Dial (818) 768-1802, hit extension 7, and you’ll hear Tom Henschel telling you what’s blooming this week somewhere between Three Rivers and the Mexican border. He’s been doing this every Friday in March, April, and May since 1983.
I’ve called from a parking lot in Lone Pine. Once from a campsite in Borrego Springs. And exactly once from my driveway in Sacramento because I was curious whether it was worth driving south on a Friday afternoon.
It was not. Henschel told me as much, gracefully.
That gracefulness is part of why the Theodore Payne Wildflower Hotline has run for forty-three consecutive years. Theodore Payne Foundation, which maintains it, predates the hotline by twenty-three years (founded 1960; the IRS recorded its 501(c)(3) status in 1962). Its Sun Valley campus sits on twenty-two acres of canyon land in the San Fernando Valley. Theodore Payne himself ran a California native plant nursery on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles starting November 3, 1903. That makes 123 years of continuous practice from one lineage. There is no comparable run in U.S. horticulture.
Table of Contents
- Key Takeaways
- What Is the Theodore Payne Wildflower Hotline?
- How to Call It
- The 2026 Season Archive
- Tom Henschel: The Voice
- The Theodore Payne Foundation
- Theodore Payne the Man (1872-1963)
- The California Wildflower Information Ecosystem
- How to Support the Foundation
- Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the phone number for the Theodore Payne Wildflower Hotline?
- When does the wildflower hotline run?
- Who narrates the wildflower hotline?
- When was the Theodore Payne Wildflower Hotline founded?
- What areas does the wildflower hotline cover?
- Is there a wildflower hotline for Northern California?
- Is the wildflower hotline free?
- How do I subscribe to the wildflower hotline?
- When was the Theodore Payne Foundation founded?
- Where is the Theodore Payne Foundation located?
- Is the Theodore Payne Hotline the same as the Anza-Borrego Hotline?
- Where can I find the wildflower hotline archive?
- Bottom Line
- Article Updates
- Related Coverage
Key Takeaways
- Phone number: (818) 768-1802 extension 7. Free recorded report.
- Schedule: Every Friday March through May. The 2026 season ran 11 weekly reports, March 6 through May 15. The hotline does not publish in February or June.
- Coverage: Southern and Central California. NorCal callers should use Yerba Buena CNPS, Calflora real-time observations, and individual state park bloom reports instead. The Theodore Payne Hotline does not regularly cover Bay Area or NorCal locations.
- Format: Recorded narration by voice actor Tom Henschel (since around 2009), illustrated PDF, weekly email, RSS feed, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. Reports archive back to 2013.
- Operator: Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers & Native Plants. 501(c)(3), EIN 95-6095398. Founded 1960; campus at 10459 Tuxford Street, Sun Valley, CA 91352.
- Hotline founded: 1983. The 2026 season was the 43rd consecutive year. That predates the World Wide Web by six years.
- 2026 season sponsors: Alonzo Wickers and Cuyama Buckhorn (a hotel near Carrizo Plain, the only confirmed 2026 California super bloom location).
- Cost: Free to call. The Foundation funds the service through donations, named season sponsors, and revenue from its native plant nursery. Memberships start at $45/year (Student/Senior), $70/year (Regular).
What Is the Theodore Payne Wildflower Hotline?
The Theodore Payne Wildflower Hotline is a free weekly recorded bloom report covering Southern and Central California, narrated by voice actor Tom Henschel and operated by the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers & Native Plants. Reports run every Friday from early March through mid-May. Callers dial (818) 768-1802 and select extension 7 to hear a recorded narration roughly three to five minutes long, organized by region, naming specific viewing locations and species in bloom that week. Reports also publish as illustrated PDFs at theodorepayne.org/learn/wildflower-hotline, plus weekly email, RSS, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. The hotline launched in 1983 and has run continuously every spring since.
How to Call It
Phone: Dial (818) 768-1802. Listen to the menu. Select extension 7.
The recorded message starts with the standing dedication: “The Theodore Payne Wild Flower Hotline offers free weekly online and recorded updates on the best locations for viewing spring wild flowers in Southern and Central California. All locations are on easily accessible public lands and range from urban to wild, distant to right here in L.A.”
Then Henschel walks the regions. Desert, foothill, coast range, urban Los Angeles, central California. Each region gets thirty seconds to a minute of names and places. The signoff is consistent week to week: “That’s it for this week. Look for our next report on Friday, [date] and check back each week for the most up to date information.”
Web: theodorepayne.org/learn/wildflower-hotline/. That page links the current week’s PDF, the audio file, the email subscription, RSS, and the podcast feed. Past PDFs archive back to 2013, organized by year and date.
Podcast: Apple Podcasts and Spotify both carry the show under “The Wild Flower Hotline.” Episodes drop Friday afternoon Pacific time, same as the phone recording.
Email: Sign up at theodorepayne.org for the weekly blast. The email includes the PDF as an attachment plus a one-paragraph season note.
RSS feed: Available from the hotline page for those who prefer a reader.
Submit your own sighting via the public submission form linked from the hotline page. Photos that make the cut get credited to the photographer in the PDF. 2026’s published photographers include Hannah Perez (Foundation Creative Lead), Mike Wall, Emily Sluiman, Tom Chester, Gabi McLean, George Nanoski, Don Rideout, Noah Aldonas, and Craig Dremann. Most state agency bloom reports do not credit photographers. Foundation does. That’s part of the brand.
The 2026 Season Archive
Eleven weekly reports between March 6 and May 15, 2026. Sponsors: Alonzo Wickers and Cuyama Buckhorn. What follows is the season as the hotline reported it, with the location and species highlights from each week. PDF links go to theodorepayne.org.
Report 1: March 6, 2026
Headline weather note: “Spring at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park came and went in January!” Henderson Canyon Road and Coyote Canyon already past peak. Death Valley not a super bloom but “good diversity,” with eleven low-elevation species named including desert sunflower (Geraea canescens), notch-leaved phacelia (Phacelia crenulata), and gravel ghost (Atrichoseris platyphylla). Carrizo Plain “an odd rainfall pattern this season”; Temblor Range slopes “suddenly came alive with hillside daisies”; Caliente Range bloom enhanced by July 2025 Madre Fire grass clearance. The 2026 super bloom story, in retrospect, started here.
Report 2: March 13, 2026
Pinnacles National Park added to the rotation. California hedgenettle, silver bush lupines, elegant clarkia on the High Peaks Trail. Irish Hills Natural Reserve in San Luis Obispo County: black sage in full bloom, hummingbird sage, the rare Ojai fritillary. Figueroa Mountain in Los Padres: “This year’s wildflower season on Figueroa Mountain has been strange. Many wildflowers, not usually seen until late March were already at peak in January.” This is the report whose Carrizo species list our T6 hub cited for super bloom confirmation.
Report 3: March 20, 2026
Mid-March update. Lower elevations transitioning past peak; mid-elevation chaparral and inland foothill regions taking over.
Report 4: March 27, 2026
Late March. Carrizo Plain still active per cluster cross-references; Temblor Range yellows continued. The early-spring heat that would later end Death Valley’s super bloom in late March began making itself felt.
Report 5: April 3, 2026
April begins. Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve hits peak window. Inland chaparral and foothill regions running heavy.
Report 6: April 10, 2026
Largest PDF of the season at 11.2 MB. Suggests the heaviest peak-bloom photo coverage of any week. Native Plant Garden Tour (“Habitats That Heal”) ran April 11 and 12.
Report 7: April 17, 2026
Mid-April. Higher elevations gaining; lower elevations winding down.
Report 8: April 24, 2026
Late April. Habitat gardens and chaparral keep contributing.
Report 9: May 1, 2026
May arrives. Coast ranges and Pinnacles regaining attention. Many low-elevation regions now in seed-set or done.
Report 10: May 8, 2026
Penultimate report. San Luis Obispo County (Irish Hills again with Bishop manzanita, golden stars, fairy lantern, clay mariposa lily). San Gabriel Mountains: desert willow on the Foundation campus. Orange County: Whiting Ranch with wine cup clarkia, sacred datura, “very good year” for poison oak. San Diego County: Palmer’s ceanothus, summer snow, Plummer’s mariposa lily. Urban LA: expanded Chaparral Garden species list at Elizabeth Learning Center.
Report 11: May 15, 2026 (final)
Final report of the 2026 season. URL pattern projected as 2026_5-15-WFH*.pdf at theodorepayne.org. The May 8 report’s signoff explicitly named May 15 as the season’s last update.
Reports return in March 2027.
Tom Henschel: The Voice
Tom Henschel narrates the hotline. He’s a working voice actor with theater and documentary credits, and he’s voiced the recording since around 2009 according to cluster cross-references (the Foundation’s own page does not state his start year, which is itself a Foundation choice worth noting).
His delivery is part of why the hotline has the cultural durability it has. Measured. Slightly theatrical. Gracious about the species you’re not going to drive to see.
People in Southern California who have called for years know the cadence. It’s the kind of recording you’d want playing in a car driving up the 5 toward Carrizo on a Saturday morning, the windows cracked, late March light still cool enough to roll the rear window halfway down. I’ve never heard him narrate live. I’ve listened on podcast. His narration holds up at any tempo.
The Theodore Payne Foundation
Behind the hotline sits a 501(c)(3) headquartered in the San Fernando Valley. EIN 95-6095398. Self-reported founding date March 30, 1960 (with IRS recording December 1962, the date of 501(c)(3) determination). Biography page on the Foundation’s own site says January 6, 1960 for incorporation. At least three founding dates exist in the Foundation’s own materials. Take 1960 as authoritative; the IRS 1962 date refers to a later milestone.
Address and hours
Main campus: 10459 Tuxford Street, Sun Valley, CA 91352. Twenty-two acres of canyon land in the San Fernando Valley. Tuesday through Saturday, 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM. Closed Sunday and Monday. Free admission.
Secondary location: Los Nogales Nursery, 4700 Griffin Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90031. Thursday through Sunday, 9 AM to 4 PM.
Phone: 818-768-1802. Extension 7 reaches the hotline recording. Other extensions reach the nursery, education programs, and main office.
Programs
Retail nursery. California native plants, seeds, books, native-plant gear. The nursery is the Foundation’s primary revenue stream.
Long Live LA Conservation Seed Bank. Established 2018. Genevieve Arnold has managed seed and conservation since July 2010.
Education. Classes, workshops, professional landscaper certification, a Native Plant Landscaper Job Board.
Native Plant Database. Public reference at theodorepayne.org. Searchable by sun exposure, water needs, region, plant type.
Native Plant Garden Tour. Annual flagship event, second weekend of April. The 2026 edition ran April 11 and 12 under the theme “Habitats That Heal.” Tickets at nativeplantgardentour.org.
The Wildflower Hotline. Why most readers ended up here.
Leadership and finances
Amy Greenwood has served as Executive Director since January 2025, succeeding Katie Tilford (interim, June 2024 to January 2025) and Evan Meyer (through June 2024). FY2024 (year ending August 2024) total revenue was $2,468,047. Total assets were $4,162,258. Net assets $3,630,536. Salary expenses came to $1,317,708, or 53.4 percent of expenses. Stable financial health.
Other tenured staff include Tim Becker (Director of Horticulture, since November 2010), Maryanne Pittman (Public Programs, since April 2023), and Katie Tilford (Development & Communications, since November 2020).
Theodore Payne the Man (1872-1963)
Born June 19, 1872 in Church Brampton, Northamptonshire, England. His father John Payne managed Manor Farm. His mother Pricilla encouraged his horticultural interests early.
Education at Ackworth Academy, a Quaker boarding school. He carried the Society of Friends affiliation through life. In 1887 he won first prize at Ackworth for a herbarium project the Foundation describes as “beautifully mounted and thoroughly classified.” A year later he apprenticed at J. Cheal & Sons nursery, learning the seed and plant trade.
On June 10, 1893 he arrived in New York aboard the SS New York. Within months he was in Southern California, working as head gardener at Madame Helena Modjeska’s ranch in Santiago Canyon, Orange County. Modjeska was a Polish-born Shakespearean actress retired with her husband Karol Bozenta Chłapowski. Her ranch is now Modjeska House, a National Historic Landmark.
By 1896 Payne had moved to Germain Fruit and Seed Company in Los Angeles as flower seedsman. Seven years later, on November 3, 1903, he founded Theodore Payne Nursery at 440 South Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. He was thirty-one. The nursery moved to 345 South Main Street in November 1905, then to a ten-acre site at 1969-99 Los Feliz Boulevard in Atwater Village in 1922, where it operated for decades. He naturalized as a U.S. citizen on October 23, 1913.
His specialty was California natives. Lupines especially. With his wife Alice (married December 26, 1907 in San Francisco), he discovered the orchid-flowered clarkia in the wild. A lupine species was named in his honor: Lupinus paynei.
Major projects
California Wild Garden, 1915. Two hundred sixty-two species of California natives planted at Figueroa and what is now Martin Luther King Boulevard. Among the earliest large-scale public displays of native plants in the country.
Partnership with landscape architect Ralph D. Cornell, 1919-1924. Native plant designs for institutions.
Native plant gardens at Pomona College, Occidental College, and Torrey Pines Park. Standing maintenance contract with the City of Pasadena for Washington Park.
Caltech native plant garden, 1939. One hundred seventy-six species. A specimen-density showcase that defined his work.
California native garden at Descanso Gardens, 1958-1960. Completed in his late eighties.
He served as founder of the Los Feliz Boulevard Business Association, president of the Southern California Academy of Sciences, and a founding member of the California Association of Nurserymen. The Southern California Horticultural Institute granted him an honorary life membership in 1952.
He died May 6, 1963 in Glendale, California, at age ninety, just shy of his ninety-first birthday. Cremated and interred at Rose Hills Cemetery in Whittier. Alice survived him.
The Theodore Payne Foundation incorporated in 1960, during his lifetime. He was eighty-seven. The 320-acre Theodore Payne Wildlife Sanctuary near Llano was dedicated January 28, 1961, two years before his death. The twenty-acre Sun Valley site that became the current campus was donated to the Foundation in 1966, three years after he died. The propagation class began in 1976. The wildflower hotline launched in 1983.
That is the lineage. Nursery on Broadway, 1903. Foundation, 1960. Hotline, 1983. Calling today reaches a continuous practice of California native plant horticulture older than any other in this country.
The California Wildflower Information Ecosystem
The Theodore Payne Hotline is the marquee SoCal-anchored aggregator. For other regions, single parks, and species-level real-time observation, complementary sources do better. What follows is the working directory.
Anza-Borrego Foundation Hotline
(760) 767-4684. Single-park coverage for Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Web at theabf.org/experience-anza-borrego/wildflowers/. Interactive bloom map at experience.arcgis.com. Visitor submissions at arcg.is/KW54r. Visitor center at 200 Palm Canyon Drive, Borrego Springs, October through May, 9 AM to 5 PM daily. Free.
The Anza-Borrego hotline runs weekly during bloom season (typically late January through early April), which means it gets going before Theodore Payne does and fades earlier. For Anza-Borrego specifically, the Foundation’s own line is more current.
Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve
(661) 724-1180. California State Parks unit. The phone line covers both park information and wildflower bloom updates. Address: 15101 Lancaster Road, Lancaster, CA. The Reserve runs the PoppyCam live feed at parks.ca.gov/WildflowerBloom for visual confirmation of bloom status. Peak season mid-March through May.
California State Parks (general)
parks.ca.gov/WildflowerBloom aggregates statewide. No phone hotline crosses state park units. Individual parks publish bloom posts during peak season but coverage is uneven.
CNPS chapters
The California Native Plant Society runs regional chapters with chapter-by-chapter bloom information. Yerba Buena (Bay Area) maintains an aggregator at cnps-yerbabuena.org/exploring/flower-hotlines/ that’s the closest thing to a NorCal equivalent of the Theodore Payne Hotline. LA/Santa Monica Mountains, San Gabriel Mountains, Orange County, and Riverside/San Bernardino chapters all publish bloom info during season.
Calflora and Calscape
calflora.org is California’s native plant observation database. Calscape (calscape.org) is CNPS’s native plant garden suitability database. Both are free, both are searchable, both include real-time citizen observations. Useful when the hotline is between weeks or you want to look up a specific species.
iNaturalist
inaturalist.org. Global, but California’s contributor network is uniquely strong (roughly half a million CA contributors). “Research-grade” status is assigned when independent observers confirm an identification. Useful for spot-checking species claims in any of the above sources.
National Park Service
Death Valley (nps.gov/deva), Joshua Tree (nps.gov/jotr), Channel Islands (nps.gov/chis), and Pinnacles (nps.gov/pinn) all post wildflower updates to park news during bloom seasons. None operates a phone hotline. Park visitor centers will answer wildflower questions in person but do not maintain dedicated hotline numbers.
BLM (Bureau of Land Management)
Carrizo Plain National Monument coordinates with CNPS field reporters. The Goodwin Education Visitor Center on Soda Lake Road posts informal bloom updates during super bloom years. No standing phone hotline.
Comparison table
| Source | Phone | Coverage | Schedule | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Theodore Payne | (818) 768-1802 ×7 | SoCal + Central CA | Weekly Fri Mar-May | Phone, PDF, email, podcast |
| Anza-Borrego Foundation | (760) 767-4684 | Anza-Borrego SP only | Weekly bloom season | Phone, map, social |
| Antelope Valley Reserve | (661) 724-1180 | Reserve only | Mar-May | Phone, PoppyCam |
| parks.ca.gov | n/a | Statewide state parks | Seasonal posts | Web |
| CNPS Yerba Buena | n/a | NorCal aggregator | Seasonal | Web |
| Calflora | n/a | Statewide species | Real-time | Web/database |
| iNaturalist | n/a | Statewide species | Real-time | Web/app |
| NPS Death Valley | n/a | Death Valley NP | News posts | Web |
| BLM Carrizo Plain | n/a | Monument only | Informal posts | Web/social |
How to Support the Foundation
The hotline is free. The Foundation that maintains it runs on memberships, donations, named season sponsors, and revenue from its native plant nursery. If you’re a regular caller, here’s the conversion math.
Membership tiers
$45 Student/Senior, $70 Regular, $300 Supporter, $1,000 President’s Circle, $2,500 Founder’s Circle. All tiers get 10 percent off plants, seeds, and Foundation gear; 15 percent during member sale events; up to 25 percent off classes; and complimentary Behind the Scenes Tours. Higher tiers add unspecified benefits the page is vague about; if you want clarity before stepping up, email the Foundation directly.
Order at store.theodorepayne.org/collections/membership.
Other ways to give
One-time and recurring direct donations at theodorepayne.org/donate. Wildfire Fund (post-fire native plant ecological recovery, a current priority given the 2024 and 2025 fire seasons). Stock donations. Vehicle donations, running or not. IRA Qualified Charitable Distributions for donors over seventy and a half. Memorial giving designated to honor a deceased person. Legacy Society planned giving including bequests and charitable trusts.
Visit the nursery
The nursery is the Foundation’s primary revenue stream. California natives, seeds, books, gear. Tuesday through Saturday, 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM. Free admission. No membership required to shop. Address: 10459 Tuxford Street, Sun Valley, CA 91352. Los Nogales secondary nursery: 4700 Griffin Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90031, Thursday through Sunday 9 AM to 4 PM.
Volunteer
Habitat Care Volunteer Weeding events at Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area run periodic Saturdays during bloom season, coordinated jointly by the San Gabriel Mountains CNPS chapter and the Foundation. Email sgm.santafedam@cnps.org for SGM volunteer events. General Foundation volunteer inquiries through theodorepayne.org.
Annual events
The Native Plant Garden Tour is the flagship event, second weekend of April. The 2026 edition ran April 11 and 12 under the theme “Habitats That Heal.” The Spring Fling event runs separately. Local Source Initiative talks happen periodically online (free for members, pay-what-you-can starting at $5 for general public). Behind the Scenes Tours are members-only.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the phone number for the Theodore Payne Wildflower Hotline?
(818) 768-1802, extension 7. The line is recorded; callers reach a roughly three-to-five-minute narration covering Southern and Central California bloom locations and species. Reports update every Friday from early March through mid-May. Free to call.
When does the wildflower hotline run?
Every Friday afternoon, March through May. The 2026 season ran 11 reports between March 6 and May 15. Reports return in March 2027. The hotline does not publish in January, February, June, or any month outside the spring bloom window.
Who narrates the wildflower hotline?
Voice actor Tom Henschel. He has narrated the recording since around 2009 according to cluster cross-references. The Foundation does not state his start year on the public page.
When was the Theodore Payne Wildflower Hotline founded?
1983. The 2026 season was the 43rd consecutive year. The hotline launched twelve years before the World Wide Web went public, which is part of why the phone-recording format persists.
What areas does the wildflower hotline cover?
Southern and Central California. The standing dedication is explicit: “Southern and Central California.” Reports stretch as far south as Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (San Diego County), as far north as San Luis Obispo and Santa Clara counties, and inland to Carrizo Plain, the southern Sierra foothills, and Death Valley. The hotline does not regularly cover the Bay Area or Northern California; for those regions, use the CNPS Yerba Buena chapter (cnps-yerbabuena.org), Calflora, and individual state park bloom reports.
Is there a wildflower hotline for Northern California?
No single equivalent. The closest aggregators are the CNPS Yerba Buena chapter (cnps-yerbabuena.org/exploring/flower-hotlines/), Calflora’s real-time citizen observations (calflora.org), and individual California state park bloom reports through parks.ca.gov. None has the Theodore Payne Hotline’s combination of weekly cadence, narrated audio, and illustrated PDF format.
Is the wildflower hotline free?
Yes. The Theodore Payne Foundation funds the service through donations, named season sponsors, memberships, and revenue from its native plant nursery. The 2026 season was sponsored by Alonzo Wickers and Cuyama Buckhorn (a hotel in the Cuyama Valley near Carrizo Plain).
How do I subscribe to the wildflower hotline?
Email subscription, RSS feed, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify all carry the show under “The Wild Flower Hotline.” Sign-up links are at theodorepayne.org/learn/wildflower-hotline/. New episodes drop Friday afternoon Pacific time, same as the phone recording. PDF reports archive back to 2013.
When was the Theodore Payne Foundation founded?
1960. The Foundation’s history page says March 30, 1960; the biography page says January 6, 1960; the IRS recorded December 1962 as the date of 501(c)(3) determination. The 1960 dates refer to incorporation; the 1962 date refers to the IRS classification milestone. Take 1960 as the founding year. The Foundation was incorporated during Theodore Payne’s lifetime; he was eighty-seven at the time and died three years later, in 1963.
Where is the Theodore Payne Foundation located?
10459 Tuxford Street, Sun Valley, CA 91352. The Foundation occupies a 22-acre canyon-land campus in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles County. Open Tuesday through Saturday, 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM. A secondary nursery operates at 4700 Griffin Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90031 (Los Nogales Nursery), Thursday through Sunday, 9 AM to 4 PM.
Is the Theodore Payne Hotline the same as the Anza-Borrego Hotline?
No. They are separate services. The Anza-Borrego Foundation runs (760) 767-4684 for Anza-Borrego Desert State Park exclusively, weekly during bloom season (typically late January through early April). The Theodore Payne Hotline at (818) 768-1802 ext. 7 covers Southern and Central California broadly, weekly Friday March through May. The two services overlap on Anza-Borrego coverage during March, but the Anza-Borrego line gets going earlier and ends earlier.
Where can I find the wildflower hotline archive?
theodorepayne.org/learn/wildflower-hotline/ links the current week’s PDF and audio. PDF archives stretch back to 2013, organized by year and date. The 2026 archive (eleven weekly reports between March 6 and May 15) is consolidated above in this article’s 2026 Season Archive section.
Bottom Line
Dial (818) 768-1802. Extension 7. Friday afternoons March through May. The recording is free, the PDF is free, the email is free, the podcast is free.
The Foundation that maintains it is not free to maintain, which is where the donations and memberships and the Native Plant Garden Tour and the nursery come in. If you’re a regular caller, the simplest move is a $70 Regular membership. If you’re a more occasional caller, the simplest move is to buy a couple of California native plants from the nursery on a Tuesday morning. Both keep the hotline running.
The 2026 season is over. Reports return in March 2027. Set a reminder.
Article Updates
- May 9, 2026: Article published. Service-page format covering hotline mechanics ((818) 768-1802 ext. 7, weekly Fridays March-May, narrator Tom Henschel since around 2009), the 2026 season’s eleven weekly reports with PDF archive links, Tom Henschel narrator background, the Theodore Payne Foundation operations (founded 1960; campus at 10459 Tuxford Street, Sun Valley, CA; Amy Greenwood ED since January 2025), Theodore Payne biography (1872 Northamptonshire-1963 Glendale; nursery on Broadway 1903; Lupinus paynei named for him), the broader California wildflower information ecosystem comparison directory (10+ sources mapped by region), how to support the Foundation (memberships $45-$2,500, donations, nursery, volunteering), 12-question FAQ with FAQPage JSON-LD schema, one inline SVG (regional information-source map), bidirectional cross-links to T6 hub California Super Bloom and bloom-cluster spokes.
Related Coverage
The hotline’s beat overlaps with the 2026 California super bloom story we cover in detail elsewhere on this site:
- 2026 California Super Bloom Wildflowers Guide. The statewide hub. Carrizo Plain confirmed by NASA and CNPS as the only true 2026 California super bloom (Theodore Payne Hotline March 13 species list cited).
- 2026 Death Valley Super Bloom: A Retrospective Field Guide. NPS classified 2026 as the fourth documented Death Valley super bloom (1998, 2005, 2016, 2026). Hotline cited the early bloom in Report 1.
- Anza-Borrego Wildflowers: 2026 Bloom Guide and Species Reference. The Sonoran/Colorado Desert spoke. Coverage runs alongside the Anza-Borrego Foundation hotline at (760) 767-4684.
- Walker Canyon Poppy Fields: The 2026 Closure-Aware Guide. Lake Elsinore closure context with the Riverside County 2026 alternative at Diamond Valley Lake.
- The California Fire Poppy: Rare to See, Not Rare in the Bank. The fire-cued species the hotline mentions in post-burn season reports.
- What Is a Super Bloom and What Causes One? The 2026 Definitive Guide. The science behind the rainfall thresholds and seed-coating mechanics the hotline implicitly tracks.
