Redbud Handouts

Landscaping with Natives

• Landscaping With Natives. Brief overview of landscaping design concepts: accent, framing, and funneling; specimen; and massing. Lists of selected native plants for each concept, with subcategories of tall, medium height, and low. Brief description of each plant.
• Local Landscaping Tips. A two-page color brochure about benefits of landscaping with native plants. Designed for individuals, developers, public agencies, and more.
• Native Plant Landscape Planting Guide. This collaboration between CNPS and the Redbud Chapter includes landscaping design tips for native gardens and gardening advice to keep your plants (and soil) healthy. It also includes a hand-picked list of California native trees, shrubs, ground covers, grasses, succulents, and vines recommended by Redbud Horticulture Chair Nancy Gilbert for Nevada and Placer County gardens.
• Quick Start Guide to Calscape. How to use Calscape.org, a CNPS website that shares knowledge about California’s over 7500 native plants, with particular attention to information to support gardening with natives. This guide is all-new, for 2024’s new Calscape.
• Lawn to Native Landscape: Resources.  Info on selecting plants for native landscapes, with lawn conversion in mind.
• Xeriscaping with Drought-Tolerant California Native Plants.  An overview with lists of selected native plants for xeriscaping, grouped by light requirements and height.

• Local Native Plants for Nevada County Plant Communities. Lists many of the more common natives local to Nevada County for the most widespread local plant communities, specifically oak savannah, chaparral, oak woodland, yellow pine forest, and foothill riparian. To aid in garden design, plants are grouped by understory, mid-story, and overstory.
• Local Native Plants for Placer County Plant Communities. Lists many of the more common natives local to Placer County for the most widespread local plant communities, specifically chaparral, central oak woodland, yellow pine forest, foothill riparian, and grasslands. To aid in garden design, plants are grouped by understory, mid-story, and overstory.
• Recommended California Natives for Nevada and Placer Counties. Information about more than 125 native trees and shrubs, perennials, ground covers, grasses, rushes and sedges, succulents, and vines
• Ideas For Gardening With California Native Plants. Lists of selected native plants for shade, striking fall color, bird attractants, showy flowering shrubs, butterfly and beneficial insect attractants, riparian habitat restoration, sunny rock garden, foothill native grassland and wildflower field, evergreen groundcovers, deer-resistant plants, flowery montane meadow, and evergreen screening.
• California Native Perennials and Shrubs for Sierra Foothill Gardens. By Redbud Horticultural Co-Chair Nancy Gilbert. Information on 87 of the most garden-worthy California native plants. Includes brief description of the landscape uses of each species, and a key indicating cultivation requirements and wildlife habitat value.
• Early Bloomers. Learn the evolutionary advantage of early-blooming native plants. Find lists of commonly available locally native plants that bloom in winter — annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees, bulbs and other geophytes, and vines. Enjoy lovely photos, too.
• Gardening With California’s Native Bulbs. Nevada and Placer Counties have 60 species of locally native bulbs, ranking among the most beautiful and interesting of our native plants. Most are well-adapted to summer drought, and all are excellent pollinator plants.
• Native Perennial Grasses, Sedges, and Rushes for Nevada and Placer County Landscapes. Native grasses add textures and colors to your garden not found in other plants, as well as uncommon beauty and drama. Descriptions and line drawings of each plant.

• Creating Pollinator-Friendly Gardens.  By Nancy Gilbert. The pollination process and the unique ways in which plants and pollinators have evolved and adapted to each other to comp this process; the importance of healthy pollinator populations to our food and other crops and threats to pollinators; design guidelines for creating pollinator-friendly gardens and habitats; and lists of top California native pollinator-attracting plants.
• 43 Local Native Plants For Pollinators.  UC Davis researchers have identified 43 plants that attract both pollinators and other beneficial insects to support natural ecosystems and reduce pesticide use. This version includes only local native plants.
• Pollinator Resources.  Online resources about pollinators. Includes links to sources on ecological gardening, restoring vital relationships critical to pollinators and the health of our ecosystems, and protecting pollinators from pesticides.
• California Native Plants that Attract Hummingbirds: Nevada and Placer County Region of the Northern Sierra Nevada.  An overview of hummingbird gardening, including a list of our four local species and when they are here. Extensive list of native plants that attract hummingbirds, most of them native in our two counties, with a brief description of each plant, including horticultural requirements. This list is arranged alphabetically by botanical name and family.
• Butterflies and Skippers – Order Lepidoptera.  Annotated checklist by Family and Subfamily for Nevada and Placer Counties. Includes select life-history details for each species: Flight period (when the adults can typically be seen flying in the proper habitat); diapause strategy (the life stage that hibernates through the winter); and number of broods (the number of flight periods each species can be expected to have in a normal year).
• Hummingbirds in the Nevada and Placer County Region of the Northern Sierra Nevada.  Brief description of each of our four local species of hummingbirds, description of hummingbird feeding habits, plus other tidbits of information about hummingbirds in general

• Fire-Resistant Plants.  Selected fire-resistant native plants for Nevada and Placer County landscapes. Characteristics of fire-resistant plants are described, and lists of commonly available fire-resistant species are provided, grouped by landscape use.
• Firewise Landscaping for Zone 1 Defensible Space.  Focuses on the critical area 5 to 30 feet from your home—Zone 1 — the “lean, low and green” zone. Recommendations for plants, “hardscape,” and irrigation, as well as safe access for you and firefighters.

• Growing Instructions for Native Bulbs. By Nancy Gilbert, our horticulture co-chair and co-owner for many years of Far West Bulbs, a native bulb business. Considerations to make when incorporating native bulbs into your garden. Information about the needs for specific species of native bulbs.
• Propagation Mixes for California Native Bulbs and Corms. By Nancy Gilbert. Non-soil mixes specifically for California native bulbs and corms at various stages of their development.