Support your local non-profit native nurseries: There are a few native only nurseries on the San Francisco peninsula who grow from local genetic stock. They primarily contract for restoration programs, but some also sell to the public. CNPS Yerba Buena purchases from nurseries like these for our larger projects. Each of them take and rely on volunteers (during non-Covid times, check for current protocol) and all deserve donations of time and money when you can spare it.

We urge you to learn why using local genetic stock source is important for many plants and support your closest neighborhood native plant nursery.

Here are a few that we love to work with:

• Literacy for Environmental Justice in the Bayview, as the name implies this innovative organization works towards improving literacy of environmental justice for the community in a long neglected area of San Francisco. Their award winning youth program is a true inspiration for the city while creating an outstanding quality of native plants for local open spaces.
• Sutro Stewards nursery on Mt. Sutro is a small site oriented program dedicated to the gradual restoration of the 19 acre publicly accessible open space owned by UC San Francisco.  The 900 foot “mountain” was transformed into a forest, primarily of Australian Blue Gum Eucalyptus, in a tax avoidance scheme by the former owner and San Francisco philanthropist Adolph Sutro in the late 1800’s. Formerly it included many of the unique biomes of the Franciscan Bioregion including native grasslands, wildflower meadows and coastal scrub.
• Mission Blue Nursery, a San Bruno Mountainwatch program, grows from seed and cuttings of many of the special plants in most intact of the Franciscan Bioregion. While the bulk of their plants go to local restorations, they also offer plants for sale to the community by appointment and with occasional public sales.