This years tour features 18 gardens NEW to the tour and contemporary art installations at selected gardens
The Theodore Payne Native Plant Garden Tour is a unique adventure: a two-day self-guided journey through more than 40 of the Los Angeles region’s most beautiful and inspiring home landscapes. At each location, you’ll meet garden owners, designers, knowledgeable docents and fellow gardeners.
Planning Your Tour
The gardens are divided into two groups—one group open Saturday, April 5, and a second group open Sunday, April 6, 2014. Tour hours are 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day.
Saturday gardens are primarily on the Westside, with locations from Santa Monica to the South Bay, with two stops in Oxford Square (near West Adams). Sunday gardens are located inland, with destinations in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys and around downtown L.A.
How to Attend
Tour tickets are $15 per person for members, and $20 per person for non-members. Tickets are available in our online store, by phone at (818) 768-1802, or at our Sun Valley headquarters. Tickets may also be purchased the day of the tour at select gardens.
Each ticket includes admission for a single visitor to all gardens across both days, and a printed color guide with addresses and driving directions. The tour is self-guided so you can make your own itinerary and go at your own pace.
Photography Policy
All pictures taken are for personal use only. Please obtain written permission from individual garden owners before posting or publishing any photos.
Photos from previous tours
To see photos from the 2013 garden tour please visit the 2013 garden tour site.
Become a Docent
Docents help the Garden Tour play a vital role in the success of the tour. They are ambassadors on behalf of the Theodore Payne Foundation, and provide an interpretive element for garden visitors. Docents welcome tour attendees, validate tickets, and talk about the beauty, practicality and environmental benefits of gardening with California natives.
Attendance of one docent training, one full-day commitment (9:45 a.m.–5:15 p.m. on either Saturday, April 5, or Sunday, April 6) and some knowledge of native plants are required. Docents are welcome to visit the gardens on the other day for free, receive a free garden tour t-shirt (a collectors item!) and are invited to the garden host and docent thank-you party after the tour.
To become a Theodore Payne Native Garden Tour Docent, or for more details, contact Volunteer Coordinator Andrew Chaves at [email protected]. Thank you!
Contact the Tour Coordinator
If you have feedback or suggestions about the Tour, ideas for new gardens, or if you’d like to learn how to become a sponsor of next year’s Tour, please e-mail Tour Coordinator Margaret Oakley Otto at [email protected]. We would love to hear from you!
To apply to be on the Garden Tour please visit the application page.
About the Theodore Payne Foundation
The Native Plant Garden Tour is an annual program of the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers and Native Plants, Inc., a nonprofit organization established in 1960 to promote knowledge and appreciation of California’s native flora and our natural heritage.
Our retail native plant nursery, bookstore, seed room, art gallery and education center are open year-round to the public. The nursery offers hundreds of different California native plants, helpful service and expert advice. TPF also offers classes and workshops for adults, and programs and field trips for children (K–12). Our 22-acre canyon site includes demonstration gardens, trails, a picnic area and colorful spring displays of California wildflowers. Visit us soon!
