California Wildflower Hotline Is Blooming

The California Wildflower Hotline and website launched this week and will continue through the end of the wildflower season at the end of May. The hotline features the voice of Emmy Award-winning actor Joe Spano. The website, www.theodorepayne.org, includes an up-to-date description of sites, along with links to dozens of flower-watching destinations.

(PRWEB) March 11, 2005 -- March marks the beginning of the wildflower season and the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers and Native Plants has launched its annual Wildflower Hotline which runs from March through the end of May. Twenty-four hours a day, anyone can call the hotline at (818) 768-3533 or visit www.theodorepayne.org to receive the latest information on the best places to view wildflowers in California. The hotline message is narrated by Emmy Award-winning actor Joe Spano (Hill Street Blues, Apollo 13, NYPD Blue) and is updated every Thursday evening with new information from over 90 wildflower sites throughout Southern California.
   
The web site, www.theodorepayne.org, features weekly reports covering the entire State of California. The site provides web links to dozens of flower-watching destinations and lists both the common and botanical name of each flower mentioned, and where and when it is blooming.
   
Popular area destinations covered by the hotline include the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, Joshua Tree National Park, Carrizo Plain National Monument, Anza Borrego Desert State Park, and all of our local mountain ranges, including the Santa Monica Mountains and the San Gabriel Mountains. The Theodore Payne wildflower hotline coordinator, Sid Dutcher, gathers up-to-date bloom information from experts including park rangers, botanists, conservation specialists and members of the California Native Plant Society. Hikers, tourists, activity leaders and outdoor enthusiasts of all kinds use the information to plan trips to the weeks best bloom destinations.
   
For more than 40 years, the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers and Native Plants, Inc. has dedicated itself to restoring Californias native landscape one garden at a time. The Foundation operates the Theodore Payne Nursery in Sun Valley, which offers more than 400 native plant species and 200 seeds to the general public. In addition to the nursery and the garden tour, the foundation conducts classes, and collects and sells seeds of native plants and wild flowers. The foundation and nursery honor the legacy of Theodore Payne, who opened his first nursery in 1903 in Los Angeles.

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