By John and Marsha Mekisich

The morning of Saturday November 25^{th in} Hayward, Ca. started out clear and cool. The time had come at last after several months of planning to move a beautiful 100 year old Blue Atlas Cedar from Grove Way Bonsai Nursery to its new home at the Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt.

The tree started out as a Blue Atlas Cedar (Cedrus atlantica) grafted to Deodar Cedar (Cedrus deodara) root stock planted in a 15 gallon nursery container. Years later it was removed from the nursery container, planted in the ground and allowed to develop for an additional 35 years. Taken up and potted again in 1989, the tree had by then grown into a majestic specimen. Continue reading →

Tora Rocha, Lake Merritt Park Supervisor, described the Bonsai Garden light display at the Autumn Lights Festival as “off the hook.” After checking with my daughter, I learned that this was a good thing; something akin to a phone ringing off the hook. I took it as a big compliment.

Randi Keppeler, BGLM Events Director, took it upon herself to design the lighting scheme, source the lights and manage the lighting installation. She even organized the fund raising to pay for the lights. This was a labor of love that took months of concentrated effort to accomplish. She found lanterns to hang on our shade structures, individual strands of lights to drape from our landscape trees, colorful plastic cups to light our pathways and progressive light tubes to simulate water flowing down our dry waterfall into our dry stream bed.

Anyone who knows the excellent work that Randi does putting on the Mammoth Auction & Sale is aware of the dedication and hard work with which she attacks any project she takes on. If you were not able to attend this year’s Autumn, take a look at the photos of the event posted here. You will see that she outdid herself with this effort. I am sure that the more than 3,200 visitors to the Garden during this event will agree, that Randi’s creation is truly “off the hook.”

The Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt will close during the day on Thursday through Sunday this week for the Autumn Lights Festival. On Friday and Saturday nights from 6:00 – 10:00, Lake Merritt  will be filled with lanterns, carved and lit gourds, glass bubbles below the surface of the ponds, and electric fireflies in the trees all created by local artists plus a cast of entertainers and food purveyors. The Friends of the Gardens at Lake Merritt (FGLM) will be mounting their annual Autumn Lights Festival.  Continue reading →

The Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt now wears the title of Museum. The Garden earns this status as a non-profit organization dedicated to the public display and education of the art of bonsai.  We are continuing to certify our museum status to enhance our goals and image in bonsai art. Now supporters, like you, can contribute to strengthening the museum field by participating in a special interest license plate program dedicated to museums.  Through Bill AB482, the California Cultural and Historical Endowment will be awarding  $3 million in grant awards over the next two years. This program will be sustained after this two-year period if 7,500 special interest license plates are purchased from the State.   Already 4,500 plates have been sold with an original drawing of Snoopy on the license plate.  But we want to reach the full endowment number of sales by the year’s end. When fully funded, museums in California are able to reap benefit in forms of grants for acquisitions and capital development of their facility.  These grants will be distributed through application from the museums following the published guidelines in 2015.  This is certainly an opportunity for individuals to enhance their license plate with a Snoopy drawing and contribute to helping museums, such as the Bonsai Garden, to develop faster through matching state funds.  The additional charge for personal plates is also tax deductible.  Go the site: to see your opportunity to help.  This is a win-win situation for you and museums.

Joe Byrd, Chairman, BGLM

The following comment is from a new volunteer who has been contributing his artwork to the Bonsai Garden. You will notice his poster about supporting the Garden the next time you visit us. He even created an icon of me that I plan on using here on a regular basis.

Below are some answers to questions about the Bonsai School at Lake Merritt that you may find very helpful. These questions were submitted by one of our applicants. If you have additional questions or want more information about the School, please email us at or just respond to this post.

1)     Thank you for offering the classes on weekends.Please confirm that the frequency of classes will be one per month in Oakland at the Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt on Saturdays? Continue reading →