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Plant Finder

Know what you are bringing home and how much room it will need. Plant Finder researches the names on your list, with light requirements and mature sizes grouped by your planting areas.

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Front shade and west border

Front shade

Botanical nameCommon nameTypeLightSize
Helleborus 'Ice N’ Roses'HelleboreEvergreenFiltered sun to part shade1–2' × 1–2'
Carex oshimensis 'Everillo'SedgeEvergreenPart to full shade12–18" × 12–18"

West border

Botanical nameCommon nameTypeLightSize
Hydrangea quercifoliaOakleaf hydrangeaDeciduousFull sun to part shade6–8' × 6–8'
Amsonia hubrichtiiBlue starHerbaceousFull sun to part shade2–3' × 2–3'
Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy'Eastern redbudDeciduousFull sun to part shade20–30' × 25–35'

Grow your own forest.

The Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado grew up on a farm more than half covered by rainforest. Years later, he photographed its eroded hillsides and dried-out soil. Lélia, his wife and creative partner, proposed bringing the forest back. Together they founded Instituto Terra in 1998 and committed the former cattle ranch to restoration. They had to learn how to grow the landscape Sebastião remembered. [1][4][5]

  1. Planting

    Sixty percent of the first planting died.

    A forestry engineer studied the land and planned for roughly 700 hectares. He helped obtain 50,000 seedlings. Lélia recalled losing 60% of the first planting through inexperience and a failed rainy season. They raised money to plant again the following year. [2] As they learned which techniques worked, the Salgados built an organization that could keep restoring the land through successive planting seasons. [4]

  2. Growing

    Plant the trees that help the next trees grow.

    Cattle had compacted the exposed ground. Rain ran off it. Lélia described planting fast-growing pioneer trees whose leaves would add organic matter to the soil and whose crowns would provide shade. They planted longer-lived trees alongside them. As the canopy developed, they could enrich the forest with species suited to its changed conditions. [2]

    Establish

    Pioneers and longer-lived trees planted together.

    Shelter

    Growing crowns cast shade. Fallen leaves enrich the soil.

    Enrich

    Further species join the developing forest.

    Planting sequence from Lélia Salgado’s account. [2]
  3. Sustaining

    Grow the supply as well as the forest.

    The institute opened its own nursery in 2001. Staff could raise native seedlings for repeated planting, working with the needs of different species. [4] The institute’s seed-collection network now connects local properties with its nursery, where seeds become seedlings for degraded land. [3] The Salgados were building the means to continue their project and help other landowners begin.

  4. Returning

    An ocelot moved back in.

    By 2007, the institute reported 172 bird species in the recovering forest. When word spread that an ocelot had returned, Sebastião wanted to see evidence. Photographer Leonardo Merçon spent days in the forest and captured the animal in 2011. [4] By 2023, Lélia reported 2.5 million trees planted. [2] The Salgados had made a place where wild animals could live again.

Make room for the woodland you want to grow.

The Salgados chose plants for the conditions they had and the forest they wanted to create. Your own woodland begins with smaller choices: the trees you will make room for, the shade they will cast and the plants you want beneath them. Plant Finder researches the names on your list and puts their light requirements and mature sizes beside them, grouped under your planting areas. You can compare what each plant needs and how large it will grow as you decide what to bring home.