Upcoming events from the Theodore Payne Native Plant Foundation

45 home gardens reveal the beauty of California native plants -and how to save water

Discover the beauty of California native plants and learn how to save water at the Theodore Payne Native Garden Tour on Saturday and Sunday, April 4 and 5, 2009 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $20. To buy tickets or for information: visit www.theodorepayne.org/Tour/ or call (818) 768-1802.

Forty five home gardens throughout the Los Angeles Basin are featured, including Sherman Oaks, Encino, Sun Valley, Tujunga, North Hollywood Granada Hills, Woodland Hills, Culver City, Torrance, Hawthorne, Redondo Beach, Long Beach, Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Santa Monica, Topanga, La Canada Flintridge, Pasadena, South Pasadena, Altadena, Monrovia, Glendale, Echo Park, Eagle Rock, Highland Park and Atwater Village.

FREE LECTURE: Indulging Our Senses in the Native Garden
Saturday, April 4, 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Barnsdall Gallery Theatre, 4800 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood 90027

Join Carol Bornstein, director of nursery operations and horticultural outreach at Santa Barbara Botanic Garden for an inspiring evening about gardening with natives. Discover the visual delights of gardening with natives, as well as the tactile, audio, olfactory and even gustatory pleasures! Ms. Bornstein is also the co-author of California Native Plants for the Garden! A book-signing follows the talk. The lecture, sponsored by the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers and Native Plants, is held in conjunction with the organization?s annual native plant garden tour.

California Wildflower Hotline will bloom March to May 2008

Twenty-four hours a day, March 6 through May, anyone can call the hotline at Theodore Payne Wildflower Hotline at (818) 768-3533 or visit www.theodorepayne.org to find the best places to view wildflowers in Southern and Central California. The hotline message is narrated by Emmy Award-winning actor Joe Spano (Hill Street Blues, Apollo 13, NYPD Blue) and is updated every Thursday evening with new information on wildflower sites throughout Central and Southern California. The web site www.theodorepayne.org/hotline.html also features weekly reports covering the same areas. The site also provides web links to more than 50 flower-watching destinations and lists both the common and botanical name of each flower mentioned, and where and when it is blooming.