Sacramento Perennial Plant Club hosts honey expert and plant sale
![]() |
Bees and sunflowers are a natural match. Learn about bees
from Frank Lienert and buy sunflowers (and other plants) at
the meeting of the Sacramento Perennial Plant Club. (Photo:
Kathy Morrison)
|
Feel the buzz! Learn about beekeeping – and the importance of pollinators – from one of the Sacramento Valley’s best-known beekeeping families.
Set for 7 p.m. Thursday, June 23, at Shepard Center, the Sacramento Perennial Plant Club hosts Frank Lienert of Lienert’s Honey. He’ll discuss the life cycle of honeybees and beekeeping. The public is welcome; admission and parking are free.
Lienert’s father started beekeeping more than 60 years ago in Davis. One hive – purchased from Sears & Roebuck to pollinate a boysenberry patch – turned into a full-time family business. With about 10 different varietals (clover, orange blossom, sage, etc.), Lienert’s Honey can be found at local grocery stores and farmers’ markets. (For more information, see www.lienertshoney.com .)
Help the bees in your own landscape – and add some summer color, too! At this same meeting, the Perennial Plant Club will hold a summer plant sale.
Say the organizers, “Locally grown and selected to add color and floral zing to our summer gardens as well as food for our pollinators, (the sale includes) Ageratum, Black-Eyed Susan, Calendula, Cosmos, Gomphrena, Strawflower, Sunflower, Tithonia, Zinnia, Feverfew, Foxglove and Hollyhock plants. They also make great cut flowers. ” (Good timing, too: This week is National Pollinator Week.)
Annuals are priced $2 each or three for $5. Perennials are $3 each or two for $5. Bring your own box or bag to take home your purchases. Cash only.
Come early and bring your pruners that need sharpening or containers that need holes; at 6:30 p.m., tool sharpening and pottery drilling will be available for a donation.
Shepard Garden and Arts Center is located at 3330 McKinley Blvd., Sacramento, in McKinley Park.
Details: https://www.facebook.com/sacperennialplantclub/ .
Comments
0 comments have been posted.Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.
Food in My Back Yard Series
June 10: Battling early-season tomato pests
June 3: Make your own compost
May 27: Where are the bees when you need them?
May 20: How to help tomatoes thrive on hot days
May 13: Your plants can tell you more than any calendar can
May 6: Maintain soil moisture with mulch for garden success
April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?
April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)
April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers
April 8: When to plant summer vegetables
April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths
March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth
March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space
March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds
March 4: Potatoes from the garden
Feb. 25: Plant a fruit tree now -- for later
Feb. 18: How to squeeze more food into less space
Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants
Feb. 4: Starting in seed starting
Sites We Like
Garden Checklist for week of June 8
Get out early to enjoy those nice mornings. There’s plenty to keep gardeners busy:
* Warm weather brings rapid growth in the vegetable garden, with tomatoes and squash enjoying the heat. Deep-water, then feed with a balanced fertilizer. Bone meal or rock phosphate can spur the bloom cycle and help set fruit.
* Generally, tomatoes need deep watering two to three times a week, but don’t let them dry out completely. Inconsistent soil moisture can encourage blossom-end rot.
* It’s not too late to transplant tomatoes, peppers or eggplant.
* From seed, plant corn, melons, pumpkins, radishes, squash and sunflowers.
* Plant basil to go with your tomatoes.
* Transplant summer annuals such as petunias, marigolds and zinnias.
* It’s also a good time to transplant perennial flowers including astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia, salvia and verbena.
* Feed camellias, azaleas and other acid-loving plants. Mulch to conserve moisture and reduce heat stress.
* Cut back Shasta daisies after flowering to encourage a second bloom in the fall.
* Trim off dead flowers from rose bushes to keep them blooming through the summer. Roses also benefit from deep watering and feeding now. A top dressing of aged compost will keep them happy. It feeds as well as keeps roots moist.
* Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushier plants with many more flowers in September.
* Tie up vines and stake tall plants such as gladiolus and lilies. That gives their heavy flowers some support.
* Dig and divide crowded bulbs after the tops have died down.
* Feed summer flowers with a slow-release fertilizer.