How a growing demand for drought-tolerant, local plants is changing the landscaping industry

Every landscaper wants native plants now. But there aren’t enough native plants, and it’s causing project delays and budget overruns.

As the Western U.S. faces more damaging droughts, local governments—as well as an increasing number of homeowners—have been successfully promoting landscaping practices that eschew the stereotypical water-hungry grass lawn for more resilient choices. The average U.S. family uses roughly 50 gallons of water per day for outdoor plants and lawns, per statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency; a third of residential water use, or about 9 billion gallons per day, goes toward lawns, plants, and irrigation.