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Month: April 2024

Butterfly and Hummingbird Garden Gifts • Our Fourth Year

Spring in Sonoma

Hummingbird gardenAs we celebrate our fourth year of gifting butterfly & hummingbird garden seeds to the community, I’d like to share my recent visit to the home and garden of my collaborator on this project, Karin Campion Mattoon, as well as my own home in Sonoma.

Karin & I dreamed up this idea in the middle of the pandemic when spirits were low, and business was slow.  We harnessed our resources and engaged the mentors and mentees at the Sonoma Valley Mentoring Alliance to help with this meaningful project.  Our focus remains beauty, life, joy, and the importance of collaboration for the pollinators on our planet.

Today, we are grateful to the many local business’s who have joined us in sharing these gifts with their clients and friends.  We are part of a greater movement to support butterflies and hummingbirds.  I understand that the Monarch butterfly count has increased substantially across the nation.

Hummingbird gardens

Butterly and hummingbird garden
Planting new seeds in 2024, surrounded by the flowers from 2021 planting.

Bees in the garden


Art of Leisure Butterfly & Hummingbird Seed Gift Businesses • 2024

Sign of The Bear
Café Mac
Summer Vine
Prohibition Spirits Distillery
Sonoma Country Antiques
Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa
MacArthur Place Hotel
Refill Madness
Caddis Winery
Baker & Cook
Off Broadway Cleaners
Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau
Woof
Sonoma Valley Certified Farmers Market
Plain Jane’s
Oak Hill Farm
Sonoma Valley Mentoring Alliance

Edward Jones, Lindsey Stone
Sonoma Syrup Co.
Scott Nichols Gallery
Readers Books
Eraldi’s Men’s Wear & Shoes
The Loop Sonoma
Potter Green & Company
Vintage House
Chateau Sonoma
Half-Pint
Tiddle E. Winks
Artefact Design & Salvage
Wine Country Garden Center
Sonoma Mission Gardens
Jak-W
Valley Swim Club
Williams-Sonoma, Sonoma
The Sonoma School of Martial Arts

Seed samples

Cafe La Haye
The Olive Press
Cline Cellars

This year, for a limited time, locally owned Sonoma Mission Gardens is offering a sample of an organic product to help the seeds to start their growth, and Wine Country Garden Center is offering a sample of an organic product to support healthy flower growth. These complimentary samples will be available after April 16th; visit each nursery to pick up your sample and to inquire about additional tips for planting success.


Butterly garden
Porches are so valuable in a home where you may enjoy the day or evening surrounded by gardens endlessly changing activity and beauty.
Butterly and hummingbird garden planting
Entering the home, we see a dining table waiting to display vases filled with colorful cuttings from the garden.

Butterfly and Hummingbird Garden Seeds


Art of Leisure & Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa

A lovely setting with abundant flowers at Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn, awaiting guests and the Spring Garden workshop.

In addition to the businesses participating in the seed giveaway, we are honored to collaborate with historic Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa as they celebrate Earth Day on April 19th with a Spring Garden workshop, creating sustainable hummingbird and butterfly gardens using our curated seed packets and garden pots. Gathered on the South Lawn at Fairmont Sonoma, you will learn more about these beautiful creatures and the importance of flowers as a food source for pollinators. Enjoy delicious tea featuring Sonoma Syrup Co. and made with nature’s freshest herbs while you assemble your own personal garden.  

Saturday, April 19th, 3: pm, $35 per person (one garden box per family of 4). You may view the program and purchase a ticket at their website here.


Butterly Pollinator