Commonwealth Native Nursery

With support from Griffith J. Griffith Charitable Trust, Los Angeles Parks Foundation operates a productive native plant nursery located in Griffith Park. The nursery grows plant material from locally-sourced seed and creates sustainable native landscape projects throughout our LA city park ecosystems. The nursery provides an outdoor learning environment where we pilot dynamic native plant landscape models that can be replicated throughout Los Angeles. Currently our nursery plants are being used to support native plant installations across Los Angeles.

We are looking to expand our operational footprint to include managing the newly renovated Commonwealth Nursery. We look forward to moving our production into the Historic Commonwealth Nursery, revitalizing LA’s historic municipal nursery.

Every donation towards the nursery we receive allows us to further our native plant production and provide a space to train, educate and upskill city staff, along with community members, on native plant horticulture and urban ecology.

Why a Native Plant Nursery?

Native plant habitats are critical for the survival and continuance of our pollinators, birds, and other fauna, and meet the climatic needs of the future by creating ecologically sound landscapes that are water-saving, free of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, and supportive of local wildlife. Urban habitat restoration projects are a critical step in achieving the sustainability and biodiversity goals of our city, while simultaneously making access to nature more equitable across the communities of Los Angeles.

About Commonwealth Nursery

The Commonwealth Nursery is a City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation And Parks property that includes several non-profit organizations committed to expanding climate and community resiliency in Los Angeles. Located on a historic11-acre site in Griffith Park, the nursery serves as an urban ecological laboratory and training ground to support LA’s Green New Deal, creating a more livable and resilient city for all Angelenos.

In collaboration with the Department of Recreation and Parks, the Los Angeles Parks Foundation is revitalizing a portion of the Commonwealth Nursery that will be used to grow native plants and trees for city parks to build community climate resilience, biodiversity, and habitat across Los Angeles.

Through regional seed collection and propagation of keystone species, we seek to supply locally grown native plant material to public green infrastructure and ecological restoration projects. Trees and plants grown from locally sourced seed have been shown to be more adaptive to local conditions, just as our urban forest and urban ecosystem is most resilient when stewarded by local communities themselves.