Las Pilitas plant nursery’s heirs have a legacy to preserve

Jeanette Marantos started writing for the Los Angeles Times in 1999, doing Money Makeovers until 2002. She returned to write for The Times’ Homicide Report in 2015 and the Saturday garden section in 2016, a yin and yang that kept her perspective in balance. In early 2020, she moved full time into Features, with a focus on all things flora. In June of 2023 she began writing the monthly L.A. Times Plants newsletter, which included a calendar of upcoming plant-related events. Marantos was a SoCal native who spent more than 20 years in central Washington as a daily reporter, columnist, freelancer and mom before returning to the land of eucalyptus and sage. She died Feb. 7, 2026.

Mark E. Potts is a former senior editor for video at the Los Angeles Times. A native of Enid, Okla., Potts graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a master’s degree in broadcast journalism. He has created and edited video for DreamWorks, YouTube, Microsoft, Sony and BET.