APRIL 2026 CONNECT
APRIL 2026-04 Volume 1, Number 4 Words and photos by Mike Evans Spring has officially arrived, and it came on a day that seemed more like the middle of summer. The extremely hot weather in March and a total lack of measurable rain for the entire month left many of us, including annual plants, […]
Cal Native Hort Expands to Los Angeles: Partnering with Katherine Pakradouni to Establish New Native Plant Nursery
Mike Evans, Katherine Pakradouni and Jeff Bohn at Tree of Life Nursery November, 2025 Cal Native Hort Expands to Los Angeles: Partnering with Katherine Pakradouni to Establish New Native Plant Nursery The California Native Horticultural Foundation is excited to announce that we are working with Los Angeles-based horticulturist Katherine Pakradouni to find a home for […]
Clippings #5- Choosing the Right Plants
A garden puts living art on display. The parts that are alive are the plants, and choosing the right ones, combining them in a creative design, and planning for long-term success, make these choices, the combinations, and your plans an exciting (at times daunting) challenge. What to plant, that is the question. […]
MARCH 2026 CONNECT
Two dishes from over a dozen I have filled with found jade, representing several years and many hours of lazy beachcombing on the Big Sur coast. Now that I think about it, we had no cell phones back then. Hmmm. A message here? MARCH 2026-03 Volume 1, Number 3 Words and photos by Mike Evans […]
Native Plant Resistance
By Lori Whalen, February 2026 There is a moment—subtle, visceral—when a place feels right. Not manicured or shaped unnaturally in an attempt to impress. Just right in a way that settles the body. The air smells familiar. The ground seems to know you. You are not a visitor so much as a participant. Most of […]
February 2026 CONNECT
FEBRUARY 2026-02 Volume 1, Number 2 Words and photos by Mike Evans Intro It seems spring could already be hiding just around the corner, but we still have a pretty good potential for actual winter. We hope. So far, we have had no severe cold spells, and while we got good ground soaking in […]
JANUARY 2026 CONNECT
JANUARY 2026-01 Volume 1, Number 1 Words and photos by Mike Evans Intro Welcome to Vol. 1, No 1, as we meet at the trailhead for CalNativeHort CONNECT, our new monthly newsletter for our new community. We’re in this together. I would love to hear your suggestions and feedback. Let’s go! Current […]
Clippings #4- GENERATIONAL AWAKENING
GENERATIONAL AMNESIA is the result of the “Sliding Baseline Syndrome” in which each generation can only relate to nature according to their own experience, even as she becomes increasingly degraded, and our direct contact with her becomes more distant and scarce. We come to accept a damaged version of nature as “normal,” and we […]
Clippings #3- Urgency
Sliding Baseline Syndrome Necessitates Our Urgency By reconnecting with nature as soon as possible, we can hit “Reset” on what is called Generational Amnesia. What is the baseline standard by which we measure nature’s “normal” all around us? The integrity of the natural world continues to slide away from its true normal, much like […]
Clippings #2- CNHF Logo
Our Story and the Amazing Plant Behind the CNHF Logo Yerba Santa (Spanish, and the accepted common name) Samahl jpilh (Kumeyaay) Palwut (Luiseño) Hoohohechot (Tongva) Eriodictyon crassifolium (the scientific name) was assigned by the British botanist George Bentham in California between 1836 – 1842. He described the plant in “The Botany of the Voyage H.M.S […]