With the arrival of spring on Wednesday, it's the perfect time to visit local public gardens -- sort of hidden gems -- that celebrate the season and inspire ideas for home landscapes.

Consider these two gems: Clovis Botanical Garden, next to Dry Creek Park, and Garden of the Sun, next to the Discovery Center in Reedy Park in Fresno.

Both are demonstration gardens that educate visitors about water conservation and plants that do well in the area's climate.

Clovis Botanical Garden is offering its Spring into Your Garden Festival from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

The event features gardening presentations, ask-the-experts sessions, music and food. Cost is $5.

The Bee recently toured both gardens to learn about what they offer.

Clovis Botanical Garden

Ground was broken for the one-acre garden in March 2002. The mission remains the same: To promote low-water landscaping appropriate for the Valley's hot summers and cool winters.

Just inside the front gate, visitors get an idea of the garden's mission.

A circular grass area features one of the best kinds of water-wise grasses, UC verde buffalo grass. It requires watering just once a week and mowing every other week.

Then, visitors can follow garden paths that showcase plants, trees and shrubs in special landscaping that they can try to duplicate at their homes.

They include strawberry trees with red-streaked bark, cactus-like agave parryi truncata, yellow-flowering ovens wattle and Carolina jessamine.

A garden favorite is the "Four Way," where visitors can view four sections of the garden by simply turning around in one spot. Among them is the rock garden, where lizards roam and daffodils flourish.

"Children want to go there because they want to see the lizards on a rock," says Georgia Porcella, a garden event coordinator. "I tell them, 'We have to walk quietly through the rock garden.' "

The Four Way also has a view of the reddish-purple flowers of the Eastern redbud trees, which were recently planted on a new roadbed in the north part of the garden.

They are among 30 new trees planted through a $3,000 California ReLeaf grant.

Garden officials also are trying to raise money to build a 30- by 40-foot pavilion on the roadbed, where they can hold workshops and other activities.

Anne Clemons, the board president, says Clovis Botanical Garden plays an important role in the gardening community.

"Where else can a general gardener or a landscaper go to receive direction that the Valley needs to be choosing in how you use water?" she says. "Here, there is a variety of plants to use."

Garden of the Sun

Through its Master Gardener program, the UC Cooperative Extension in Fresno County developed the one-acre ornamental and food production demonstration garden in east-central Fresno.

Visitors can follow garden paths to sites, where they can get ideas to try at their home gardens.

The sites include the All-America Selections display garden, where edible plants are grown. Companies send seeds to the Garden of the Sun, which plants them to determine if the plants grow well in this area's climate. Swiss chard is doing well.

Another site is a vegetable garden with peas, fennel, artichokes, cardoon (good in Italian dishes) and Swiss chard and kale.

The Shade Garden showcases plants that do well as long as they are in the shade. A coastal redwood tree provides the shade for hellebore, bergenia, walking iris and pink hydrangea.

Others sites are just fun places to visit, especially for kids.

The Children's Garden features a topiary of "Herbie" the Dinosaur with orange kumquat eyes -- fashioned out of a shrub.

A worm bin also provides an opportunity for visitors to learn about vermicomposting.

There is a Hairy Potter display -- fashioned out of 15 flower pots.

Garden officials are gearing up for "Kids Garden Day" on May 11, when children can have a fun time as they learn about how juice is made from citrus varieties as well as the good, the bad and the ugly about bugs.

Master Gardener Chris Hays says, "This place is a labor of love."

If you go

Clovis Botanical Garden, 945 Clovis Ave., is open 9 a.m.- 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. Admission is free. Details: clovisbotanicalgarden.com or (559) 298-3091

Garden of the Sun, 1750 N. Winery Ave., is open 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays through April. Hours change to 8 a.m.-noon, May through August. Admission is free. The garden is open some Saturdays when classes are held. Details: (559) 456-4151

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