I spent Saturday, December 20 at Collection North and what a wonderful experience it was to be there.  Our club is committed to being there as a docent from 1PM to 4PM the third Saturday of every month…no big deal three little hours.
John Edwards and I arrived at the same time. We were a little early, so he took me on a little tour of the garden area and handed me a guide to the trees. The guide is one of the things we hand out to folks that walk into the garden and it is a few pages of very well organized information about all the trees on display. From the moment I started walking around with him, I knew that I was going to spending more time there, it just felt like somewhere I wanted to be. The bonsai garden area was a nice size and beautifully maintained by an all-volunteer group of bonsai enthusiasts with it’s own entrance and part of a larger horticulture garden.

After walking around for a bit we signed in at the docent hut and took over from the docents from the Marin Bonsai Society. At this point, I felt like I couldn’t have been in a better place the weekend before Christmas, it was calm and lovely and all the hustle and bustle of Christmas was a million miles away.  We then went to the back area where all the volunteers work on the plants for the garden.  There were just four other people there that day, but quality people. I met Kathy Shaner, Bob Gould, Linda Soliven and Alex Voorhis. There was a whole selection of plants that were not on display back there and there was some pretty amazing stuff back there!  Bob is a wealth of knowledge, he pretty much knew the name of every plant just by looking up and seeing where I was standing…and believe me there was a lot to ask about! Kathy was giving a workshop for volunteers, a thank you for helping out workshop. There was a very comfortable, friendly feeling back there. I went back and forth between the docent hut and greeting people coming in and poking around in the back. It was fun saying hello to people and handing them a guide and talking to them about bonsai. Some folks came there as their destination and others stumbled on it, but they were all very impressed with the gardens. Quite a few young people walked in and that was nice to see, John may have sparked an interest in bonsai in one or two of them. We gave out brochures for Collection North and the bonsai clubs in the bay area to anyone that may have been interested.

I talked to Kathy about volunteering as a real beginner and she said she would rather have a beginner with no bad habits then have to retrain someone with years of bad habits. Linda was working on one of the workshop plants, she took a break and showed me how and where to sign up to volunteer, gave me her phone number and a number to call the garden. (510 763 8409). Alex is a year and a half veteran of bonsai and he was doing both the workshop and helping out that day. He was so enthusiastic about all that he has gotten out of volunteering it was catching; I can’t wait to volunteer some of my time and be part of what goes on there.

Later, I was invited to go look at he plants they were getting ready to auction and sell next month. It was at this point that I realized just how much goes on there, all those plants had to be tended to and cared for and what an opportunity to work on bonsai with all these experienced people who were thrilled you were there and wanted to help!  There is some very, very nice stuff going up for auction.  You can preview the plants on their website.(bonsailakemerritt.com)  The week before the auction is a great time to volunteer your time, there is so much that needs to be done.

Needless to say I was very impressed by the garden and the people there that day.  John was the icing on the cake, what a nice man to spend an afternoon with.  I will definitely volunteer as a docent again, but I also look forward to escaping from the real world into the bonsai oasis right there in Oakland and spending time there learning FOR FREE from very knowledgeable people who are there because they love what they are doing.  This, in my opinion, is what you are missing if you haven’t spent time at Collection North. - Debra Bleemer

Tags: Beginner, Collection North