Blog
Interview with Kathy Kramer, creator of the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour
March 30, 2018A lot has changed since Kathy Kramer started the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour in 2005. In those days, native plants were much more difficult to find in nurseries, and there wasn’t as much information readily available for people who want to plant them in their gardens. Resources like Calscape didn’t exist to provide people with information about which California native…Read more
Project Puts Collaboration First in Answering, “What’s Invasive?”
February 20, 201811 minute read | by J. Merryweather & C. Kohler Introduction The “invasive” status of some widely produced plants has become a serious marketing barrier to nurseries nationwide. At the same time, the horticultural industry has a key role to play in preventing new invasive plants from…Read more
Interview with Emily Russell, Chicago Botanic Garden’s Assistant Curator of Woody Ornamental Plants
February 20, 2018We sat down with Emily Russell, PRE screener and Chicago Botanic Garden’s Assistant Curator of Woody Ornamental Plants, to talk about her work with PRE and the 2017 Farm Bill. PlantRight: What would you like the regional horticulture community to know about your PRE work, and why is this important? Emily Russell: After using PRE in beta for…Read more
Interview with Kim Taylor, Botanical Research Institute of Texas’ Research Botanist
February 20, 2018The Botanical Research Institute of Texas paired up with the Fort Worth Botanic Garden to evaluate 50 contentious landscape plants as part of a Farm Bill project. We sat down with Kim Taylor, PRE screener and Botanical Research Institute of Texas’ Research Botanist , to talk about her work with PRE and the 2017 Farm Bill….Read more
Interview with Kylie Bucalo, Atlanta Botanical Garden’s Research Assistant
February 20, 2018We sat down with Kylie Bucalo, PRE screener and Atlanta Botanical Garden’s Research Assistant, to talk about her work with PRE and the 2017 Farm Bill. PlantRight: What would you like the regional horticulture community to know about your PRE work, and why is this important? Kylie Bucalo: That PRE can be a tool to…Read more
Mini Interview with Mike Monterusso, Former Minnesota Landscape Arboretum PRE Screener
February 20, 2018During the time of our interviews, Minnesota Landscape Arboretum’s Mike Monterusso was in the process of assuming the Executive Director role at the Alaska Botanical Garden. For this reason, our interview with Mike is brief, though we are pleased to share. PlantRight: What would you like the regional horticulture community to know about your PRE…Read more
PlantRight Takes Time Out on Survey in 2018
February 1, 2018Last year marked the 8th year of PlantRight’s annual Spring Nursery Survey, and thanks to a large number of UC Master Gardener volunteers, as well as volunteers from other organizations, it was a huge success! The UC Master Gardener Program and its volunteers have been a key partner since the inception of the survey in 2010, and…Read more
Welcome to the New PlantRight Website!
August 11, 2017A website, like any landscaped area, requires good design and continued maintenance, and there may come a time when you need to start over. That’s pretty much what we’ve done with the PlantRight website, which now has even more information to help Californians plant right, and some great new features. Responsive Design and Mobile Friendly…Read more
Responsible Water Gardening
July 21, 2017Water gardening is popular because ponds and fountains can bring beauty, relaxation and wildlife to your backyard. But the more we bring in water plants for these features, the more risk we run of introducing invasive aquatic plants into local creeks and streams. Some of the aquatic plants commonly available online and through local nurseries…Read more
Introducing Our 6 Newest Retail Nursery Partners
December 21, 2016Buy Right, just one of the ways you can Plant Right: Here are some of our newest retail nursery partners — in order from the date they became an official partner. Check out PlantRight’s Nursery Partner Directory for other Retail Nursery Partners near you. 1. High Country Nursery Anza, CA High County Nursery has been around since 1971,…Read more
Where invasive plants are sold in California — and how we know
October 7, 2016This past spring, they were all over California. With clipboards, cameras, and data sheets in hand, they were searching at a nursery or garden center near you — for invasive plants. The nursery survey is how we measure what is happening in California’s retail nursery industry, and none of it would happen without our survey volunteers. This…Read more
The Fellowship of the Plants
August 12, 2016On a chilly, foggy morning, typical for summer in the Bay Area, we prepared for our annual Steering Committee meeting in cozy Julia Morgan Hall at the UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley, surrounded by trees and plants from all over the world. As the meeting’s start time approached, members of a group almost as diverse as…Read more