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Saanich Native Plants offers a wide selection of plants and seeds that are native to southern Vancouver Island.  Our plants are propagated from our own stock and are local in origin. Saanich Native Plants resides on the Coast Salish Territories of  the W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples.

Saanich Native Plants provides consultation to private landowners and land managers in selecting appropriate species, planting methods, site preparation, and maintenance.  We are happy to accommodate custom orders.

We have been part of Haliburton Community Organic Farm since 2013 and all of our plants and seeds are certified organic (IOPA #1305-1958). We do not use any chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, or hormones to grow our plants.

Vancouver Island EcoStar Awards

Helping Local Butterflies

During fall and winter, when you feel like cleaning up your gardens, remember that many butterfly species rely on standing vegetation for overwintering sites. This Lorquin’s Admiral was visiting our Canada Goldenrod patch this summer. Being an adult butterfly is only a small fraction of their lifecycle. For most of their life, they are out of our sight as an egg, larva (caterpillar), or in a chrysalis developing. If you are trying to have a butterfly garden, it’s nice to have plants for them to feed on as adults, but it’s even more important to have the plants that they lay their eggs on, and to keep vegetation standing where they are overwintering.

In late summer/fall, Lorquin’s Admiral are 1cm long caterpillars, resting in a little sleeping bag rolled in the leaves of their host plants, which include Oceanspray, willows, and fruit trees. They use silk to attach the leaf to the twig so that it doesn’t fall in the autumn. Through the winter, the tiny caterpillar will wait out the wind, rain, and freezing weather hanging in its sleeping bag. This is just one example of a butterfly life cycle. Each native butterfly has a unique life history with special requirements.

Native plants are an incredibly important part of butterfly conservation because the caterpillars of some species can only eat specific native plants. To learn more visit: 

www.saanichnativeplants.com/…/SNP_handout_Butterflie… 
www.saanichnews.com/…/book-feature-vancouver-islan…/
www.vancouverislandbirds.com/Journal399.html
www.goert.ca/documents/Butterfly_ID_sheet.pdf

Thank you to the 100+ family, friends, staff, customers, community, colleagues and partners who came to celebrate the 5^th anniversary of Saanich Native Plants on April 20th! We are so grateful for your support over the years! 

Join the Saanich Native Plants Restoration Group on Facebook!

This forum is to help with questions from land managers and the public about restoration techniques, plant identification, planting choices, site preparation and much more. Here we can share information and resources, and to connect people on these topics.
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