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Learn about beekeeping; shop for summer flowers

Sacramento Perennial Plant Club hosts honey expert and plant sale

Sunflower blossom with bee
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/ .



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Dig In: Garden Checklist

For week of June 4:

Because of the comfortable weather, it’s not too late to set out tomato and pepper seedlings as well as squash and melon plants. They’ll appreciate this not-too-hot weather. Just remember to water.

* From seed, plant corn, pumpkins, radishes, melons, 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.

* Let the grass grow longer. Set the mower blades high to reduce stress on your lawn during summer heat. To cut down on evaporation, water your lawn deeply during the wee hours of the morning, between 2 and 8 a.m.

* 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.

* Mulch, mulch, mulch! This “blanket” keeps moisture in the soil longer and helps your plants cope during hot weather.

* Thin grapes on the vine for bigger, better clusters later this summer.

* Cut back fruit-bearing canes on berries.

* Feed camellias, azaleas and other acid-loving plants.

* 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.

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