(based on an article in the July-August 2016 Blazing Star Newsletter by Stephen Buckhout)

Collectors are an essential part of every wildflower show; without them, and the plants they gather, there would be no show. 

A Day in the Life

Collectors begin early in the day gathering all of the items they will need and loading them into their vehicles: bottles, buckets, clippers, loppers, extra water, newspaper or other material to wrap around collected specimens, a log for tracking the items collected, any required collecting permits, lunch, and clothing appropriate for whatever weather the day might bring.

Some days are hot, some are cold, and some are windy and wet, challenging even the hardiest collectors. Since flowers are best viewed in the day or two immediately after collection, there is little opportunity to wait for better weather. Collectors need sharp eyes, plant identification skills and a good memory to spot their target plants as they travel specific routes looking for flowers in bloom, collecting one or two samples of each to display at the show. They often work in groups of two or three.

Back at the Show

Once back at the show location, each specimen's identification is checked.  Any specimens that cannot be identified in the field must be keyed to determine the correct identification, work often done by the same individuals who did the collecting.

After identification is verified, the plant samples are placed in a display bottle and handed off to a runner, who will pull the corresponding species card and place the specimen in the appropriate location based on either the correct plant family or the relevant plant community. In the absence of runners, some collectors pull their own cards and place their specimens in the correct locations.

Collectors are among the last to leave the show location on the day prior to the event and may never be seen by those who attend the show. In a sense, they are like Santa Claus and his elves, toiling behind the scenes to deliver beautiful gifts to a public they may never meet.

Thanks to our Collectors!

Life Among the Oaks

The oaks are like the supermarket of natural habitats. - Nick Jensen, CNPS Conservation Program Director

Please join us on Saturday, April 26, 2025 from 9:30 am - 4 pm for our 50th Wildflower Show at West Valley College. This family-friendly event features hundreds of native wildflowers and plants on display as well as a variety of activities for all ages. The event and parking are all free to the public.

Our keynote speakers this year are

John Muir Laws and Kate Marianchild.

The show will feature hundreds of species of wildflowers and native plants from Santa Clara, San Mateo and surrounding counties gathered and identified by our volunteer collectors. In addition to local plants, we will have a section featuring flowers from native plant gardens in our Chapter.

Read more …

Please join us at West Valley College on Saturday, April 25, 2026 from 9:30 am - 4 pm for our 51st Wildflower Show. This family-friendly event features hundreds of native wildflowers and plants on display as well as a variety of activities for all ages. The event and parking are all free to the public.

Our keynote speaker this year is

Kat Anderson, author of Tending the Wild

The show will feature hundreds of species of wildflowers and native plants from Santa Clara, San Mateo and surrounding counties gathered and identified by our volunteer collectors. In addition to local plants, we will have a section featuring flowers from native plant gardens in our Chapter.

Read more …

Saturday, April 23th, 2022 from 10:00 AM to 3 PM

The Santa Clara Valley Chapter of CNPS is celebrating California Native Plant Week with a Wildflower Festival on Saturday, April 23. The event will be held  at the Dana Center at Hidden Villa in Los Altos Hills, from 10 am to 3 pm. This event replaces our previously scheduled Wildflower Show at West Valley College on the same date.

We welcome the whole family with fun outdoor activities and an exhibit of wildflowers. Experts will be on site to describe different samples and answer questions. You can also stop by our wildflower seed table to take home some free seeds to sow this fall/winter. This will create spring beauty in your own garden – which can also feed nectar to butterflies, act as host plants for caterpillars, and provide essential habitat for native bees and insects. 

Read more …

Native Plant Sale & More

Saturday October 9

There's a twist to our 2021 plant sale - you have to purchase your plants online in advance. From October 2 through October 7 order online from the CNPS SCV Nursery store and the Grassroots Ecology Nursery.

Then schedule a time to join us on October 9th at the Dana Center at Hidden Villa to pick your plants up and shop for native plant-related items from:

• CNPS SCV: used books, t-shirts, signs and more (credit cards only)
• Coyote Brush Studios
• Wild Jules Seed Balls
• Member-collected Seed Exchange

No drop-ins. Even though we will be outdoors, masks are mandatory. If you forget to bring yours, we will provide one.

Read more …

Arcadia Place Pollinator Garden

This is one of several Palo Alto pollinator gardens created by landscape architect, Juanita Salisbury. They are part of the planned corridor to provide pollinators with food between the Baylands and Foothills Park/Pearson-Arastradero Preserve as outlined in Palo Alto's Master Plan for 2030. More information about the gardens and future plans is available in this article in the Palo Alto Weekly.

Plant List

Address on Google maps.

Gardening for Biodiversity in a Climate Crisis

Date and Time: September 21, 2019, 9am - 5pm.

"Garden as if life depended on it." -- Doug Tallamy

The symposium featured keynote speaker, Douglas Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home, and Bart O’Brien, Director of the Regional Parks Botanic Garden and the co-author of Reimagining the California Lawn.

The insect Armageddon, the collapse of the western Monarch butterfly, The Sixth Extinction—we are losing species at an alarming rate. Contributors to this crisis include invasive species, the ubiquitous European lawn, non-native landscapes and the loss of wild areas. Landscape professionals and home gardeners can act to turn this trend around. This one-day symposium showed you how to be part of the solution. 

Videos of the presentations at the 2019 symposium are linked below:

• Restoring the Little Things that Run the World - Douglas Tallamy, Professor of Entomology University of Delaware and author of Bringing Nature Home 
• The Insect Apocalypse, Pollinators, and Climate Change - Angela Laws, The Xerces Society, Monarch and Pollinator Ecologist
• Urban Survivors: Butterfly Conservation in the City of San Francisco - Liam O’Brien, Leptidopterist, The Green Hair Streak Project
• Resilient Bee Landscapes - Kimberly Chacon, Landscape Design, PhD student UC Davis, Bee Habitat Analysis and Design
• What You Can Do Now - Bart O’Brien, Director, Director of the Regional Parks Botanic Garden, CNPS Fellow and the co-author of Reimagining the California Lawn

Venue: Foothill College, 12345 El Monte Rd, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022

South: Sat, May 04, 2019, 10:00am to 4:00pm

North: Sun, May 05, 2019, 10:00am to 4:00pm

 A free tour of native gardens in Santa Clara Valley & Peninsula, San Francisco Bay Area

Read more …