Show and sale features Sacramento Valley's best outdoor orchids
Cymbidiums thrive in Sacramento’s Mediterranean climate. Photo courtesy Sacramento Valley Cymbidium Society
These orchids love Sacramento – and we love them right back.
Cymbidiums, those hardy outdoor orchids with spectacular blooms, are back in season. See the best of the best at the annual Sacramento Valley Cymbidium Society show and sale on Saturday, March 25, at Shepard Center in McKinley Park. Admission and parking are free.
Open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., this flower-filled event will feature displays of plants grown by club members, competing for best blooms.
Take some orchids home, too. The sale includes cymbidiums in all sizes from miniature to large standard, in a wide range of colors and varieties.
With a tropical look and long-lasting blooms, cymbidiums thrive in Sacramento’s Mediterranean climate and can live for many years outdoors, even in winter (with some protection). Get advice from these local experts on how to get these orchids to rebloom year after year.
As an added bonus, learn how to repot cymbidiums. Club members will demonstrate during the event.
Shepard Garden and Arts Center is located at 3330 McKinley Blvd., Sacramento.
For more details: www.sgaac.org, https://www.facebook.com/sacramentocymbidiums or email SacCymSoc@yahoo.com.
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Food in My Back Yard Series
April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers
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Garden Checklist for week of April 20
Before possible showers at the end of the week, take advantage of all this nice sunshine – and get to work!
* Set out tomato, pepper and eggplant transplants.
* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, radishes and squash.
* Plant onion sets.
* In the flower garden, plant seeds for asters, cosmos, celosia, marigolds, salvia, sunflowers and zinnias.
* Transplant petunias, zinnias, geraniums and other summer bloomers.
* Plant perennials and dahlia tubers for summer bloom.
* Plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.
* Transplant lettuce and cabbage seedlings.
* Smell orange blossoms? Feed citrus trees with a low dose of balanced fertilizer (such as 10-10-10) during bloom to help set fruit. Keep an eye out for ants.
* Apply slow-release fertilizer to the lawn.
* Thoroughly clean debris from the bottom of outdoor ponds or fountains.
* Trim dead flowers but not leaves from spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. Those leaves gather energy to create next year's flowers. Also, give the bulbs a fertilizer boost after bloom.
* Spring brings a flush of rapid growth, and that means your garden is really hungry. Give shrubs and trees a dose of a slow-release fertilizer. Or mulch with a 1-inch layer of compost.
* Start thinning fruit that's formed on apple and stone fruit trees -- you'll get larger fruit at harvest (and avoid limb breakage) if some is thinned now. The UC recommendation is to thin fruit when it is about 3/4 of an inch in diameter. Peaches and nectarines should be thinned to about 6 inches apart; smaller fruit such as plums and pluots can be about 4 inches apart. Apricots can be left at 3 inches apart. Apples and pears should be thinned to one fruit per cluster of flowers, 6 to 8 inches apart.
* Azaleas and camellias looking a little yellow? If leaves are turning yellow between the veins, give them a boost with chelated iron.
* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.
* Weed, weed, weed! Don’t let unwanted plants go to seed.