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The gardening app for your neighbourhood.
Gardening is something most people do alone. You plant things, you learn by trial and error, and you have no idea what's growing three houses over. But your backyard doesn't exist in isolation — it sits in a neighbourhood full of other gardens, other gardeners, and potential you can't see yet.
Hortus makes that invisible layer visible. See what your neighbours grow, find out what works in your area, swap seeds with people nearby, and learn exactly where your garden fits in the bigger picture.
Know what you're growing, what wildlife it supports, and where your next planting can make the biggest difference in your neighbourhood.
Find gardeners nearby, exchange seeds, attend local events, and share what's working. Gardening is better when it's not a solo project.
See your neighbourhood's living landscape come into focus — bloom corridors forming, wildlife returning, and the collective impact of gardens growing together.
As a byproduct of gardeners using Hortus, we're building the first residential biodiversity dataset in Canada — evidence that drives real conservation action.
We kept meeting gardeners who were doing the same thing independently — planting native, trying to support pollinators, sharing seeds over the fence — but none of them knew what was growing three streets over. Everyone was gardening blind.
So we built the tool we wished existed: a map of what's actually growing around you, a way to find and message nearby gardeners, a seed exchange, bloom charts that show you what to plant next, and wildlife tracking that shows you what your garden actually supports. Gardening is better when you can see the full picture.
Community-First: Hortus is free for gardeners and always will be. Everything we build starts with one question: does this help someone grow, connect, or discover?
Local by Design: Your neighbourhood is the unit that matters. We help you find gardeners nearby, see what's working in your area, and coordinate efforts where they'll have the most impact.
Science-Backed: Our 260+ species catalog (237 native, 25 common non-native) is curated from authoritative sources. Wildlife tags are cross-referenced against GloBI, VASCAN, and Rutgers E271. Bloom charts and corridor analysis are grounded in pollinator ecology research.
Data as Byproduct: When gardeners track their gardens, they naturally create the first residential biodiversity dataset in Canada. That data supports researchers and conservation — but it's a byproduct of people using a tool they genuinely want to use.
Our native plant catalog is built from multiple botanical references, including the Missouri Botanical Garden, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, USDA PLANTS, NWF Native Plant Finder, and Pollinator Partnership.
Wildlife support tags (pollinators, songbirds, larval hosts, nectar sources, deer resistance) are cross-referenced against GloBI (Global Biotic Interactions), VASCAN (Vascular Plants of Canada), and Rutgers NJAES Bulletin E271. Invasive species classifications follow the Ontario Invasive Plant Council (OIPC).
Plant catalog photos are sourced from Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licenses. We gratefully acknowledge all of these organizations for their contributions to the study and understanding of native plants.
When gardeners use Hortus to track their gardens, they're also creating something that's never existed: a picture of what's growing in residential properties. That data turns out to be enormously valuable to the people working on conservation at a larger scale.
A dedicated partner dashboard to feature your native plant inventory, run seasonal campaigns, and reach gardeners who are actively searching for the species you carry — right in their neighbourhood.
See which residential corridors already connect your protected areas — and where the gaps are. Target stewardship programs at the neighbourhoods where a few more native gardens would close a real habitat link.
Measure the actual outcomes of tree-planting grants, pollinator programs, and community garden funding. Track native plant adoption by ward and bring real evidence to council.
Access the first crowd-sourced residential biodiversity dataset in Canada. Study pollinator corridors, native plant adoption, and bloom phenology across neighbourhoods — all anonymized and export-ready.
Academic Researchers
University ecology labs studying urban biodiversity patterns, native plant adoption timelines, and species diversity indices across residential landscapes.
Ecologists
Conservation organizations monitoring pollinator habitat, bloom continuity, and corridor connectivity between protected areas and residential gardens.
Landscape Architects
Designers building native planting palettes from real-world success data — what species are thriving nearby, in what quantities, and in which conditions.
Urban Planners
City sustainability coordinators tracking participation density, native adoption growth rates, and program ROI for council presentations and grant reporting.
We're actively seeking partnerships with:
Live data from communities across Canada
Track your plants, find neighbours, swap seeds, and see what's thriving around you.
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