Most plant searches start with a name you already know. Plant Search starts with your site: how wet it is, how much sun it gets, how much deer pressure it sees. Set your conditions. We show you the native plants built for them.
Homeowners and landscapers typically pick plants the same way they pick furniture: by how it looks in a photo. The plant gets placed in a spot it was never suited for, and it struggles, needs constant watering, or dies within a season.
A plant that thrives in full sun and dry, sandy soil will fail in a shaded, low-lying yard that holds water after every storm. The plant isn’t the problem. The mismatch is.
Plant Search flips the process. Instead of searching for a plant and hoping it fits, you start with your site’s real conditions and let the data narrow the list for you.
Each result shows plant type, fungal association, and a match score ranking how closely it fits the conditions you set.
Export your full results list to CSV when you’re ready to take it to the field or hand it to a contractor.
Enter a minimum score for the conditions that describe your site: deer pressure, shade, flood risk, drought exposure, soil, cold, heat, or coastal exposure. Most ecological characteristics run on a 0.0 to 1.0 scale, so you’re setting a threshold, not guessing at a vague label like “some” or “a lot.”
For example, setting Min Deer to 0.75 returns plants with a deer tolerance score of 0.75 or higher.
Most sites have more than one challenge at once. Combine filters to match your yard exactly: a shaded, low-lying yard with heavy deer traffic might mean Min Shade at 0.75, Min Flood at 0.75, and Min Deer at 0.75, searched together.
Too many results? Raise the thresholds. Too few? Lower them.
Export your shortlist to CSV once it’s built.
Straight answers, so you’re filtering with the right expectations, not guessing:
How likely a plant is to be browsed. No native plant is completely deer resistant. Browsing pressure shifts with local deer populations and the season, so tolerance is a strong indicator, not a guarantee.
These classifications are decision-support tools built on botanical, ecological, and wetland reference materials used by restoration professionals. They narrow your options intelligently. They don’t replace a site visit.
Stop replacing plants that were never suited to the spot they were placed in. Filter by your actual conditions before you plant, not after.
Every filter reflects field-tested plant behavior, not a nursery description written to sell you something.
Search plants, then move straight into the Mulch, Plant Spacing, and Sun Position calculators built into the same page, without starting over somewhere else.
Export your results to CSV and bring your shortlist to the field, to a contractor, or into your own planning documents.
Browse through frequently asked questions to learn more about our services and process.
Once you’ve built your plant list, the Mulch Calculator, Plant Calculator, and Sun Position Calculator on this same page help you plan quantities, spacing, and sunlight before you install.
How much mulch the beds need at your chosen depth, and what it costs.
Plant count, spacing, or area — fill in any two and the third is calculated.
Sun path, shadow direction and day length for the exact spot and date.
