Celebrate California native plants at Festival of Books with L.A. Times Plants

If the phrase “native plants” makes your head spin, join the club.

Plants we once dismissed as weeds are now serious contenders in Southern California’s push for drought-tolerant landscapes. And even the word “landscape” is evolving as more and more people talk about using their yards and patios to create “habitat” for threatened birds and pollinators.

Lifestyle

Her tiny native plant habitat garden is flourishing. And she didn’t even need a yard

Barbara Chung fell in love with native plants, but she didn’t have a yard. So she created a habitat garden in pots on her tiny townhouse patio in Santa Monica.

April 11, 2023

So no wonder we have questions. That’s why L.A. Times Plants is teaming up with the Theodore Payne Foundation and the California Native Plant Society to provide as many answers as possible during the L.A. Times’ Festival of Books, which runs April 22-23 at USC.

Like all the outdoor exhibits at the festival, our booth is free to visitors (look for #404) and will be chock-full of displays and information, including:

• A scent station, to sample the sometimes intense, sometimes subtle fragrances of California native plants.
• An urban meadow, with grasses and other plants that can replace a thirsty lawn
• Demonstrations by Theodore Payne Foundation experts about creating habitat, growing native plants in containers and collecting, saving and planting seeds.
• A guide to the best plants for your situation, using the California Native Plant Society’s Calscape database.
• Free plant giveaways, while supplies last

And if you’d like to learn more about creating a habitat around your home, buy a ticket for our Ask a Reporter session with Features editor Brittany Levine Beckman and Plants reporter Jeanette Marantos at 3 p.m. on April 22 in Mudd Hall 203.