites. Its silvery gray foliage is a good contrast to green-leafed plants. Use it with other drought tolerant species, massed, or as an unclipped screening hedge. 

Wild Ginger is an excellent native groundcover for a shady, moist, but well drained area. We use this with ferns, wild bleeding heart, vancouveria and other native shade-lovers for really pleasing combinations.

This eye-catching native herbaceous perennial has become a very popular plant recently for its pollinator-attracting abilities. A critical component in the diet of Monarch caterpillers, Showy Milkweed is now an essential element to include in your ladnscape! 

Cherry-red bark distinguishes this native shrubby birch, with its red and yellow fall color. Tiny dark green leaves are 1-2in long and nearly as wide, turning a good yellow in the fall, often with amber or red tones. Its quite manageable character make the Water Birch a fine choice for the garden.

This is the most beautiful of all trees, in my opinion, with their rich red-brown bark in long soft fibers, and bright yellowish-green foliage changing to purple-green in the cold of winter. These majestic trees are fertile, fast-growing, stately and very long-lasting. Then, of course, there's their earthy elemental scent. I plant thousands of them and love every one.

This beautiful lacy native of our coastal areas is a choice landscape tree. Densely pyramidal with soft, graceful, blue-green foliage, it can be placed where it will be admired as a specimen, or it can be planted closely for a graceful, decorative screen or hedge.

In the wild, these beautiful, fast-growing North American natives thrive in wetlands by spreading via underground stolons and creating dense thickets. Their dark-red branches provide a stunning aesthetic contrast with snowy landscapes in wintertime.

Sometimes a thicket-forming shrub, in its tree form, Douglas Hawthorn can grow to thirty feet. Its stout branches develop into a compact, rounded crown. Leaves are sharply toothed, but unlike the invasive species that have escaped from cultivation, these are only slightly lobed. The fruit is crab-apple size, very dark red or purplish, looks black.

Wavy-leaf Silk Tassle is a familiar native species here in Southern Oregon, and because of its hearty foliage and long, elegant catkins, is a unique and pleasing ornamental specimen.

Use this popular native shrub in an informal hedge, among other natives at the edge of a woodland, or on a hillside hard to water. Branches are good for floral arrangements. Birds eat its fruits only when hungry! but welcome its shelter in the winter.

This popular North American native boasts quite a tall, stately presence as a biennial herb. It's tall, spreading habit allows it to reach up to 6 feet tall. It's large, lobed leaves and easily recognizable flower umbels make this a great choice for a border planting or riparian project.

Sometimes called Arrow-wood for its strong, straight, young branches, or Cream Bush for its foamy clusters of flowers and seeds, this is one of our choice natives. It blooms in summer, from June to August. Use this massed on a hillside, as a specimen in a drier location, or along a water course.

Discovered by Lewis and Clark in 1806, this native is still somewhat rare in the nursery industry. The grass-green needles turn a bright gold in autumn before dropping to reveal the branch structure and cones. This is a good additon to a mixed conifer planting, providing seasonal interest.

Bright yellow flowers, bronzy new growth of stout evergreen foliage, attractive dark blue berries in summer, and colorful, red-purple tones in winter---what more could you ask! Add drought tolerance (once established) and good wildlife habitat, and you've got an 'ultimate' plant! A native, it adapts well to many situations. 

This evergreen native spreads slowly, isn't invasive, and is a good plant for use under large shrubs or trees. It should be included in a native woodland, and is an appealing foundation plant. 

Crabapples are excellent wildlife plants: butterflies feed on the nectar; the leaves are food for their larvae. Pheasants, sapsuckers, woodpeckers, jays, robins, and more eat the fruits. Hummingbirds use the nectar.

This adorable herbaceous perennial loves to thrive in wet areas, and would look excellent planted next to a pond, stream, or fountain. Small yellow flowers add a sunny accent to the scene.

One of the earliest natives to leaf out and bloom each spring, Oso-berry is charming with its white flower clusters hanging from the tips of branches. Delightful among the still dormant maples and alders of its riparian haunts. Allowed to grow into a thicket, Indian Plum provides cover and nesting sites. A valuable restoration plant when used along stream banks or in a woodland.

Often recommended for erosion control, most folks plant this beauty for its fragrant June-July blossoms. Seed are eaten by many birds including grosbeaks, juncos, thrushes, bluebirds, flickers, quail, and the chickadee-finch group. It's a good nectar plant for several butterflies, too.

A tall, multi-stemmed shrub with attractive shredding bark. It can be trained as a small tree, but is pleasing as a large, informal shrub. Fast-growing, it can create a screen, hold a bank, or add interest to a mixed border.

A large, lovely native, I prefer this to Ponderosa (but not by much). Its long needles in bundles of three are a blued green and sometimes twisted. Handsome bark, deeply fissured on older trees, and stately form lend dignity to its presence.

The most common native pine in Southern Oregon, the Ponderosa is a beautiful landscape choice where there is room for its great height. its open conical form in youth becomes a tall spire with age. Best for large areas, it loves the hot, dry slopes of its native range. 

What would a damp woodland be without Sword Fern?! Fortunately for gardeners, this is easy to plant and grow. The uncurling fiddle-heads signal spring, and the developed fronds add structure and texture. 

Beloved native of the Pacific Northwest, this is a great landscape plant where there is room for its mature size. It is essential in a mixed conifer planting, a grand specimen where its scale is appropriate. Douglas Firs are easily identified by their cones, with their distinctive three-part bracts.

This majestic native tree is best seen in the parklike expanses of the Willamette Valley where their handsome branching structure and noble form are outstanding. If you have an Oregon White Oak on your land, cherish and protect it! Use it where it will have excellent drainage, doesn't get too wet. This is a tree for many generations.

A good wildlife plant, this plants' berries (decorative yellow or red before turning black) are eaten by grosbeaks, woodpeckers, jays, robins and tanagers. Insect-eating species are also attracted to Cascara; kinglets, bushtits, chickadees, and nuthatches. Leaves are used by the swallowtail and other butterflies. Bears, foxes and raccoons enjoy the fruit, too!

Prickly Currant is a native shrub, found across much of the northern US In sunlit areas this currant grows erect, but in shade the branches may trail on the ground. 

Sierra Currant is a cheerful plant desirable for its clusters of pink and white flowers hanging below its branchlets. A nice woodland choice, it is also useful in the shrub border.

Many gardeners who love this plant do not realize it is a native, found in our Pacific Northwest forest. While Red-flowering Currant survives under less than desirable conditions, its real beauty comes when it is nurtured with ample water and good soil. The blue-black fruits are appreciated by the birds.

If you have a spare corner, or better, a place for a thicket, consider the Nootka Rose. Bloom is charming and the fruits, or hips, add color to the fall and winter landscape. Essential in a wildlife garden that has room for them, they are useful on restoration projects.

Usually found on stream banks or wetland edges, the Clustered Rose is the daintiest of our native roses. Sometimes wispy and delicate, it can form thickets, too. Try this in as understory, where it will get occasional water.

Pretty blossoms in May to July and the red hips that follow are cheerful and bright. It naturally grows in moist woods and along stream banks in the mountains, so a lightly shaded site that has some regular water is preferred. Like other native roses, it provides excellent wildlife habitat. Try this in a corner or along a border.

Thimbleberry is one of those plants that contribute to the overall 'feel' of Oregon's woodlands. Big maple-like leaves are soft and downy, inviting to touch. Good soil-binding characteristic adds to its value for erosion control or disturbed sites. The large soft berries are eaten by jays, quail, finches, wrens and bushtits.

It has been determined that the Elderberry of this region is more properly designated mexicana, so that is the name we will use. Whatever it is called, this is a great plant! Use this handsome plant in the wild garden, where its spectacular displays of flower and fruit can be enjoyed.

The Coastal Redwoods are the world's tallest trees, and a walk through a redwood forest is awe-inspiring. They are appropriate for use in the landscape, and will thrive with lawn watering. Even in cultivation it is a large tree, but can be judiciously pruned or limbed up without destroying its beauty. 

With its distinct, pyramidal form and height, the Giant Redwood is identifiable from some distance. It grows rapidly as a young tree- we've had them stretch as much as six feet in one year, but don't regularly expect that! Three feet a year is more common. This is a wonderful tree to live with. 

Another stunning native, the Douglas Spirea has pink to rose flowers in three-inch conical spikes. It is suitable for the shrub border, clustered in a bed of its own or in front of conifers, essential to a woodland. Butterflies enjoy the nectar and their larvae eat the leaves.

Soft blue-green leaves set off the small, pinkish-white, urn-shaped flowers where hummingbirds come for nectar. Plant this to offer shelter to birds and small animals, to control erosion, or to add a light texture to an informal hedge or woodland. Clusters of marble-sized white berries provide winter food when there's not much else available for birds. 

A magnificent specimen in a large area, Red Cedar can also be pruned and clipped for a graceful hedge. It adds a fine texture to a large conifer planting.

Considered one of the most beautiful of all conifers, use our native hemlock where a light, delicate texture and slender form is needed. Requiring at least dappled shade in hot summer areas and low elevations, plant it with other natives, like huckleberry, Englemann Spruce, Alpine Spirea, Mountain Hemlock, and Kinnikinnik, to create a cool, calm, woodland.