She advocated the use of native plants for landscaping public places including roadsides because they were best suited for the environment and did not draw on scarce water resources.
[1] Lottie May Hoak was born on October 24, 1874, to a pioneer son of a Maine farmer, in an area that was to become the town Comptche, California.
She spent her first 17 years on her family's homestead in the heart of the redwood forest, helping her father plant his orchards and her mother beautify the yard with flowers and trees, ordered by mail, from all over the world.
1902 was tumultuous for Hoak as she gained her MA at Berkeley, continued teaching in Mendocino and her father sold her childhood homestead in Comptche, a place she remembered fondly in her writing, and visited, throughout her life.
His friends included Luther Burbank, internationally famous horticulturist, and Carl Purdy, noted botanist and nurseryman who were known to visit Newman together to hunt for game and to collect native plants in the area.