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Plants on this list are species historically native to San Francisco that we grow. It is not a reflection of our current inventory. At any time we will have many or most of the plants on this list, but not all of them; species marked with an asterisk* are of particularly limited availability. Also note our current availability list is not an up to the minute reflection of our inventory. Please call (650) 851-1668 for current availability information.

The text researched for the list of plants below is A Flora of San Francisco California, by John Thomas Howell, et al. As much of the city’s native plant communities had already been destroyed at the time the book was published in 1958, the book relies on the records of earlier botanists for much of its information, so it serves also as a historical record of the growth of the city, and the accompanying disappearance of the flora. Extensive quotes of botanists of different eras throughout the book describe scenes of San Francisco not seen for decades or centuries. If you know the city well, or are just an occasional visitor, it is fascinating to read through the book and find descriptions of the dunes of the Sunset when there were just a few beach cottages, or the grasslands of the Bayview hills before there were shipyards or projects, or the dogwoods growing in the “deep swamps near 6^th and Harrison”. And yes, we do have a few copies in for sale in the shop.

Also worth noting is that San Francisco, while still roughly 7 by 7 miles, was once a landscape of fairly diverse habitats, with different species occupying different areas. Attention should be paid to each individual plant’s light, water and soil requirements to ensure success. Less important a factor are the climate variations within the city – plants from the Sunset will adapt to Potrero Hill, and vice versa. Shade gardeners will find a decent but relatively short list of plants from this list – after all, there wasn’t a lot of shade to be had in the scrub and grassland that covered much of San Francisco before the introduction of Cypress, Eucalyptus, and Victorians.

*seldom available