The 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 spect...

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 spect...

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 spect...

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 spect...

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 spect...

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 spect...

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 spect...

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 y...

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 publi...

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 blo...

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 h...

May 16, 2025 Welcome to the Theodore Payne Foundation’s 42nd year of the Wildflower Hotline. The Hotline offers weekly on-line and recorded updates on the best locations for viewing spring wildflowers in Southern and Central California. 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...

This Mother’s Day weekend, treat Mom to a wildflower walk at one of our local gardens. Spectacular blooms are on view now at the California Botanic Garden . Heading up the list of unusual colors is the sulfur yellow Conejo buckwheat. Electric and royal blues, bright pinks, and lavenders are represented by several penstemons and an array of sages. Pretty but prickly are colorful hedgehog cactus, ch...

Welcome to the Theodore Payne Foundation’s 42nd year of the Wildflower Hotline. The Hotline offers weekly on-line and recorded updates on the best locations for viewing spring wildflowers in Southern and Central California. In the Coast Ranges of California at Pinnacles National Park , mid-spring wildflowers are popping up along the many trails available to visitors. Maybe you will be surprised wi...

Since the report earlier this month, many more blooms have popped up at Casper’s Regional Park in Orange County. Along the Dick Loskotn Trail, look for patches of Catalina mariposa lilies in the grasslands, along with San Diego jewel flower and Padre’s shooting stars. Wild canterbury bells prefer sunnier slopes along with a few showy chaparral yucca. Not far from the West Ridge Trail boundary, you...

Driving around Lake Kaweah in the southern Sierra foothills east of Visalia, the landscape is transitioning from early to mid-spring bloom. Eastwood’s fiddlenecks are fading, and the hillsides are shifting from deep gold to brilliant yellow as the madia comes into flower. Surprisingly early this year, the harbingers of summer—speckled clarkia are already starting to make bold splashes of pink on t...

Welcome to the Theodore Payne Foundation’s 42nd year of the Wildflower 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. Please support the Wildflower Hotline today at theodorepayne.org...

Welcome to the Theodore Payne Foundation’s 42nd year of the Wildflower 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. Please support the Wildflower Hotline. The annual Open House eve...

Friday, March 28 2025 Welcome to the Theodore Payne Foundation’s 42nd year of the Wildflower 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. Please support the Wildflower Hotline. The...

Welcome to the Theodore Payne Foundation’s 42nd year of the Wildflower 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. Millions of years ago, a series of volcanic eruptions shaped the...

Welcome to the Theodore Payne Foundation’s 42nd year of the Wildflower 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. Millions of years ago, a series of volcanic eruptions shaped the...