Jeanette Marantos, L.A. Times plants reporter, dies at 70

Jeanette Marantos, a stalwart Features newsman for the Los Angeles Times, died Saturday pursuing an exigency bosom issue. She was 70.

Marantos was cardinal to the occurrence of The Times’ plants coverage, making waterwise autochthonal plants a cornerstone of her reporting arsenic drought and clime alteration worsened successful California. She spotlighted radical turning their yards into autochthonal works oases and beautifying nationalist spaces. She besides wrote astir radical redeeming autochthonal flora and fauna, from upland lions successful request of a freeway crossing to endangered butterflies and tiny autochthonal bees. Her past duty Friday was covering the California Native Plant Society’s league successful Riverside.

“She was the astir loving idiosyncratic I ever met, astir apt to a responsibility successful immoderate cases. If she knew you and you were a portion of her life, she was fiercely loyal always,” said her son, Sascha Smith.

His brother, Dimitri Smith, echoed his sentiment, recalling erstwhile helium was successful schoolhouse that his parent would connection rides location to different students erstwhile they didn’t person one. “Above each else, she was genuinely the astir caring idiosyncratic I’ve ever met successful my life,” Dimitri Smith said.

Marantos, who was calved connected March 13, 1955, grew up successful Riverside and remembered her parents doting connected their 3,000-square-foot lawn. As California’s h2o situation worsened, recalling the changeless swish of sprinklers passim her puerility piqued her involvement successful autochthonal plants.

“That was the California scenery of my youth. In retrospect, it feels similar a tube dream, fixed the world of this region’s constricted h2o and propensity for drought ... a beauteous representation that is nary longer sustainable today,” she wrote.

Marantos besides covered the effects of past year’s L.A. County wildfires connected ungraded and gardens, the destiny of Altadena’s Christmas Tree Lane aft the Eaton fire, the operation of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, a task that kicked disconnected with a hyperlocal nursery, however L.A. gardeners were reacting to migration raids, and the emergence of quality composting. Known formally arsenic earthy integrated reduction, Marantos’ remains volition acquisition this process to go soil, her sons said.

Jeanette Marantos appears astatine the L.A. Times Plants booth astatine the paper’s Festival of Books connected April 21, 2024.

(Maryanne Pittman)

In her relation astatine work, she wrote the beloved L.A. Times Plants newsletter, her latest focusing connected the resiliency of plants successful pain areas. She besides launched the fashionable L.A. Times Plants booth astatine the paper’s Festival of Books, moving with the Theodore Payne Foundation, a nonprofit acquisition halfway and nursery focused connected autochthonal plants, and the California Native Plant Society to amended visitors astir autochthonal plants. She drove the inaugural to springiness distant sunflower effect packets astatine past year’s booth due to the fact that the sturdy plants are known to extract lead, an thought that came to her arsenic she tested contaminated ungraded successful pain zones.

She “was a one-of-a-kind dependable for plants and the radical who attraction astir them. Through her writing, she imbued others with her infectious enthusiasm for the earthy satellite — a acquisition to each of america that volition proceed to resonate,” according to a connection from the Theodore Payne Foundation. “Her visits to the nursery, her thoughtful conversations, and her wholehearted engagement brought laughter and penetration into each interaction.”

Marantos was a dedicated newsman — she’d thrust 60 miles to get an reply erstwhile nary 1 was picking up the telephone — but besides devoted to her family. She cared for her husband, Steven B. Smith, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s illness successful 2011 and died successful 2021, providing readers with tips from their experiences. She spoke often of her sons and grandchildren and her dogs. She opened her December Plants newsletter, astir a mother-son duo’s effect weaponry project, by sharing that she had precocious welcomed different “perfect” granddaughter.

“Plus I got to perceive to my different cleanable granddaughter work her archetypal publication and assistance her works her archetypal sunflower,” she wrote.

Sascha Smith recalled 1 of the past things Marantos said earlier going into exigency country Friday was atrocious to his girl Naomi, 6, for missing her day Sunday.

Gardens afloat of buckwheat, sage, vegetables, roses and treasured saccharine peas situation her Ventura home. Her father, an Air Force seasoned and lad of Greek immigrants, introduced her to “the occurrence of seeds” and to the delicious perfume of saccharine peas. She remembered trailing down her grandma cutting roses successful her garden, lugging bucketfuls of flowers and inhaling the sweetness. She added autochthonal plants to her plot due to the fact that yes, they helped prevention water, butterflies and bees, but besides due to the fact that she loved their fragrance.

“These lean, scrappy plants are seldom arsenic showy arsenic their ornamental cousins, but erstwhile it comes to fragrance, they triumph each award, hands down,” she wrote.

It wasn’t conscionable aesthetics and aroma that inspired Marantos to garden. It was the acts of digging, weeding, watching thing turn and sharing the abundance with others. “On my worst days, my plot was a crushed to get retired of furniture successful the morning, and the 1 happening that made maine smile,” she wrote.

Jeanette Marantos appears connected “Los Angeles Times Today” successful June 2024 with big Lisa McRee.

(L.A. Times Today)

Marantos tended to her plot similar she tended to her friends. She often brought her friends on connected reporting trips, from hiking up Los Angeles’ steepest staircases and visiting wildflower viewing areas to convincing 1 who flew successful to Los Angeles from Washington authorities to walk a play volunteering astatine The Times’ Plants booth astatine the Festival of Books.

Marantos lived successful cardinal Washington for much than 20 years, moving arsenic a newsman astatine the Wenatchee World Newspaper and arsenic a teacher astatine Wenatchee High School. She besides worked for a programme focused connected getting at-risk mediate schoolhouse younker into college. “So galore students … the trajectory of their lives is precise antithetic due to the fact that she believed successful them,” Dimitri Smith said.

Working arsenic a assemblage volunteer, she was besides integral successful processing a sculpture plot successful downtown Wenatchee, Dimitri Smith said. “Growing up, I didn’t cognize however peculiar that was. I didn’t cognize however unsocial that was. She wanted to beryllium engaged successful the assemblage and marque a quality always,” helium said.

Marantos wrote idiosyncratic concern stories for The Times from 1999 to 2002. She moved from Washington backmost to Southern California successful her 50s to restart her journalism career, astatine 1 constituent interning with KPCC, present known arsenic LAist, Dimitri Smith said. In 2015, she returned to The Times to constitute for the Homicide Report. A twelvemonth aboriginal she started contributing to the Saturday section’s gardening coverage, which she would enactment connected afloat clip successful 2020 erstwhile it relaunched arsenic L.A. Times Plants. She described the 2 disparate beats arsenic a mode of staying balanced, her yin and yang.

Jeanette Marantos, shown astir 1975, tries to turn her archetypal garden.

(Steven B. Smith)

“Going from homicide to gardening mightiness look unusual, oregon possibly adjacent a measurement distant from the action. But not for Jeanette. First off, she personally loved gardening. ... So the duty was kinda similar telling a kid to screen the candy beat,” said Rene Lynch, a erstwhile Times exertion who hired Marantos connected the plants beat. “But also, Jeanette was a existent journalist, which means she had an innate curiosity astir everything.”

Learning to plot took dedication. Marantos described her archetypal effort successful her 20s arsenic disastrous; her herb plants grew much leaves than fruit, her sunflowers were sad, not hearty. She thought of her explainers connected assorted works topics arsenic her ongoing education.

“Our household is wholly grief-stricken and shocked implicit her loss. We’re going to person a very, precise hard clip surviving without her,” said her brother, Tom Marantos.

She is survived by her lad Sascha Smith and his girl Naomi Smith; lad Dimitri Smith, his woman Molly Smith and their girl Charlie Smith; her member Tom Marantos and his spouse Rafael Lopez; her sisters Lisa and Alexis Marantos; and her champion friends, who were similar family, Leslie Marshall and Theresa Samuelsen.