Advertise on podcast: Theodore Payne Foundation Wild Flower Hotline

The acclaimed Theodore Payne Foundation Wild Flower Hotline, founded in 1983, offers free weekly online and recorded updates — posted each Friday from March through May — on the best locations for viewing spring wildflowers in Southern and Central California. All locations are on easily accessible public lands and range from urban to wild, distant to right here in Los Angeles. We balance the spectacle of annual flower displays with perennial plants and their spring color.

The acclaimed Theodore Payne Foundation Wild Flower Hotline, founded in 1983, offers free weekly online and recorded updates — posted each Friday from March through May — on the best locations for viewing spring wildflowers in Southern and Central California. All locations are on easily accessible public lands and range from urban to wild, distant to right here in Los Angeles. We balance the spectacle of annual flower displays with perennial plants and their spring color.

The acclaimed Theodore Payne Foundation Wild Flower Hotline, founded in 1983, offers free weekly online and recorded updates — posted each Friday from March through May — on the best locations for viewing spring wildflowers in Southern and Central California. All locations are on easily accessible public lands and range from urban to wild, distant to right here in Los Angeles. We balance the spectacle of annual flower displays with perennial plants and their spring color.

0:24 Irish Hills Natural Reserve, San Luis Obispo 1:15 Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) from Barrel Springs, to Warner Springs, San Diego County 2:14 Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, San Diego County For the full illustrated report, visit our website.

0:55 Pinnacles National Park (Coast Ranges) 3:14 Heaps Peak Arboretum (San Bernardino) 4:21 Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park (Orange County) For the full illustrated report, visit our website.

The acclaimed Theodore Payne Foundation Wild Flower Hotline, founded in 1983, offers free weekly online and recorded updates — posted each Friday from March through May — on the best locations for viewing spring wildflowers in Southern and Central California. All locations are on easily accessible public lands and range from urban to wild, distant to right here in Los Angeles. We balance the spectacle of annual flower displays with perennial plants and their spring color.

The acclaimed Theodore Payne Foundation Wild Flower Hotline, founded in 1983, offers free weekly online and recorded updates — posted each Friday from March through May — on the best locations for viewing spring wildflowers in Southern and Central California. All locations are on easily accessible public lands and range from urban to wild, distant to right here in Los Angeles. We balance the spectacle of annual flower displays with perennial plants and their spring color.

The acclaimed Theodore Payne Foundation Wild Flower Hotline, founded in 1983, offers free weekly online and recorded updates — posted each Friday from March through May — on the best locations for viewing spring wildflowers in Southern and Central California. All locations are on easily accessible public lands and range from urban to wild, distant to right here in Los Angeles. We balance the spectacle of annual flower displays with perennial plants and their spring color.

The acclaimed Theodore Payne Foundation Wild Flower Hotline, founded in 1983, offers free weekly online and recorded updates — posted each Friday from March through May — on the best locations for viewing spring wildflowers in Southern and Central California. All locations are on easily accessible public lands and range from urban to wild, distant to right here in Los Angeles. We balance the spectacle of annual flower displays with perennial plants and their spring color.

Welcome to the Theodore Payne Foundation’s Wild Flower Hotline. The Hotline offers weekly on-line and recorded updates on the best locations for viewing spring wildflowers in Southern and Central California. All locations are on easily accessible public lands and range from urban to wild, distant to right here in L.A.

Let’s stay close to home this week. These are easy trails with lots of shade or coastal breezes. Narrated by Tom Henschel, the Hotline offers weekly on-line and recorded updates on the best locations for viewing spring wildflowers in Southern and Central California. All locations are on easily accessible public lands and range from urban to wild, distant to right here in L.A. Don’t forget to buy your tickets for the Native Plant Garden Tour, taking place April 11th and 12th. Tickets are available online at store dot theodore payne dot org, in-store at Theodore Payne Foundation Sun Valley, or in-store at Los Nogales Nursery. The next report will be available on Friday, March 27th.

Discover where California’s wildflowers are putting on their best show this week. From coastal sage scrub to desert canyons, this episode guides you to the season’s most vibrant blooms. Narrated by Tom Henschel, the Hotline offers weekly on-line and recorded updates on the best locations for viewing spring wildflowers in Southern and Central California. All locations are on easily accessible public lands and range from urban to wild, distant to right here in L.A. Don’t forget to buy your tickets for the Native Plant Garden Tour, taking place April 11th and 12th. Tickets are available online at store dot theodore payne dot org, in-store at Theodore Payne Foundation Sun Valley, or in-store at Los Nogales Nursery. The next report will be available on Friday, March 20th.

The Hotline offers weekly on-line and recorded updates on the best locations for viewing spring wildflowers in Southern and Central California. All locations are on easily accessible public lands and range from urban to wild, distant to right here in L.A. View the full report at theodorepayne.org.

Just in time to get a mention in the last report of 2025, two exquisite new plants serendipitously blossomed this week in the Theodore Payne Foundation gardens. One is the Humboldt lily a tall, slim beauty arising from a bulb and growing sometimes to 8 feet. It is bejeweled with large orange flowers stippled with maroon splotches. Watch the hummingbirds flock to it! The other plant starting to bloom in the garden is mock orange. The perfumed citrusy fragrance beguiles visitors to swoon over masses of lovely white blossoms extended from long, arched branches. It is a handsome shrub and one of California’s most fragrant plants. Other areas of the gardens still have perennial favorites blooming into late spring, early summer including the ever-cheery sunflower, showy penstemon, Matilija poppy, and our favorite flower from early spring through early summer, the California poppy. In the foothills of the mighty Sierra Nevada, when the landscape fades to a golden brown and the wildflowers have mostly progressed to seed, up pops the harvest brodiaea through the spent flowers and grasses. This deep purple charmer emerges from underground bulbs and zillions of them brighten up the drying landscape like the last fireworks of a celebration event. Harvest brodiaea is the true harbinger of summer. After an industrious spring for flowers, pollinators and curious posy peepers, the days of rest draw near and longing for next spring begins. At Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, the Airplane Monument Loop Trail is filled with flowers, despite this being a half-normal-rainfall year! The cute little summer snow carpets the ground along much of the route. This is an amazing place for all gilia species. A total of five different species can be found including pink angel’s gilia, blue globe gilia, volcanic gilia and purple spot gilia. Best surprise though, white fairy lanterns are in bloom in great numbers everywhere along the route. Cuyamaca is an easy and pleasant hike. If you never explored this gem of a State Park, do so now while so many annual wildflowers are still in bloom.

In Southern California, the valleys and foothills are fading, leaving behind fruit and seed for next year’s germination. Above 4000 feet in elevation however, many spring wildflowers are just coming into glorious bloom. Back in March when we first reported on the wildflower awakening on Figueroa Mountain in the Los Padres Nation Forest, there wasn’t hope for a super display this year. A wildfire had scourged the area in July of 2024. Certainly, some post fire annuals would show up, but with so much devastation and little winter rainfall, it was thought that wildflowers would be sparse and short-lived. A different story emerged, however. A field reporter returned to Figueroa Mountain five times over the spring to photo document an amazing wildflower succession over two months. You have read these chronicles in TPF’s Wildflower Hotline reports this spring. The 5th trip last week found, once again, the wildflower display was good with a variety of new species replacing the earlier spring blooms. Most of the California poppy and purple lupine displays have faded, as have the chia, blue dicks, globe gilia and fiesta flowers. Instead, the displays included several late-season flowers. The lovely ruby chalice clarkia, showy elegant clarkia, California hedge nettle, California cudweed, Catalina Mariposa lily, butter lupine, pacific pea, purple pagodas, fringed onion, miner’s lettuce, common phacelia, and scorpion weed were widespread. The presence of so many clarkias, a.k.a “farewell-to-spring,” makes one wonder how long Figueroa Mountain will continue to debut new wildflower species. It was indeed a successful wildflower season on Figueroa Mountain in 2025. Driving along Hwy 74 in the San Jacinto Mountains, you will come upon Morris Ranch Road in Garner Valley. The road is lined with flowers in its uphill section, including a nice stand of grape soda lupine at the beginning of the south fork of the San Jacinto River. The Bajada lupine is in full bloom along the immediate roadside as well. The sunny yellow interior goldenbush is starting to brighten up the region while the smaller chia sage is filling in spaces between them making for a nice purple and yellow color combination. There are pleasing blooms on the lower part of the Cedar Spring Trail, including Davidson’s phacelia, prickly phlox, common forget-me-nots, baby blue eyes, and hairy lotus. Cupped leaf ceanothus, Eastwood manzanita, and pink bracket manzanita are in lovely bloom there too. On the sun exposed upper part of the trail, wild canterbury bells are a delight to behold dotting the landscape with their purple-blue color. Near the top of the trail, pretty pink Johnston’s rockcress was scattered about. This area is just starting to bloom well and should be good to visit during the next month or so if it doesn’t get too hot.