Jeanette Marantos, L.a. Times Plants Reporter, Dies At 70 - Beritaja

Jeanette Marantos, a stalwart Features newsman for the Los Angeles Times, died Saturday pursuing an emergency 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 ambiance alteration worsened successful California. She spotlighted group turning their yards into native works oases and beautifying nationalist spaces. She besides wrote about group redeeming autochthonal plants and fauna, from upland lions successful request of a freeway crossing to endangered butterflies and mini native bees. Her past duty Friday was covering the California Native Plant Society’s convention successful Riverside.

“She was the about loving personification I ever met, about 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 he was successful schoolhouse that his mother would connection rides location to different students erstwhile they didn’t person one. “Above each else, she was genuinely the about caring personification 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 liking successful autochthonal plants.

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

Marantos besides covered the effects of past year’s L.A. County wildfires on soil and gardens, the destiny of Altadena’s Christmas Tree Lane aft the Eaton fire, the building of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, a task that kicked disconnected pinch a hyperlocal nursery, really L.A. gardeners were reacting to migration raids, and the emergence of human composting. Known formally arsenic earthy integrated reduction, Marantos’ remains will 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 domiciled 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 celebrated L.A. Times Plants booth astatine the paper’s Festival of Books, moving pinch the Theodore Payne Foundation, a nonprofit acquisition halfway and nursery focused connected autochthonal plants, and the California Native Plant Society to amended visitors about autochthonal plants. She drove the inaugural to springiness distant sunflower seed packets astatine past year’s booth because 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 sound for plants and the group who attraction about them. Through her writing, she imbued others pinch her infectious enthusiasm for the earthy world — a gift to each of america that will 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 pinch Alzheimer’s illness successful 2011 and died successful 2021, providing readers pinch tips from their experiences. She said often of her sons and grandchildren and her dogs. She opened her December Plants newsletter, about a mother-son duo’s seed explosive project, by sharing that she had precocious welcomed different “perfect” granddaughter.

“Plus I sewage to perceive to my different cleanable granddaughter publication her first book and thief her works her first sunflower,” she wrote.

Sascha Smith recalled 1 of the past things Marantos said earlier going into emergency room Friday was sorry 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 boy 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 because yes, they helped prevention water, butterflies and bees, but besides because 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 pinch others. “On my worst days, my plot was a logic to get retired of furniture successful the morning, and the 1 point that made maine smile,” she wrote.

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

(L.A. Times Today)

Marantos tended to her plot for illustration 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 coach 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 very different because she believed successful them,” Dimitri Smith said.

Working arsenic a organization volunteer, she was besides integral successful processing a sculpture plot successful downtown Wenatchee, Dimitri Smith said. “Growing up, I didn’t cognize really typical that was. I didn’t cognize really unsocial that was. She wanted to beryllium engaged successful the organization and make a quality always,” he said.

Marantos wrote individual finance stories for The Times from 1999 to 2002. She moved from Washington backmost to Southern California successful her 50s to restart her publicity career, astatine 1 constituent interning pinch KPCC, now known arsenic LAist, Dimitri Smith said. In 2015, she returned to The Times to constitute for the Homicide Report. A twelvemonth later she started contributing to the Saturday section’s farming coverage, which she would activity connected afloat clip successful 2020 erstwhile it relaunched arsenic L.A. Times Plants. She described the 2 disparate thumps arsenic a measurement of staying balanced, her yin and yang.

Jeanette Marantos, shown about 1975, tries to turn her first garden.

(Steven B. Smith)

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

Learning to plot took dedication. Marantos described her first attempt 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 various works topics arsenic her ongoing education.

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

She is survived by her boy Sascha Smith and his girl Naomi Smith; boy Dimitri Smith, his woman Molly Smith and their girl Charlie Smith; her relative Tom Marantos and his partner Rafael Lopez; her sisters Lisa and Alexis Marantos; and her champion friends, who were for illustration family, Leslie Marshall and Theresa Samuelsen.