Datebook: Events, classes, exhibits for the week ahead

We've listed select home> and garden events below. Suggest your own via reader comments. Submissions must be fewer than 75 words and must be for one-time events with legitimate value to other readers. No store promotions and no frivolous links, please. L.A. at Home staff will determine which submissions will be made public, but we won't edit the comments.

Saturday: A look at the history and consequences of the genetic manipulation of plants as represented by specimens at the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden. 10 to 11:30 a.m. $5 to $7. 301 N. Baldwin Ave, Arcadia. Registration required: Call (626) 821-4623 or e-mail jill.berry@arboretum.org.

Saturday: Horticulturist Lili Singer leads a class on the basics of gardening with California flora. You'll learn what a "native plant" is and why natives are valuable, plus get tips on planting techniques, irrigation, pruning and other maintenance. Noon to 3:30 p.m. $35 to $45. Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers and Native Plants, 10459 Tuxford St., Sun Valley. Register: (818) 768-1802.

Sunday: Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden’s new guided tram tour explores 55 acres and highlights the diversity of the California plant life. Tickets available after 8 a.m. at the admission kiosk; tour is from 10 to 11 a.m. $5.1500 N. College Ave., Claremont. (909) 625-8767.

ONGOING

Bischoff exhibition: The retrospective "Gardens and Grandeur: Porcelains and Paintings by Franz A. Bischoff," features Bischoff's hand-painted early ceramic works, pictured here, and landscape paintings. Ends March 20. Pasadena Museum of California Art, 490 East Union St., Pasadena. Noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. $5 to $7. (626) 568-3665.

Brown Bag Tuesdays: The Gamble House, the Arts and Crafts landmark designed by Charles and Henry Greene, continues a weekly lunch program. Visitors can picnic on the rear lawn or terrace of the 1908 estate between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Tuesdays. Twenty-minute docent-led tours will be given at 12:15 and 12:45 p.m. for $5. 4 Westmoreland Place, Pasadena; (626) 793-3334. Reservations: (626) 449-4178.

Installation: “Light Frames,” an outdoor installation by Los Angeles architect Gail Peter Borden, consists of a hand-assembled dome and an enclosed “chapel” built out of translucent vinyl plastic. 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily through mid-March. Free. Materials & Applications, 1619 Silver Lake Blvd., Los Angeles. (323) 739-4668.

Kalman exhibition: “Maira Kalman: Various Observations (of a Crazy World)” features more than 100 artworks and an installation that Kalman calls “many tables of many things,” her inspirations and collections as a traveler, reader and walker. Noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, through Feb. 13. Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. $5 to $10. (310) 440-4500.

-- Lisa Boone

Photo credit: Pasadena Museum of California Art