A substantial portion of urban green infrastructure is under private tenure in residents’ and business/corporate gardens. Therefore, the ways that urban residents manage their gardens can influence the type, quantity and quality of ecosystem services and disservices in urban areas. Plant nurseries are a major source of trees for urban residents, and so the types of trees and species that nurseries stock influence the composition of private gardens. Consequently, this study aimed to examine the roles that plant nurseries play in shaping the urban forest in South Africa. To do so, an online and direct questionnaire was used to gather data from 30 nurseries across 19 urban centres in South Africa. The main questions included species selection criteria, customer tree inquiries, best-selling tree species, attitudes towards increasing urban tree cover and diversity and whether they think climate change will affect the selection of species to stock. The results show that there is a strong preference for indigenous trees, which were also most commonly listed as best-sellers. Non-native species that were commonly sold were ones that provided provisioning services, particularly edible fruits. Drought tolerance influenced selection criteria and customer demand. Vachellia spp. and Olea europaea were commonly inquired about and most commonly listed amongst the best-sellers. Nursery owners valued the importance of increasing tree cover and diversity in urban areas, listing many perceived benefits for doing so. We conclude that there is a clear preference for indigenous tree species by customers and nursery owners, which in time could increase the proportion and cover of native species.

居民和商业/企业花园中的很大一部分城市绿色基础设施由私人拥有。因此，城市居民管理花园的方式会影响城市地区生态系统服务和损害的类型、数量和质量。苗圃是城市居民树木的主要来源，因此苗圃种植的树木和物种的类型会影响私家花园的构成。因此，本研究旨在研究苗圃在塑造南非城市森林方面所起的作用。为此，我们使用在线直接问卷收集南非 19 个城市中心的 30 个托儿所的数据。主要问题包括树种选择标准、客户树种查询、畅销树种、对增加城市树木覆盖率和多样性的态度，以及他们是否认为气候变化会影响物种选择。结果表明，人们对本土树木有强烈的偏好，这些树木也最常被列为畅销书。通常出售的非本地物种是提供供应服务的物种，尤其是可食用的水果。耐旱性影响了选择标准和客户需求。瓦切利亚属 和Olea europaea经常被询问并且最常被列为畅销书。苗圃所有者重视增加城市地区树木覆盖率和多样性的重要性，并列出了许多这样做的好处。我们得出的结论是，客户和苗圃所有者对本地树种有明显的偏好，这可以及时增加本地树种的比例和覆盖率。