Several months ago, Salvatore and Janet Merendino looked at their ivy-covered hillside and decided they'd had enough.
It took too much water to keep the ivy green, and with mandatory cutbacks looming, the prospect of looking at a hillside covered with brown, gnarly vines was less than appealing.
So the Merendinos ripped out the ivy and planted what some people might consider weeds: California native plants.
As the drought begins to take its toll on lawns and gardens in Southern California, more homeowners and landscapers are turning to California natives which require much less water and are more suited to the arid local climate.
And that means more people are showing up at the Theodore Payne Foundation in Sun Valley, one of the few sources of information and supply of California native plants in the Southern California area.
"We are incredibly busy," said Janice Busco, co-manager of the nonprofit foundation that provides education on California native plants and runs a nursery where they propagate the plants from cuttings and sell them to the public. Recent rains haven't slowed down the crowds.
"This is usually a very slow time for us," she said, because the ideal planting season for most California natives, such as the manzanita bush and the California poppy, is fall and early winter. Spring is planting time for most traditional perennials and annuals. "But people started coming in to see what they could do to save water."
In addition, Busco said there has been a change in the clientele. The usual visitors to the foundation nursery, located in La Tuna Canyon, are either professional landscapers or gardening enthusiasts eager to expand their knowledge of an obscure subject. Now, the foundation is seeing the average homeowner who's panicking over the dilemma of either facing brown lawns or astronomical water bills.
"There has been a great change in the people who come in here. Everyone's interest is now drought tolerance," she said.
And most don't know the first thing about California native plants except that they do not require much water. "We normally do a lot more educating than selling," Busco said.
The idea behind promoting native vegetation is that the California desert habitat is more appropriate to these hardy varieties than are the lush gardens most suburban homeowners plant. Busco points out that the idea many people have of drought-tolerant plants is limited to succulents and cacti. But there is great diversity among California natives, which range from trees and large flowering bushes to wildflowers and ground covers that can carpet large areas.
