SUMMERTIME : Discoveries : If you’ve exhausted the usual tourist spots, here are some destinations off the beaten path. : In Praise of Native Flora

For more than 30 years the Theodore Payne Foundation in Sun Valley has been preaching the virtues of using native California plants in home gardens and lawns.

The organization was named for an Englishman who established a plant nursery in Los Angeles in 1903 and soon thereafter began to specialize in indigenous flowers, shrubs and trees. “Nothing blends so harmoniously with a California landscape as the native flora,” he wrote in one of his advertisements.

When Payne died in 1963 his methods had been adopted by only a few gardeners and landscapers. But the drought of the past half-decade has given his beliefs new life. “Many people have come to us in the last year or so because native plants are more drought-tolerant,” said foundation staff member Eliza Earle as she gave a tour of the group’s extensive gardens. “These plants don’t need to adapt to our fairly dry environment, they were already here.”

Plants, seedlings and seeds of native plants, ranging from ground cover to shade trees, can be bought at the nonprofit foundation. Tours of the native flora gardens are available to groups by reservation.

Theodore Payne Foundation, 10459 Tuxford St., Sun Valley, is open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Wednesday through Saturdays. Free. Information or tour reservations: (818) 768-1802.