LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – Nurseries made record sales during the coronavirus pandemic as many people looked to pick up gardening as a new hobby.
The Theodore Payne Foundation nursery in Sun Valley in Los Angeles. May 2021. (CBSLA)
However, most plants people grow come from outside of California and can be harmful to nature, especially monarch butterflies. Many people don’t realize that California native plants can bring their yards to life, with butterflies, hummingbirds and more.
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The Theodore Payne Foundation in Sun Valley is leading the movement to transform the state’s landscape by promoting drought-friendly plants that will still thrive in people’s yards. It’s a unique nursery in that all its plants are native to California.
“It’s (California) not a desert landscape,” Evan Meyer with the Theodore Payne Foundation told CBS2 News This Morning’s Suzanne Marques. “A lot of people think that. But it’s a Mediterranean landscape. So it’s much more of a shrubland, with flowers, and really lush with a lot of vegetation.”
California native plants are drought tolerant, requiring little water. The added magic is what Marques calls the Snow White effect: they’ll attract hummingbirds, honeybees and butterflies.
“The plants of California have evolved with the animals of California, so when you bring those plants into your garden, you’re creating habitat for the native…
