Chris wants to turn a 2 acre front yard into a wildflower
meadow and asks advise. Susan replied with a helpful list
of references on the use of natives plants. The California
Native Plant Society also has an excellent web site which
should be considered as well.
It seems to me that creating a wildflower meadow can be done
in several ways. Often, it involves simply scattering seed
from selected, appropriate plants and, more or less, hoping
for the best. In some cases, it works.
The other way is to garden in a very deliberate way and to
work at having the "native garden" look natural. "Second
Nature" by Michael Pollan is an excellent reference on this
kind of gardening.
This second way takes a lot of very cleaver gardening skills
and can produce a much better garden but it can also be very
labor intensive. It might be a good idea to get in touch
with gardening experts in your particular area to see what
kinds of options are available.