American Bonsai Association hosts 65th annual show at Shepard Center
This beautiful maple bonsai took years of careful pruning to create. Learn about this living art form on April 12 and 13 at Shepard Center. Courtesy of American Bonsai Association, Sacramento
Bonsai – little trees in pots – stand tall in Sacramento with a deep-rooted history and tradition.
This weekend, April 12 and 13, the American Bonsai Association, Sacramento, will host its 65th annual Bonsai Show and Sale at Shepard Center in McKinley Park. Show hours are 10 a.m to 4 p.m each day. Admission and parking are free.
Special guest artist Carmen Leskoviansky, curator of the University of Michigan bonsai collection, will fashion a bonsai at 1:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Leskoviansky has earned an international reputation for her advocacy for women in bonsai.
The ABAS show will feature scores of bonsai, some of them representing decades of growth and artistry.
Also find bonsai supplies, pots and trees for sale at the club’s vendor and consignment tables.
Learn how to create your own bonsai, too. A beginner workshop ($20) will be held at 10 a.m. Sunday and includes tree, pot, soil and instruction. Register via email to abasbonsaiclub@gmail.com.
One of the country’s oldest bonsai clubs, ABAS dates back to 1958 – the same year the Shepard Garden and Arts Center was opened to the public. That’s seven years before Sunset published its first book on bonsai.
Since World War II, Sacramento has been at the center of bonsai interest in the United States. The nation’s oldest bonsai club is the Sacramento Bonsai Club, which was formed in 1946 by previously interned Japanese Americans. Its meetings were originally held in Japanese.
ABAS was created to accommodate English-speaking garden enthusiasts who were interested in learning how to grow “little trees in pots.” Its show is a celebration of this gardening art and sharing it with others.
Shepard Center is located at 3330 McKinley Blvd., Sacramento, on the north end of McKinley Park.
Details: https://www.abasbonsai.org/.
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Food in My Back Yard Series
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
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March 4: Potatoes from the garden
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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.
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