Wildflower Shows

Wildflower Show Collectors

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

Wildflowers 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

Collecting supplies 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.

Stella Ken keying 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.

Georgia - runner 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!

Wildflower Show - 2025

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.

Wildflower Show - 2025

Life Among the Oaks

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

Our keynote speakers this year are

John Muir Laws and Kate Marianchild.

Our keynote speaker this year is

Kat Anderson, author of Tending the Wild

Kat Anderson

Our keynote speaker for the 2026 Wildflower Show is Kat Anderson, the renowned author of Tending the Wild and I Sing to the Earth and She Sings Back Join us for her insightful talk at 1:00 PM in SM 3. Attendance is free, and seating will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Kat will also have a table set up at the show where she will be signing copies of her books from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM and again from 2:30 PM to 4:00 PM. You can buy copies of her new book, I Sing to the Earth and She Sings Back, but please bring your own copy of Tending the Wild if you wish to have it autographed. Below, you will find a description of her presentation.

How can we deepen our relationship with wildflowers today?

California wildflowers were widely and deeply appreciated for their beauty by white people in the late 1800s and these vast wildflower displays were assumed to be part of California’s natural heritage but were in fact, in large part, the product of Native American resource management. I will contrast this colonial aesthetic view with describing Indigenous people’s use and stewardship as part of a very different perspective on wildflowers that included a much broader sense of what wildflowers meant—for foods, medicines, habitat for varied wildlife, and as kin in the web of life. Put in historical context, many of California's ecosystems underwent dramatic changes after settlers of European descent decimated Native populations, seized their land, forbid their key practices, and replaced their nature-is-our-partner worldview with one that is more extractive and human-centered. I briefly explore this history, and its reparation with co-management agreements and land back programs, and end with what Indigenous relationships with wildflowers can teach us today—suggesting possible ways that the human place in nature can be restored without cultural appropriation.

M. Kat Anderson is an ethnoecologist and gatherer dedicated to restoring relationships between people and native ecosystems. She has spent over 25 years learning from Native American communities, integrating Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) with Western science. As the author of Tending the Wild, she highlights Indigenous stewardship practices essential for biodiversity, climate resilience, and cultural restoration. Her latest work, I Sing to the Earth and She Sings Back, explores how we can reimagine time, embrace reciprocity, and cultivate deep, healing relationships with the earth.