Shinzen Friendship Garden, Fresno, CA

I was out pruning on Saturday at the Shinzen Friendship Garden as part of their volunteer work day. For the past couple years I’ve taken care of three red Acer dissectum there, also referred to as “the three red ladies”. They were planted very close together many moons ago and have a few issues, but they still put on a lot of growth throughout the year. It is hard to take good before and after pics of these but this will give you an idea. I’ll have to hunt for a pic of when they are all leafed out… that’ll have to come later.

But for now, here they are, as well as some shots around the garden.

Before: They get pretty bushy. You can see the new growth is bright red.

After: Thinned out quite a bit, but need to leave more cover up top to protect from sun burn. Fresno is quite hot in the summer.

After: One of the three ladies, from the side.

A nice vignette to the left of the entry gates.

The new Clark Bonsai Garden pavilion.