Ashima Yadava’s project Front Yard captures a moment in time where we all were seeking connection. In 2020, the pandemic gave Yadava the time to reflect, and so she looked to photography. She turned to her community, reaching out to her entire network, wanting to make portraits of them from their front yards, at a safe six-foot distance.

“I, just on a whim, sent an email to my entire network of neighbors and friends in the area, saying, ‘I want to record this time that we’re in. Can I please make a portrait of you?’ ” Yadava recalls.

“And because we had to keep a distance, I was, like, ‘I’ll do it across the street from your house, so can it be in your front yard?’ And the first set of responses were brilliant. People were, like, ‘Oh, yeah! We haven’t seen a person in a month! Please, come on over!’ “

Hamida Bano (right) and her husband, Dr. Anil Chopra (left), with their daughter, Nasreen Chopra (center), in their Orinda, Calif., home in April 2020.

Ashima Yadava

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Sunitha Seshadri (left), an engineer by profession, with her daughter, Shriya, her son, Veer (right), and her husband, Harshit Chuttani (center), outside their Campbell, Calif., home.

Art inputs by Sunitha Seshadri/Ashima Yadava

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Art inputs by Sunitha Seshadri/Ashima Yadava

Sonya Pelia (right), her husband Mathew Lutzker (left) and their daughter Jasleen Pelia-Lutzker in Menlo Park, Calif., in May 2020.

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Yadava’s project was welcomed with enthusiasm and positivity by people who were excited to share their space with her. Families would come outside to set up. She would stand across the street with her large-format and digital cameras, ready to take their portraits.

As the project progressed, the work developed into a more personal reflection. She began to realize how this work helped her reclaim her relationship with the medium and her role as a photographer.

“I grew up in India. The one thing about documentary photography that had bothered me and that has made me feel a little weird about documentary photography [are] that power dynamics that come with photographing someone — it’s your perspective: It’s one perspective. It’s a single story,” Yadava said.

“The fact that I had this camera that was so slow, it allowed me the time to figure out my relationship with what I was doing and the people I was photographing.”

Noreen Raza (right), savors the strange spring of April 2020 with her husband, Harry Robertson (left), in their Morgan Hill, Calif., home.

Art inputs by Noreen Raza/Ashima Yadava

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Nitya and Arvind Kansal pose with their dog, Kuku, in front of their Cupertino, Calif., home in April 2020. 

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Shriya Manchanda (center left), who is a rising senior, with her sister Sanvitti (right), and parents Shruti (center right) and Alok Manchanda (left) in front of their home in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Art inputs by Shriya Manchanda/Ashima Yadava

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“I would get the negative back and I started printing just to see and study if I’m doing it right, getting the colors right, and somewhere in that moment, I thought, ‘Wait. What if I give this back to the people and continue this conversation about how they want to be seen? This is how I saw them, this is what it is, but how do they want to be seen and what do they have to say?’ “

Thus began this collaboration of allowing those she’d photographed to become a part of the process. These black and white prints were suddenly brought to life by colors and drawings that these families would work on together.

“They would work on it as families — they would fight about it, they would talk about it, they would text me back and forth, ‘Do you think we can do this?’ It was truly a collaboration. It was something that saved all of us at that time, because I would enjoy that. I would be, like, ‘Yes, do whatever you want!’ “

Each family would contribute a unique perspective to their portraits and what emerged was a beautiful vignette of the different ethnicities that make up the Bay Area.

Manju Ramachandran stands in the front yard of her Sunnyvale, Calif., home with her son, Varun.

Art inputs by Manju Ramachandran/Ashima Yadava

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Weeks into the pandemic, Aishwarya Ramaswamy (left) and Mukundan Swaminathan worked to juggle their careers and parenthood out of their Union City, Calif., home in April 2020, as they tried to keep their kids, Krish and Mayura, entertained.

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Sonya Pelia (right) and her husband, Matthew Lutzker (left), with their daughter, Jasleen Pelia-Lutzker, outside their home in Menlo Park, Calif.

Art inputs by Sonya Pelia and Jasleen Pelia-Lutzker/Ashima Yadava

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Yadava called it “inverting the process,” where she, as the photographer, documented her observation and returned black and white prints to the families so that they could share their feelings through how they decided to fill in the image. Each family had a different perspective: Some filled their images with flowers on branches, and others covered their walls with spiders. The results that emerged were always a joy for Yadava to discover.

Our homes were a sacred place during the pandemic, and these families welcomed Yadava to capture a glimpse into their realities. It was created during a time of tragedy and disconnect, but lives on as a record of time.

Since then, Yadava has continued the series and plans to release a book. Her decision to expand the project in a post-COVID world was ignited by the joyful exchange with families and how barriers between neighbors can come down. With this collaboration, Yadava hopes that people are reminded of the resilience in humanity and that we can find connections between us all if we open our worlds up to it.

Smita Rao (left) and Manoj Mhapankar (right) with their daughter, Aria, outside of their Milpitas, Calif., home.

Art inputs by Smita Rao and Manoj Mhapankar/Ashima Yadava

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Ashima Yadava is a conceptual documentary photographer and printmaker. She in based San Francisco, where she works in digital and analog methods. See more of Ashima’s work on her website, AshimaYadava.com.

Photo edit by Grace Widyatmadja. Text edit by Zach Thompson.

Attention, anyone who thinks native blooms are brilliant in the wild — or our yards — but don’t work in bouquets.

Boy, are we wrong.

This isn’t an invitation to trample wildflower fields to pick bouquets — our precious wildflowers need to stay unpicked so their seeds will produce blooms in the future — but it is notice that native plant gardeners don’t have to rely on grocery-store bouquets to grace our tables.

With the right preparation and care, you can grow and assemble stunning, long-lasting bouquets for your home while building habitat in your yard or patio, said Linda Prendergast, crew chief and lead designer for the California Botanic Garden’s floral volunteer group known as Native Designs.

Prendergast had a career working in flower shops and then wholesale nurseries when she was younger, and she still appreciates traditional ornamental bouquets, but over the years her environmental awareness has cooled her delight in traditional ornamentals.

Grocery store bouquets “are lovely and I buy them. But they have also been grown with lots of fertilizer and imported from South America. They’re flown in using lots of jet fuel that’s bad for our air,” she wrote in a text message.

The pink airy flowers of coral bells rise like clouds above the native plant’s bright green foliage. They thrive under oak trees and in other shady areas.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

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“By contrast, native flowers are lovely in your garden or flower beds; they generally use less water than other varieties and most importantly, they are food sources for pollinators. Our precious bees and butterflies rely on natives as a food source.”

So these days, Prendergast and her group of about 32 merry volunteers put their floral design skills to work arranging flowers cut from and for events at California Botanic Garden, the state’s largest botanic garden devoted to native plants.

After an afternoon watching Prendergast, Susan Spradley and Carol Petty create cheerfully gorgeous arrangements, I can personally vouch for the variety and beauty of their bouquets, as well as their longevity. Petty’s graceful arrangement of coral bells (Heuchera sanguinea ‘Coral Bells’), white sage (Salvia apiana), fragrant pitcher sage (Lepechinia fragrans), hollyleaf cherry (Prunus ilicifolia) and sugar bush (Rhus ovata) still looked fresh and lovely on my dining room table a week after it was made.

A bouquet by Carol Petty of white sage, coral bells, Catalina currant, sugar bush, hollyleaf cherry and fragrant pitcher sage. (Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)

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Petty’s native plant arrangement, still looking fresh a week later. (Jeannette Marantos/Los Angeles Times)

There are a few important tricks for creating native bouquets, Prendergast said.

• Cut your flowers and foliage early in the day, and immediately plunge the cuttings into warm — not hot — water.
• Look for interesting branches and berries as well as flowers to add color and fullness to your display.
• Don’t snip helter skelter. Make sure you cut your branches near the base of the plant to maintain its shape and integrity.
• Leave the cut flowers and foliage in warm water mixed with a floral food (Prendergast uses a product called FloraLife Crystal Clear available in packets or bulk) for at least 12 to 24 hours.
• If you use white sage foliage, hydrate it in a separate bucket since the plant gives off an oil that is unpleasant for the other flowers.
• Most native plants are heavy drinkers once they’re cut, so they’ll do better in a vase instead of floral foam. And some, like California poppies, don’t have stems hard enough to push into foam and get the hydration they need, she said.
• If you must use a shallow container to arrange your flowers, try using a crumpled ball of chicken wire to hold the stems instead of foam blocks. Those foam blocks grow fungus so they shouldn’t get reused and they can’t be recycled, Prendergast said, so they just add to landfill waste. Chicken wire, however, can be washed and reused. Just be sure your foliage covers the base so it doesn’t show.
• Prendergast also recommends using waterproof floral tape in green or clear to create a grid over the top of your container to further support your flowers and foliage and ensure your design stays in place.
• Snip the ends of your stems as you add them to your container to improve water absorption.
• Some branches are heavy, so make sure you have enough weight in your container, like pebbles or glass rocks, to keep it from tipping over.
• Start with the largest or showiest flowers first and add from there. Keep turning the container to make sure you’re filling in gaps.
• Change the water in your display daily to keep the flowers fresh.

Pick your native flowers early in the morning and immediately put them in warm water with floral food to let them hydrate for 12 to 24 hours before making your bouquet.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

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Not all native flowers and foliage are great in bouquets, Prendergast said. The silvery green foliage of white sage makes for great accents in bouquets during cooler winter months, but come spring, when the plant is starting to bloom, the leaves tend to soften up and go limp, she said, making them sad choices for arrangements.

Ceanothus blooms also don’t last much longer than a day once they’re cut, and manzanitas, large shrubs with reddish limbs and dainty bell-shaped flowers, “are just too precious” to potentially damage by cutting, she said. The slow-growing trees are increasingly hard to find in the wild because of development, and at least two varieties have been listed as endangered in California, presidio manzanita (Arctostaphylos montana ssp. ravenii) and pallid manzanita (Arctostaphylos pallida).

But there are lots of other choices for flowers, foliage, berries and sculptural stems in a huge number of colors and shapes. Here are some of Prendergast’s top picks for native plants that work in home gardens and bouquets:

Apricot mallow.

(Jeannette Marantos / Los Angeles Times)

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Apricot mallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua var. rugosa) and its cultivars have pink- to apricot-colored bowl-shaped flowers on tall stalks that contrast nicely with the silvery green foliage.

Red-flowered buckwheat.

(Marie Astrid Gonzalez)

Buckwheats (Eriogonums) are varied in color and shape, but Prendergast says her favorites are St. Catherine’s lace (Eriogonum giganteum) with bouquet-like sprays of white to pinkish-white flowers (a favorite with pollinators too, but it can get very big, up to 9 feet tall), red-flowered buckwheat (Eriogonum grande var. rubescens), a low-growing plant with red pom-pom type blooms on tall stems, and sulphur buckwheat (Eriogonum umbellatum) with tall, pom-pom blooms in yellow or white.

California buttercups.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

California buttercup (Ranunculus californicus) is a cheerful, reseeding addition to any garden with brilliant yellow flowers and bright green foliage.

Coral bells (Heuchera sanguinea ‘Coral Bells’).

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

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Coral bells (Heuchera sanguinea ‘Coral Bells’) has spring blooms that look like tiny clouds of exquisite pink fairy flowers, a perfect centerpiece flower against dark green foliage. These are great plants to add to shady areas in your yard.

Coulter’s matilija poppy.

(Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

Coulter’s matilija poppy (Romneya coulteri) is sometimes known as the “fried egg plant” for its huge white crepe-papery petals and yolk-yellow center. It makes an excellent cut flower, Prendergast says, but this is another native plant that doesn’t always play well with others. Once established it can take over a garden space. This is a great plant for slopes, because it grows exuberantly tall and wide, with lots of showstopping blooms.

Desert marigold.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

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Desert marigold, a.k.a. wild marigold (Baileya multiradiata), are golden-yellow open-faced wildflowers with bare stems that just beg to be picked. These also reseed in sunny, well-drained garden spots.

Fragrant pitcher sage.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

Fragrant pitcher sage (Lepechinia fragrans) definitely lives up to its name, with soft gray-green foliage, twisty stems and tubular pale violet flowers that actually look more blue than purple.

Hollyleaf cherry’s glossy green, serrated leaves add interest to native plant bouquets.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

Hollyleaf cherry (Prunus ilicifolia) has underwhelming sprays of white flowers; it’s the deep green, serrated foliage that you’re after, a dramatic filler against the lighter-colored greens of so many other native plants.

Sanddune wallflowers.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

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Sanddune wallflower (Erysimum capitatum) grows in clusters of sunny yellow or tangerine-colored flowers that look like small bouquets on straight stalks about a foot tall. Some wallflowers also have red, white or purple blooms, and the plants will reseed to grow back in the spring.

Sugar bush

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

Sugar bush (Rhus ovata) comes with a proviso: It is a dramatic, fast-growing evergreen shrub/small tree with glossy green leaves, showy red blooms and berries that birds love. But this plant gets big, over 10 feet wide and tall, so be sure you put it in a spot where it won’t crowd out other plants. Calscape notes: “Sugar Bush hybridizes often with Lemonade Berry (Rhus integrifolia). A good rule of thumb for landscaping applications is: Within 5-10 miles of the coast, Lemonade Berry is a better choice. More inland, Sugar Bush does better.”

White sage.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

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White sage (Salvia apiana) foliage (only in cooler months when the leaves stay firm). White sage flowers are tall and dramatic, so be sure you have a container large enough to hold them.

Woolly bluecurls.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

Woolly bluecurls (Trichostema lanatum) is a finicky native plant that needs regular water to get established and then none to stay alive, but it pays off beautifully with deep purple stalks of flowers and a swoon-worthy sweet fragrance beloved by pollinators and every person I’ve ever known. Definitely worth the effort.

There are plenty more choices, and you can get a good idea of the diversity in the beautiful book of native floral arrangements that Prendergast helped create, “California in a Vase,” available on Amazon for $50 or at the California Botanic Garden poppy shop window in the admissions kiosk for $30 (but only if purchased in person).

If you want more tips, California Botanic Garden is offering a Wildflower Floral Design class on April 21 from 1 to 3 p.m. that includes all materials for $70 ($60 for members) taught by garden horticulturist Jennifer Chebahtah. And you can apply to become a member of the Native Designs group by applying to become a garden volunteer.

A note from Wild Card host Rachel Martin: So, I gotta tell you, I take research very seriously. My team and I spend hours digging through articles and profiles of our guests, trying to understand them. This is serious work. And of course this is what I did to prepare for my conversation with Bowen Yang.

A lot of it I already knew – like the fact that he’s the first Chinese American cast member on Saturday Night Live. And I knew the inside jokes from his podcast Las Culturistas, which he hosts with his best friend Matt Rogers.

But I also have to cop to the fact that the research for this interview was just a good time. Because I had an excuse to watch a lot of SNL clips. The iceberg that sank the Titanic, the Chinese spy balloon, the intern at the Tiny Desk Concert – Bowen Yang classics all.

But as much as I love him on SNL, it was the 2022 rom-com Fire Island that made me fall in love with him. He turned what could have been a light and easy role as the best friend who never gets the guy into something heartbreakingly real and joyful. So it was my very great pleasure to get to talk to Bowen on Wild Card.

This Wild Card interview has been edited for length and clarity. Host Rachel Martin asks guests randomly-selected questions from a deck of cards. Tap play above to listen to the full podcast, or read an excerpt below.

Question 1: What was a moment when you felt proud of yourself as a kid?

Bowen Yang: In the first grade — or year one as we called it in Canada, I was in Montreal at the time — there was just a class one day in school where we drew. I had pastels and then there was just unstructured drawing time, right? First-grade classic. I drew a clown with blue hair, a flower in his shirt, standing outside the circus, and then there was a speech bubble on the clown and he was saying, “Allô,” your French Quebecois greeting, “Allô.” 

Pretty simple stuff, right? But apparently, the teacher at the time thought it was so sophisticated that she submitted it to this art contest and then I won a full 20 Canadian dollars. And I think it was a pretty vital moment of creative validation for me growing up, and my parents were very excited. 

Martin: Did your parents think you were going to be an artist, or you just moved on from that? 

Yang: No, they really pushed that, and for some reason, art was acceptable creative outlets for an Asian child of immigrants. 

Martin: Those are the high arts! The high arts. 

Yang: It was the high arts! And so I think they were very confused when I pivoted years later to improv comedy and, like, telling jokes on stage because they were like, “This is completely crude.” 

Question 2: What have you learned to be careful about?

Yang: Ugh. This is really something that I’ve dwelled on for the past, oh, two, three months? Tina Fey came on my podcast, and she — in a very playful, so brilliant way — was railing against me for sharing my real opinions on movies on the podcast and just my real opinions in general. 

Basically, what Tina was saying was, this is a permanent record. It’s like that thing of like, the internet is written in permanent marker. And the phrase that kind of went a little viral from that was her saying, “Authenticity is dangerous and expensive.”

And I really am still reckoning with that idea where I’ve always been an open book. I’ve always shared my thoughts pretty extemporaneously on things and haven’t really regretted them too much. But now I think I’m reevaluating what it means or like, how worth it it is to be honest about everything. But then at the same time like, if you kind of start to self-censor a bit, then what does that do to your idea of yourself? 

Question 3: Do you think there’s more to reality than we can see or touch?

Yang: Yeah, definitely, definitely. I am generally a skeptic with things. I read too many Carl Sagan books in college. But I feel like there is this meta-reality or something that exists that people can tap into because – I know the question is not necessarily implying anything supernatural – but we had on a medium for the [Las Culturistas] podcast, Tyler Henry. He’s also known to some people as the Hollywood Medium. And, again, it invites skepticism because you’re like, how much did he know beforehand? And he said things to me that were really conceptual and not necessarily, “Oh, this person is in this other dimension and they’re trying to communicate this to you.” 

For me, it was just like, “Oh, what I’m picking up from you is that you have this legacy of people who were not able to share their lives or the legacy is a little bit blurred.” My dad grew up in a rural part of China where most of his relatives are not really documented. There was just no family tree or history to go off of, and no one could read, and no one went to school, and he was the first in his family to even go to college. 

And so what Tyler Henry was basically saying was like, you are able to end this cycle of one, shame, and two, record in a weird way. Like, you get to – through being yourself and being like a citizen of this world now where people are constantly tracking things and things are easily recorded for posterity – that gets to sort of be one of your motivating forces in life. And that’s something that I kind of loved hearing. It was very meaningful to hear because it was borrowed from this metaphysical space but at the same time it applies to something that I can do now and it is from a reality that is unobservable which I kind of love.

Want to hear this whole conversation? Listen to the full Wild Card episode with Rachel and Bowen Yang.