29-03-2025
There's lots of buzz about this annual Modesto celebration. See why, when
Uniquely is a Modesto Bee series that covers the moments, landmarks and personalities that define what makes living in the Central Valley so special.
Get ready for a Modesto celebration that will hum with family attractions.
It's the La Loma Native Plant Garden Pollinator Festival, our April highlight in a monthly feature that offers fresh ideas to parents for getting out and about with their children in the Modesto region.
The fifth annual Pollinator Festival is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 5, at 2000 Encina Ave. in Modesto, adjacent to the La Loma Native Plant Garden.
All can flutter about the admission-free event.
Among the day's highlights will be a musician-led Children's Pollinator Costume Parade through the garden, featuring little ones dressed as bees, butterflies, ladybugs, moths, bats and other garden helpers.
How cute does that sound?
'No one will be left behind. It is a costume parade, but adults, children, costumes, no costumes. ... everyone is free to join the parade as we walk through the garden,' Mike Azevedo, membership chair for the local chapter of the California Native Plant Society, said in an email.
Youngsters will gather at 10:30 a.m. near the music stage, right before the parade begins.
Folks can flit through the festival's various activities, which include a beehive demonstration by Crump's Bees.
There will be live music, as well as a drum circle at the garden mural with Drum Love.
Also planned are educational children's activities, face painting by Girl Scout troops, a coloring table, birdhouses for sale, and food trucks.
Blossom Hill Native Plant Nursery from Oakdale will offer pointers to anyone interested in adding native plants to a garden.
The community event includes interactive activities for children and adults to learn the importance of native plants and how they support pollinators, according to Azevedo's email.
The North San Joaquin Valley chapter of the California Native Plant Society helps put on the festival, along with the nonprofit La Loma Neighborhood Association.
There will be booths featuring groups including the Modesto Garden Club, Stanislaus Master Gardeners, Turlock Community Gardens and more. Environmental organizations will be represented, among them the Stanislaus Audubon Society, Sierra Club Yokuts Group, the U.S. Forest Service and the California Native Plant Society.
The La Loma Native Garden was created in 2017 by Rhonda Allen, who designed it and oversaw the planting of shrubs and trees and the spreading of seeds, with support from the La Loma neighborhood group, according to Azevedo.
Allen, a UC Master Gardener, will be at the festival and will offer a tour of the garden.
The La Loma Native Garden covers two acres with California and local native plants, Azevedo's email said, 'including flowers, shrubs and trees that draw in a wide range of pollinators, including hummingbirds, butterflies and moths, native bees and others.'
For more on the festival, call La Loma Neighborhood Association President Katie Cosner at 209-996-9396.
