Frequently asked questions

For detailed sources of our information, please visit Our data.

During this transition phase, the original version of Calscape will remain operational at legacy.calscape.org. To avoid confusion with search engines, access will be password-protected. Please contact us to obtain a user ID and password (you will only need to enter it once).

1. Click Sign Up in the upper right corner of Calscape.org.
2. Select "For my personal use."
3. Enter your email and choose a passcode.
4. Agree to the Terms of Service and privacy policy by checking the box.
5. Click on "Confirm account."
6. Check your email for a message from Calscape and click the link to verify your email address.
7. Complete the form with your name, phone number, and other details.
8. Start browsing plants to create a plant list.

You should be able to login to your old Calscape account. Click 'Forgot Your Password?' to update your password and regain access your account.  

During the migration to the new site, users who have recently created accounts or updated plant lists from March 26- to May 5th will not have been migrated. We will be transferring these accounts over the next few days. If you prefer, you can start fresh by creating a new account.

To set up the account for your professional landscape business, you’ll need to have:

• An email account for your business (only one email account can be used for your business, so you will have to share it with your employees)
• A business license number (if applicable)
• Photos of projects are highly recommended (max photo size 2 MB)
• Your logo (if available)
• Website, contact information, services provided
• Click “Sign Up” in the upper right corner of the website
• Click “To list my landscaping business”

Detailed instructions are available here (last updated May 2024).

To set up the account for your nursery, you'll need to have:

• An email account for your nursery (only one email account can be used for your business, so you will have to share it with your employees)
• Your nursery license/business number
• Photos of your business site and inventory are highly recommended (max photo size 2 MB)
• Your logo (if available)
• Website, contact information, services provided
• A plant list of your inventory, using scientific (botanical) names
• Click “Sign Up” in the upper right corner of the website
• Click “To list my nursery”

Detailed instructions are available here.

We verify landscape professionals by verifying their licenses and certifications, and then review their business website to ensure they specialize in landscaping with native plants. We encourage business owners to fill out as much information as possible, including their business logo, photos of their work, and other key details, to maximize visibility on Calscape.

• In a plant list: Click “Check Nursery Availability” in the upper right corner.
• On a page for an individual plant, select “Check Nursery Availability.”
• To find available plants that meet your needs: In the far left of the top navigation, roll over “Find Native Plants.” Then click “Search Native Plants.” Check the characteristics of plants you’re looking for. Also check “Available” under “Nursery Availability.”

• In the top navigation, click “Find nurseries” and enter the zip code you are searching.  

• The list that is displayed will show the nurseries in your search area. 

• Click the nursery name to learn more about the nusery in your area. 

• Go to a specific plant profile page. 

• On the top right click “print” and select either print plant labels or plant signs. 

• For plant signs, change your printer settings to have two signs printed per page. 

You can request edits to plant information. You can do this either through the Plant Addition Request Form here, or join our team to independently edit information. To become a volunteer, please submit a Calscape Volunteer Form here to get started. 

Calscape is committed to promoting the sharing of information about California native plants. However, the use of our photos and information is subject to certain conditions. Read on for details. 

For Photos with Calscape Copyright 

If the photo bears the Calscape copyright, individuals can request permission to use it for their specific purpose. We have a convenient form available for such requests, making the process streamlined and efficient. 

For Photos with Creative Commons License 

For all other photos, please check the specific Creative Commons license associated with the image. Each photo will have its own licensing information, and it's essential to adhere to the terms outlined in the license. If you have any questions or need clarification, feel free to reach out to the photographer directly for permission. 

You are welcome to use the information provided by Calscape, such as plant details and descriptions, for personal, educational, and non-commercial purposes. We request that you give credit to Calscape as follows: Information courtesy of Calscape.org (including a direct link to Calscape).  

Commercial use of the information provided by Calscape is strictly prohibited without prior written consent from the California Native Plant Society.  

If you have further questions or need assistance, don't hesitate to contact us at [email protected]. We appreciate your interest in contributing to the promotion of California native plants! 

Log in to Calscape. Under “Your Account” in upper right, click “Plant lists.” Select the list you want to access.

After doing a plant search that returns multiple plants:

1. Add one by one: Click the + sign on the little image of any plant you want to add.
2. Add multiple plants at once: Click "add all to list"
3. Select to the desired list

To add multiple plants to a plant list at once:

1. Navigate to the plant list you want to work with: Under "Your Account" in the upper right, click "Plant Lists."
2. In the image representing that plant list, click the three horizontal dots in the upper right.
3. Select "Batch Edit Plant List."
4. Enter one plant name per line.
5. Enter the names of plants to add. (Spell carefully.) You may use either scientific name or common name, but scientific names will yield more accurate results, as common names may vary or apply to more than one plant species/taxon.

To share your plant list, follow these steps:

• Log into your account and select “Plant lists” under “Your Account” in the upper right.
• Click on the three horizontal dots on the thumbnail image of the plant list you want to share.
• Choose "Share" to generate a unique URL.
• Copy the URL and paste it wherever you wish to share your plant list.

• From your account, navigate to the plant list of your choice. 
• Under “Your Account” in upper right, click “Plant lists.” Click the three horizontal dots at top of the thumbnail image for plant list. 
• Or, if you’re on the page for that plant list, click the three dots directly under the plant list name.  
• Select “edit plant list” and from there you can change the name of your plant list.  

Delete plants one at a time. 

• Navigate to the plant list you want to work with: Under “Your Account” in upper right, click “Plant lists.” Select the plant you want to delete. 
• Click three vertical dots on the little image of any plant you want to delete. Click “Delete plant.” 
• When popup appears, click “Continue.” 

Delete multiple plants at once from a plant list. 

• Under “Your Account” in upper right, click “Plant lists.”  
• In the image representing that plant list, click the three horizontal dots in the upper right. 
• Select “Batch edit plant list.” 

• From your account, navigate to the plant list of your choice. 

• Under “Your Account” in upper right, click “Plant lists.” Click the three horizontal dots at top of the thumbnail image for plant list. 

• Or, if you’re on the page for that plant list, click the three dots directly under the plant list name.  

• Select “Export to Excel.” 

• From your account, navigate to the plant list of your choice. 

• Under “Your Account” in upper right, click “Plant lists.” Click the three horizontal dots at top of the thumbnail image for plant list. 

• Or, if you’re on the page for that plant list, click the three dots directly under the plant list name.  

• Select “print plant labels” or “print plant signs”. Plant labels display a QR code that links to the plant profile. Plant signs have the QR code along with the description, wildlife supported, landscaping information, and a photo of the plant. 

• In the far left of the top navigation, roll over “Find native plants.” Then click “Search native plants.” 
• Near the top, in the box following “near,” enter location, then click Search button. You may enter an address, zip code, city or town name, county name, or name of a California state or federal park. 
• Tip: bookmark calscape.org/search to quickly get to the plant search! 

Use the search bar in the top right of any Calscape page. Enter common name or scientific (botanical) name. 

Once you have plant search results, simply copy your URL link on the webpage and share it publicly!

• “All” includes all plants whose scientific or common name contains the term you’ve entered. You might select this if you’re not sure what the plant’s genus is. 

• “Genus” includes all plants in the specific genus you’ve entered. Choose this when you know the genus and want to see only plants in that genus.

• In some cases, these results may be the same, but in some cases, they are somewhat different.

Yes! With our updated nursery directory and listings, you can include all the contact info of your nursery and the services you provide. You can also include a list of plants available without the quantities and prices, so the customer could get an idea of what you might have in stock but be guided to visit your nursery in person. 

A nursery can add a note to any species. For example, if the nursery has clarkias or other annuals available only in early spring, they set the quantity > 0. Then that plant will show up for the customer, and the nursery can add a note something like, “Available only Feb-April.” You can use notes to add anything you’d like the customer to know about a particular plant, such as whether a plan is currently in bloom. 

A nursery can update their profile to alert customers when they are not taking orders. Or the nursery can set all plant quantities to zero, which will also ensure no one can submit an order. 

That’s okay! The customer doesn’t see your quantities. 

For species you reliably have in stock, you may simply enter the size, the price, and any quantity greater than 0, and that plant will show up as available for the customer to order. 

After you receive an order, you can contact the customer directly and notify them if an item they ordered isn’t in stock, or anything else you’d like them to know. 

Customers will find plants on Calscape, the customers will submit order, then will receive confirmation message.

Once the nursery has prepared the order, the update the order status to notify the customer to pick up and pay at the nursery. 

First, set up your nursery account. Then upload your plant list, using the botanical names of the species. For plants available to customers to reserve, you simply need to include the price, size, and quantity of the species. You will always be able to contact the customer directly once they’ve placed an order, in case your inventory changes or if anything else comes up. 

Yes, you can! The number you set for plants in your inventory represents the maximum quantity a customer can include in a single order. This limit is intended to specify the maximum order size, not the stock level.  

The Garden Planner has four quick and easy steps. Simply click them one at a time, starting with Benefits, where you’ll select your garden priorities. Then you check your sun exposure, then your ecoregion, and, finally, your garden inspiration, the plant community in your ecoregion that you’d like to feature in your garden.

An ecoregion is a geographic area characterized by similar soil types, slopes, climate, and grouping of plants. Calscape ecoregions are those used in the Jepson Manual, by UC Berkeley.

First, on the Ecoregion step, click the Continue button.

Then you can simply click a region on the black and white map. As you roll over a region, the selected region will turn color.

Or you can scroll down through the list of ecoregions to find and click the ecoregion name that best suits where you live. (The list is organized from north to south.)

Choose an ecoregion that seems most likely. Complete the Garden Planner steps. If you think the results aren’t a good fit for where you live, click “Ecoregion” at the top of the page, and select an adjacent ecoregion and then do the remaining steps for the Garden Planner.

A garden inspiration is the plant community in your ecoregion that you’d like to feature in your garden. You can browse through the images of the options for plant community. You might look for which one most closely resembles the natural area around or nearest to where you live.

If you aren’t sure, select the plant community that best matches the natural environment where you live. To figure this out, you might click the image for each possible choice, and then review the images representing that plant community. Do this for each plant community you think might be native to where you live.

On the thumbnail image for that plant community, click the pill shape that indicates the number of photos, e.g., “5 photos.”

Click the name of the community that most closely resembles the natural environment near where you live. (Don’t click the image or the number of images.)

If you’d like to see which plants Calscape would suggest for multiple plant communities, that’s fine. Simply do the Garden Planner once for one plant community; then do it again, this time selecting a different plant community.

The regional garden guide divides some ecoregions into multiple areas. That allows the recommendations to be tailored to your site at an even more specific level. The regional garden guide also displays county borders, to aid you in making the most appropriate selection.

Also, the landscape design indicates plant names by location in the same design; these plants are not tied to a plant list; they are intended as inspiration

If you live in the Bay Area, use the Bay Area regional garden planner. Scroll down the Garden Planner page to the header, “Bay Area regional garden planner and kits.” Click the “Let’s get started” button.

Click “Let’s get started.” Then click the button on the page that appears. Then step through the four simple steps:

• Select your region in the Bay Area. Then click “Confirm selection.”
• Select your garden inspiration, the plant community you want to emulate. Click “Confirm selection.”
• Select how much sun you garden receives (in summer, not winter). Click “Confirm selection.”
• Select your garden priorities. You may select one or more option. Click “Confirm selection.”
• Click “See your garden design” to download the recommended sample design.
• Click “Buy a garden kit” to see collections of plants recommended for your yard that you can buy online.
• On this same results page, scroll down to see the list of plants, sorted by plant type. At the bottom of the page, you can “print this page.”

To see a suggested landscape design, click “See Garden Design.” You’ll see layout ideas, with tips for irrigation, landscaping, fire safety.

To save the list of plants recommended for your garden as a PDF, click “Print list,” which is in the lower right corner. As Destination, choose “Print to PDF.” Then click “Save.”

To print the list of plants recommended for your garden, click “Print list,” which is in the lower right corner. As Destination, choose your printer. Then click “Print.”

Note: To see the list of plants in your garden design, in the future, you will be able to click “Download list.” (This isn’t functional yet; we are working to make this available.)