Theodore Payne’s 2013 native plant garden tour

If the phrase “native plants” conjures the image of a scrubby yard that looks more like wild parkland than lovingly tended landscape, then Lynnette Kampe asks for a little open-mindedness. “You can’t typecast these gardens,” said Kampe, executive director of the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers and Native Plants, which holds its annual garden tour this weekend.

The 42 featured properties include romantic cottage gardens, native gardens with clean lines and a modern aesthetic, and some pretty substitutes for traditional lawns, she said. Other stops provide inspiration for gardeners interested in urban wildlife habitat, water catchment, container gardening, recycled materials and other movements of the moment.

Homes are open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at two tour stops on either day of the tour. Those locations and photos of the tour stops are on the Theodore Payne site. For a preview this year, we sent a Times photograher to tour the Pasadena garden of Debe Loxton, whose Craftsman garden mixes water-wise native flowers with edibles.

PHOTOS: A Pasadena Craftsman’s mix of natives, edibles

For a sampling of the kinds of gardens you might see on the tour -- not specific stops per se -- you could also could peruse our photo previews from 2010 and 2011.

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