President’s Message

The energies of spring are fueling many APA endeavors for 2024, but one I am most excited to share with you is the Fall Garden Tour and Pruning Workshop event that the APA is co-sponsoring with the North American Japanese Garden Association. Details are below, and sign-ups will open later in the year, so stay tuned!

In other news, we will soon share with you all an invitation to join our Member Forum—and we hope you will do so, if you haven’t already! This is the place where we can pose questions, answer questions, share insights, and get to know one another. A forum can be an invaluable resource, but it only becomes so when we use it together! So keep your eyes open for the invite.

As always, please contact me with thoughts and ideas! Or post them in the Forum.

Lara Miranda

APA Certified Aesthetic Pruner® #65
President, Aesthetic Pruners Association

apapresident@aestheticprunersassociation.org
510.658.3438

Feature Article

Growing a Pruning Community

Allison Levin, CAP #34

The Merritt College Aesthetic Pruning Club (aka the Pruning Club) in Oakland, California, is now in its 36th year. The Pruning Club is a rare organization where people can learn the craft of fine pruning from each other, get support in establishing a career, and enjoy friendships and community with other pruners.

The Pruning Club was created by Dennis Makishima—who, by the way, also defined and promoted the craft of Aesthetic Pruning itself. Visit the Pruning Club’s website, thepruningclub.org, where you’ll find more about its history and activities—with great photos! (We are grateful to Sharna Fabiano, Barbara Eaton and Evelyn Borchert for this beautifully updated site, made possible because of funding from longtime Pruning Club admirer, Winifred Wood.)

The Aesthetic Pruners Association (APA) was formed by Pruning Club members to expand support for the profession. As the APA itself has extended beyond the SF Bay Area, it seems clear that many people who value aesthetic pruning would benefit from—and greatly enjoy—a pruning club of their own.

What can a local club do that a national organization like the APA cannot? Regional conditions and habitats require techniques and knowledge that may not be universally useful. And every area’s community can best be served and educated on a local level.  

Can the Merritt College Aesthetic Pruning Club be duplicated?

In this article, I list the Pruning Club’s key components and strategies, with the ambition of shaping a pruning club blueprint for places far from the SF Bay Area.

1. MISSION 
The Pruning Club has a twofold mission: Teach each other pruning, and give back to the community.

Why this works:
-  Members share a common passion for the craft/art of pruning and for horticulture.
- The “what’s in it for me” factor motivates each of us, and can provide long term benefits for the greater community!

2. HOME 
The Merritt College Aesthetic Pruning Club has a physical home at Merritt College’s Landscape Horticulture Department, where people looking to learn science, craft, design, and business congregate and study.

Why this is important:
- The curriculum offers different ways to learn, through theory and hands-on classes.
- Classes advance various levels of knowledge, from basic cuts to horticulture, advanced art concepts, and business.
- The horticulture department attracts plenty of people who are inclined to be interested in pruning.

Notably, Dennis Makishima created a curriculum especially around the craft of Aesthetic Pruning, and this set of classes is still only offered in its entirety at Merritt.

3. LANGUAGE 
Just as a common interest creates bonds, the terminology and language we use advances a deeper understanding; it also differentiates aesthetic pruning from other types of pruning. Dennis Makishima curated phrases to help teach aesthetic pruning concepts; now, many Pruning Club and APA members use them, too! (See the APA guide to terminology and concepts on our website for more.)

Examples:  
- “Coarse to fine”
- “Five-year plan”
- “Big ugly to little ugly”

4. CHAT GROUP 
We now have an email forum on Groups․io (previously hosted on Yahoo Groups), and before that we had phone chains! Topics include plant diseases, jobs, techniques, volunteer pruning events, gatherings, and more. Postings can be searched by subject and are kept in perpetuity.

5. OPPORTUNITIES  
In-person events are the glue to this community. 

They include:
- twice-a-year potlucks/planning meetings, during which members plan the calendar of volunteer pruning events 
- pruning events where members (new and old) can come to prune together, teach each other, and give back to the larger community.

Everyone can participate:
- as leaders, pruners, and teachers
- at seminars and Pruning Club events, on the chat group, and as club officers.

6. CULTURE OF BELONGING 
Through the Pruning Club’s 36 years (and counting), membership used to require a one time fee of $3–$4 to help manage an ever-growing mailing list that never drops anyone (unless they request it, of course!). In the best tradition of volunteer organizations, individuals are celebrated, appreciated, and seen.  

Multi-level support provides:
- pruning support at events, as we match newer pruners with experienced pruners
- financial support through educational scholarships
- promotional support, with a “find a pruner” page on the website.

7. OUTREACH 
In the beginning…the Merritt College Aesthetic Pruning Club became known through the tireless promotional and passionate work of Dennis Makishima, who knows how to tell a story and make an impression on any tree lover. And, before there were websites, there was a list of aesthetic pruners that Dennis created and distributed to nurseries and shared with garden clubs, both ideal places for pruners to teach introductory classes and gain a few clients!

Ron Sullivan, a journalist and Merritt Pruning Club member, has been another powerful ally in educating the public. Ron’s warm style of writing, and her position in local media, reached people who wouldn’t otherwise have thought much about trees, including, of course, homeowners!

8. COMMUNITY TIES 
The Pruning Club has friends and an earned reputation among our region’s garden, tree, and horticultural organizations. In the public gardens where the Pruning Club holds its pruning events (the Pruning Club website has a list of gardens where we volunteer), organizations and club members share pride in the beauty we’ve accomplished, and even share in lovingly prepared lunches for the pruners.

Sister organizations: ISA, APA, bonsai clubs, garden clubs, American Conifer Society, Merritt College, Hida Tool, among others.

9. EVERYBODY WINS
One of my favorite sayings of Dennis’s is, “what’s in it for me?” That is the question that tests every proposed endeavor—people want to give back to the community, but they also want to know, “what’s in it for me?”

The Pruning Club has consistently given back—and the Pruning Club has benefited. Through building awareness, appreciation, and demand, the Pruning Club has raised the standard of tree care and beauty and craft in the Bay Area beyond measure. And, as “aesthetic pruning” became a term understood and borrowed, skilled aesthetic pruners are increasingly in high demand.

Okay! So you want to start a local pruning club? I think it can be done! It takes a clear goal, a progressive set of activities, and no small amount of perseverance. It will take a group effort, and most importantly, the goodwill that’s needed to keep this group effort alive and moving along.

I hope interested APA members find inspiration and useful ideas, which lead to conversations and action.

Special thanks to Maryann Lewis, whose thoughts about developing a common language helped me get this article started.

APA Upcoming Events

CAP Mentoring Meeting

Monday, June 17, 2024
6:00pm (PDT)

on Zoom

APA CAPs Eric King and Dina Blackwell will host this meeting. If you are interested in becoming an APA Certified Aesthetic Pruner® (CAP), please join the meeting and your questions about certification will be answered. The next CAP application deadline is September 1st, 2024.

REGISTER

New Professionals Meeting

Sunday, August 25, 2024
1:00pm – 2:30pm (PDT)

on Zoom

California Registered Tax Preparer and APA CAP Diane Shields answers your questions about taxes and more!

REGISTER

APA & NAJGA Regional
Fall Garden Tour & Pruning Workshop

October 25, 26 & 27, 2024
Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area, CA

An Exploration of Pruning Techniques from Japan
October 26 & 27

When we think about Japanese style pruning, we typically think of a very stylized Japanese black pine. There are however a myriad of styles of pruning practiced in modern Japan based on regional differences, garden type and historical eras, and which are practiced on a wide variety of plant material.

Join Hiroaki Eto, a second generation Japanese garden builder from Kyushu, Japan, and APA member Avram Dalton—who is based in Southern California and has been assisting Hiroaki Eto for the last decade building gardens in the United States—as we explore different styles of pruning. This pruning event will consist of both demonstrations and hands-on workshops, and we will be working within the Gardens at Lake Merritt in Oakland, California.

You can read more about Hiroaki Eto here: https://www.sui-raku-kai.com

Garden Tour
October 25

We will be visiting 4 Japanese style gardens throughout the Bay Area, which have been created and developed by various garden builders and designers in collaboration, including Hiroaki Eto, Marc Keane, Bill Castellon and Avram Dalton. Each garden is a unique expression and demonstrates a variety of garden building and pruning techniques.

Join us! 

If you'd like to receive an email letting you know when enrollment is open, click the link below.

Other Events

Sukiya Living’s Advanced Japanese Pruning Workshop

Saturday, September 21 – Sunday, September 22, 2024

Shin-Boku Nursery
Wentworth, NH
https://shin-bokunursery.com/events.shtml
For more information: (207) 273-2907

APA Members-only Videos

Members can access video links to past APA Talks!

Links to Tree Talks, APA Annual Meeting talks, and other archived presentations are available on the APA Members page of the website. 
You must be logged in to your account to see the Members page.

Newly available videos:

APA News

LEAF Earth Day Event

APA members Walt Fujii (CAP #I0) and Phil Stob showcased pruning at the Local Ecology and Agriculture Fremont (LEAF) Earth Day Event in April, held in downtown Fremont, CA. The busy crowd got to hear from Walt and Phil about all things pruning, and even about the APA. 

This is LEAF’s biggest outreach event of the year. The local nonprofit works with volunteers to inspire people to grow their own food and foster a connection with nature through immersive, hands-on experiences in their three gardens. To find out more, visit their website at www.fremontleaf.org.

If you are attending or volunteering at a public event where you would like to promote the APA, please contact Jeff Becerra at jeffbecerra@sbcglobal.net for materials.

APA Members Spotted Throughout Gathering of Japanese Garden Enthusiasts/Practitioners/Scholars

The biennial conference of the North American Japanese Garden Association (NAJGA) was held in Fort Worth, TX from March 5–9, 2024. Members of the APA were seen assisting and participating throughout the two hands-on garden building workshop days at the Meiners’ Residence: delivering lectures at Fort Worth Botanic Gardens; mingling among garden practitioners and enthusiasts on garden tours; and voicing the interests of pruners and gardeners (3 of 20 seats!) on the NAJGA Board of Directors. We have very enthusiastic members, indeed, and spread the word about the APA to many curious gardeners from around the world.