This Mother’s Day weekend, treat Mom to a wildflower walk at one of our local gardens.

Spectacular blooms are on view now at the California Botanic Garden. Heading up the list of unusual colors is the sulfur yellow Conejo buckwheat. Electric and royal blues, bright pinks, and lavenders are represented by several penstemons and an array of sages. Pretty but prickly are colorful hedgehog cactus, cholla cactus species, prickly pear cactus and beavertail cactus. Evening primrose, phlox species, yucca and agave are quite dramatic even if they are dressed “only” in white blossoms!

At the Theodore Payne Foundation, showy penstemon is a prolific bloomer decorating TPF's garde ...