Theodore Payne is a botanist known for his preservation of California native plants. His contributions in planning native gardens from Rancho Santa Ana Garden (now known as California Botanic Garden) to Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and Descanso Gardens, has left demonstration gardens of native plants. The Theodore Payne Nursery is a resource for gardeners to add native plants to their homes. I thought it would be interesting to visit the Wildflower Hill and demonstration gardens at the on-site nursery.

Wildflower Hill is a gradually steep hill that sits adjacent to the plant nursery. On my visit in the first week of April 2024, Wildflower Hill had a lovely bloom of a variety of shrubs and annuals. The lower half of the hill has a welcoming sight of purple sage, Cedros sage, and the everlasting blooms of De La Mina verbena shrubs along the dirt trail. The walk leads you higher to blooms of blue dicks, chia, brittle brush, cactus, sunflowers, and penstemons.

And invasive yellow mustard. It seems like nowhere in the urban parts of Los Angeles can we escape from the invasive yellow mustard. Even at the native gardens of Theodore Payne, the mustard has dropped its seed and multiplied.

The La Fetra outdoor classroom/benches/seating area is a demonstration garden. Here, the plants are gardened, tended, and irrigated in a more organized fashion. Plants are labeled and feature interesting varieties of native plants not found as on the Wildflower Hill trail.

There is no admission fee to visit the Wildflower Hill or demonstration gardens around the Theodore Payne Nursery. You can meander around and enjoy the gardens and the staff will not even question you. The gardens are also featured in their infamous Theodore Payne’s wildflower hotline and from that weekly broadcast, beginning in March, the hotline will describe what is blooming.