The Riverside-San Bernardino Chapter of the California Native Plant Society will offer a tour of eight gardens full of California native plants in spring bloom on March 29. The Spring Native Garden Ramble features four gardens in Redlands, open 9 a.m.-noon, and four in Riverside and Moreno Valley, o pen noon-4 p.m. Admission is free, but registration is required, at bit.ly/gardenramble2025. Addresses and descriptions will be provided by email to those who register, according to a news release. The Redlands gardens include Nancy and Cliff Alexander’s yard 20 years after they decided to create a habitat for birds and butterflies after a 40-acre field was developed next door. “A California thrasher pair escaped into our yard after their nest was destroyed, so we decided to plant natives to support the displaced wildlife,” Nancy Alexander said in the news release. Another couple used a city of Redlands rebate to replace their lawn, only to have their next-doorneighbor decide to do the same. Those on the tour can see both yards. One Redlands garden shows how a woman who was used to the rainier climates in the East and South transformed a weedy, trash-filled lot into a California native pollinator garden, with a rain garden and ember-resistant zone around her house. Another garden shows what a professional designer did with a struggling median and grass backyard. The gardens at the Moreno Valley home of landscape designer Richard Barry will be featured on the March 29, 2025, Spring Native Garden Ramble, sponsored by the Riverside-San Bernardino Chapter of the California Native Plant Society. (Photo by Linda Richards, California Native Plant Society) Nancy and Cliff Alexander’s Redlands yard, which they planted with natives to support displaced wildlife, is one of the gardens that will be featured on the March 29, 2025, Spring Native Garden Ramble, sponsored by the Riverside-San Bernardino Chapter of the California Native Plant Society. (Photo by Nancy Alexander) Show Caption1 of 2The gardens at the Moreno Valley home of landscape designer Richard Barry will be featured on the March 29, 2025, Spring Native Garden Ramble, sponsored by the Riverside-San Bernardino Chapter of the California Native Plant Society. (Photo by Linda Richards, California Native Plant Society) Expand In one of the Riverside gardens, a couple share what they learned when they replaced their front lawn 10 years ago, after being warned that native plants would die or look bad. Another couple bought a 5-acre ranch 25 years ago and turned it into a native wildlife habitat. “The ranch is now filled with birds, pollinators and other wildlife,” John Green, co-owner of the ranch, said in the news release. “It is dominated by several hundred species of native plants with a focus on western Riverside County species. With a changing climate, we also experiment with desert native species and sometimes include natives from elsewhere in the state just because they are just too cool to resist,” Green said. Also on the tour is the garden of do-it-yourselfer Aaron Singer, who decided to replace his lawn with blooming native plants after an off-road trip in the High Desert. The tour also includes landscape designer Richard Barry’s yard in Moreno Valley, with a meandering dry streambed that collects rain runoff, unusual native plants from Baja, fruit trees and edible plants. For information, go to cnps.org/event/spring-native-garden-ramble-2025. ...read more read less