We will be meeting at 10 o'clock on February 26th (Note: 4th Thursday) at David Boniske's house in Albany. We will be doing a session on succulent identification. David will help identify several varieties of Succulents in his backyard and discuss their various growing habits and needs. We usually limit the group to 10 participants but since we are not going to be doing a project this month everybody is welcome. Please RSVP to David.

Tuesday, February 24 from 1:30 to 3:30 pm at Lynn Richards' home in Berkeley. (Enter the backyard through the driveway on the left.) Have rooted cuttings languishing on your window sill? Come pot up and exchange houseplant cuttings and easily rooting outdoor plants! Please bring plant cuttings to pot up for yourself, share with others or take home and nurture for the May 9th BGC plant sale. Potting soil and some pots will be provided. If you have 4-inch or 6-inch extra pots to share, bring them. Bring gardening gloves, trowels, and pruners. Also, a snack to share and clean-up help is appreciated. The group is limited to 10 people. RSVP Miriam Spilman. Rain cancels the meeting.

Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Avenue, Albany.

12:00 to 12:30: Doors open for meeting setup and socializing.

12:30 to 1:30: Regular Business Meeting, Plant Notes, Drawing

1:30 to 2:00: Refreshments and socializing

2:00 to 3:00: Speaker: Benjamin “Farmer Ben” Goff, Garden and Cooking Program Supervisor Berkeley Unified School District; “25 Years of Cultivating Minds & Gardens in BUSD: From Soil to System”

On Thursday, February 12th, Floriculture will visit the San Francisco Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park where we will take ourselves on a self-guided tour of their magnificent magnolia collection, the 4th most significant collection in the world, and the greatest outside of Asia! https://gggp.org/magnolias/ Let's meet at the "Friend/North Gate" across the street from the Japanese Tea Garden at 1:00PM. The link above includes a map of the garden. Contact Eugenia if interested.

We will meet on Tuesday February 10th, from 11:30 to 2 pm. at Mollie Boero’s home in Berkeley. We will be studying healing herbs. Please contact Mary Shisler with questions. Thank you.

The board meets on the first Tuesday of the month via Zoom. The meetings begin at 10:00 am and all members are welcome. If you wish to attend please email Ray at president@berkeleygardenclub.org for the Zoom link.

HOLIDAY PARTY: We’ll enjoy musical entertainment provided by some of the musically talented within our Club. After a brief business meeting and delicious lunch, we’ll get slide tours (also brief!) of a few members’ gardens. Our tables will be adorned with arrangements created by our members, and those will be available to take home through a silent auction. Successful bidders will be announced at the end of the festivities, along with a drawing for a few donated items. This will be a lovely event to celebrate the season, and our Berkeley Garden Club community!

California Native Plants : We have a monthly meeting on Zoom on the 4th Tuesday of each month from 7-8 pm. Additionally, we have semi-monthly field trips to places with native plants! Please contact Martha Jackson with suggestions or questions or to be added to the invitation list.

Tuesday, November 25th from 1:30  to 3:30 pm at Mollie Boero's home in Berkeley. Fall is the season to dig up spent  dahlia plants and divide and store their tubers for  the winter. In late spring, tubers get planted in the  ground or pots to grow a summer display of  gorgeous dahlia blooms.This meeting we’ll discuss dividing and storing dahlia tubers. I have tuber  clumps to share. If you have any clumps of dahlia  tubers to share, bring them to the meeting, along  with gloves, trowel, sharp knife or hori hori and a  box, tray or bag for taking tubers home. Limited to 8 people. RSVP to Mollie Boero.

Every third Sunday at 10am. Contact Ben Liaw for more details.

Propagation : Propagation: Tuesday, October 28 from 1:30 to 3:30 pm at Brenna Stein's home in Berkeley. Fall is a great time to dig up and divide many perennials, grasses or other plants that grow by spreading or clumping. This meeting we’ll discuss dividing plants. Good candidates to divide in fall are: bearded iris, Siberian iris, artemisia, asters, bee balms, coreopsis, echinacea, chives, thyme, mint, hardy geraniums, astilbes, daylilies, and some house plants like spider plant. Make sure to only divide plants that are not currently blooming. If you have any plants to share, bring dug-up plant clumps to the meeting, along with gloves, trowel, sharp knife or hori hori. We’ll provide soil and pots and your favorite spade to plant up your divisions, or bring a container (tray, bucket) to take your divisions home. people. RSVP to Mollie Boero.

California Native Plants : We have a monthly meeting on Zoom on the 4th Tuesday of each month from 7-8 pm. Additionally, we have semi-monthly field trips to places with native plants! Please contact Martha Jackson with suggestions or questions or to be added to the invitation list.

Herbs and Spices : We are having a joint tour with Floriculture of the U.C. Berkeley Herb Garden on Thursday October 23rd, 2025 at 1 pm.

Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Avenue, Albany.

12:00 to 12:30: Doors open for meeting setup and socializing.

12:30 to 1:30: Regular Business Meeting, Plant Notes, Drawing

1:30 to 2:00: Refreshments and socializing

2:00 to 3:00: Speaker: Else Vellinga. “Mushrooms in Your Garden - What Are They Doing There?”

Display Table: Please bring in any beautiful flowers in your garden you'd like to show off. Non-flowering garden achievements are also welcome.

Garden Exchange Table: Please be sure to take any unsold items back home with you at the end of the meeting.

The succulent group will meet at David Boniske’s house in Albany on October 16 at 10:00. We will be making our annual succulent pumpkins for the holidays. Bring either several small pumpkins or one large pumpkin and David will supply the Spanish moss and succulents to go on top. There is limited space in his backyard so please RSVP: otdabster@gmail.com . There will be a limit of 10 participants.

BGC Board Meeting via Zoom

The board meets on the first Tuesday of the month via Zoom. The meetings begin at 10:00 am and all members are welcome. If you wish to attend please email Ray at president@berkeleygardenclub.org.

Propagation : Tuesday, September 23 from 1:30 to 3:30 pm at Evelyn Borchert's home in Albany . This meeting will be a tool sharpening and cleaning workshop. It's an opportunity to learn how to care for and upkeep your garden tools and see Evelyn’s many fruit trees. Bring a tool or two to work on, and Evelyn will provide cleaning materials. Please bring $5 cash to reimburse Evelyn for her supplies that she shares. Attendance limited to 15 people. RSVP to Mollie Boero.

BUSD Berkeley Tech Academy - this new initiative kicks off on Sunday Sept 21 10am-noon (we’ve landed on the 3rd Sunday of each month) at Berkeley Tech Academy (2701 Martin Luther King Jr Way). We will be providing much needed help to the garden teacher Aimee (who is only paid on a part time basis but does way more work than that!). It should be lots of fun and should be pretty easy going as there is both access to drinking water and bathrooms.

Succulents: The succulent group will meet at David Boniske’s house in Albany on September 18th at 10:00am. We will begin with a look at the changes David has made in his garden since June. Then we’ll have a short planning meeting to decide what we’ll do for the rest of the year. We will end with renewing old pots that are looking a little ragged. We can use succulents from David’s yard so it is requested that people bring one or two old succulent pots and we will put new soil and succulents in them and make them look new again.

Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Avenue, Albany.

12:00 to 12:30: Doors open for meeting setup and socializing.

12:30 to 1:30: Regular Business Meeting, Plant Notes, Drawing

1:30 to 2:00: Refreshments and socializing

2:00 to 3:00: Speaker: David Mostardi. “Birds & Blooms, Just Up Over the Hill: Three years observing California Native Plants and Birds in the Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park.”

Display Table: Please bring in any beautiful flowers in your garden you'd like to show off. Non-flowering garden achievements are also welcome.

Garden Exchange Table: Please be sure to take any unsold items back home with you at the end of the meeting.

Herbs and Spices : Herbs and Spices is meeting September 9, 2025 from 11:30 to 2 pm at Beth Feingold’s house. We will be discussing healing herbs and planning for the year. Have questions about Herbs & Spices? Contact Mary Shisler.

BGC Board Meeting via Zoom

Floriculture : Floriculture will be visiting the whimsical Berkeley garden of artist and gardener extraordinaire Marcia Donahue at 1:00 on Sunday, June 29th. Marcia's garden is located at 3017 Wheeler St. ( It is open every Sunday afternoon, if you would like to go on a different Sunday. ) Contact Eugenia if you would like to explore this garden together.

Propagation : Tuesday, June 24 from 1:30 to 3:30 pm at Christina Ahlstrand’s home in Oakland. Want to know more about cymbidium orchids? Come divide cymbidiums from Christina’s collection and share your growing tips. If you have cymbidiums to share, bring the entire plant (which we will divide and share) to the meeting. Please bring $5 cash for supplies. Also, bring a sharp trowel, hori hori or old knife or small hatchet for dividing plants, clippers, gloves and hat. If you have any one-gallon or larger pots to share, bring those. Soil, some pots and cymbidiums will be provided. The group is limited to 6 people. Please RSVP to Mollie Boero.

SPRING PICNIC AND INSTALLATION OF OFFICERS , TUESDAY JUNE 17 TH

Live Oak Park Picnic Area #2

Next to the Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St.

Look for the map with this bulletin.

12:30 to 1:00pm : Set up.

1:00 to 3:00pm: Picnic and Installation.

3:00 to 3:30 : Cleanup.

BGC Board Meeting via Zoom

Propagation: Tuesday, May 27th from 1:30 to 3:30 pm at Boxcar Flower Farm. Come tour an urban flower farm run by fellow BGC member Jane Hammond. You’ll see an explosion of flowers growing in the heart of Oakland. Meet at Boxcar Flower Farm at 1601 Wood St, Oakland, at the corner of 16th and Wood Streets to see what they are growing and to hear how they propagate cut flowers for the coming season.

More info about Boxcar Farms at their web site. www.boxcarflowerfarm.com

You can also order monthly flower bouquets from Boxcar. Artful Flowers, Urban Farmed in West Oakland.

All are welcome. Bring a hat. Please RSVP to Mollie Boero.

Join us on for a work party from 10am-10:30 (or maybe 11am) at the Berkeley Arts Magnet School (Lincoln Street side) . In January 2024, the BGC Civic Beautification Committee, in coordination with the BUSD planting coordinator, planted 4+ raised beds with plants for making dyes, plants for a ‘sensory’ garden and pollinator plants. We are now helping to maintain the beds with monthly work parties. No need to RSVP, it's informal. Just feel free to join us if you'd like.