When They Were Wild: Recapturing California's Wildflower Heritage

Planning a trip to see wildflowers this spring? Make sure your itinerary includes a stop at The Huntington, where a major new exhibition draws on a rich heritage of wildflower illustration to take a closer look at California’s natural and horticultural history.

“When They Were Wild: Recapturing California’s Wildflower Heritage,” showcases more than 300 items—drawings, paintings, herbarium specimens, photographs, and other objects—that trace the journey of California’s plants from the flower fields into the home garden.

The exhibition is a collaborative project of The Huntington, Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont, Calif., and the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers and Native Plants in Sun Valley, Calif. Works from all three collections, along with loans from several other public and private collections, will be on view in the Huntington show, with related displays at the two other institutions and at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden

“We couldn’t be more grateful to be collaborating with our colleagues on this project, presenting what might be the most ambitious exhibition ever mounted on the horticultural history of California wildflowers,” says Huntington botanical educator Kitty Connolly, who is co-curating the exhibition along with James Folsom, the Telleen/Jorgensen Director of the Botanical Gardens. “To be working across disciplines, looking at the intersections of science and art, has been especially rewarding.”

California has one of the most diverse floras in the world, spread across several distinct floristic provinces—regions of plant distribution defined by shared climate, geology, and geography. Three of the state’s primary provinces are the Californian (chaparral, coastal sage scrub, oak woodland, and grassland), Vancouverian (mixed evergreen and coniferous forests), and Desert (cacti and desert scrub).

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the breathtaking abundance of plants that grew across these regions captured the imagination of  numerous horticulturists, botanists, and amateur naturalists, many of whom were also talented artists. Through the work of individuals such as Alice Brown Chittenden (1859–1944), Clara Mason Fox (1873–1959), Ethel Wickes (1872–1940), and James Milford Zornes (1908–2008), the exhibition not only allows viewers to rediscover the iconic beauty of California’s flora but underscores the connections between the passion for nature and personal expression.