Sharpen shears and your skills
January is a great time for gardeners to get busy. If there’s a plant-related class or event you’d like us to mention, email me at jeanette.marantos@latimes.com, with plenty of advance notice, and we may include it at a later date.
Sunday Tree-fruit pruning and care: Day one of the Fruitstitute’s two-day Pruning Masterclass at the Heritage Square Museum, 3800 Homer St. in Montecito Heights. Instructor Joanna Glovinsky explains year-round pruning and care of deciduous fruit trees, such as apples, apricots and nectarines. 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Second class Feb. 3. Fee is $45 for one class, $75 for both. figearthsupply.com/fruittree-classes
Edible advice: Edible gardening pro Loretta Allison of Spade and Seeds covers the basics of cool weather gardening and how to make excellent soil for healthy, drought-resistant plants. Edible Winter Gardening & Soil Prep Workshop at Artemisia Nursery, 5068 Valley Blvd., El Sereno. The class is free, but RSVPs are appreciated. 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. artemisianursery.com
Jan. 26 Plant trading: Give — and take — a variety of cactus, succulents and other plants and produce when the Plant Traders of Los Angeles and the OC Garden Trading Community gather at the Cerritos Sports Complex, 19900 Bloomfield Ave. in Cerritos. Participants should arrive by 9:30 a.m., put out the small plants or cuttings they want to share and then look around to see what they want to take. The trading begins at 10 a.m. “It’s like a community. You get to talk to people about gardening, and it’s really fun, says one of the administrators, Jasmin De La Peña.
Several other public plant trading organizations meet in Southern California, but note that etiquette and rules can vary by group, so research before you go. SoCo Plant Share meets the first Saturday of the month at 10 a.m. in Long Beach. The Coastkeeper Garden Share meets the second Saturday of the month at 10 a.m. at the Coastkeeper Natural Play Garden in Orange. The Community Plant Share meets at the Cypress Community Center in Cypress at 10 a.m. the third Saturday of the month. Jan. 26-27 Rose-pruning workshops: Learn how to prune your roses at Dominguez Rancho Adobe Museum in Rancho Dominguez, which tends one of the oldest rose gardens in the South Bay. The free workshops will provide water, lunch, a succulent plant and a goodie bag, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, at the museum’s rose garden, 18127 South Alameda St.