The biggest and best bonsai Auction & Sale is humongous – in fact, it is Mammoth. But if you have been in bonsai for more than a few years, you already knew that. No year has that been truer than this year. We have more bonsai pots for sale than ever before. We have trees from a bonsai nurseryman who is retiring and from a bonsai master teacher who is paring down, plus so many more.  We even have bonsai from venerable collectors that will be auctioned perhaps for the first time.

The Annual Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt Mammoth Auction is on Saturday, February 18 (1:00 PM to 3:00 PM) and the Mammoth Sale is on Sunday, February 19, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM) at the Lakeside Garden Center in Oakland, CA next to the Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt. Items may be donated or submitted on consignment. You can submit bonsai for the Auction through the end of December by emailing Bob Gould at [email protected]. Bonsai and bonsai material for the Sunday Sale will be accepted at the Garden Center on Saturday, February 18th, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM and Sunday, February 19th, between 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM. Any bonsai material, pots, etc. will be accepted as sale material. Consignment items for the Sale will have a 25% charge deducted from the sale price.  Again, full donations are appreciated and tax-deductible. Contact Mike Mello, 510-886-1568 or Dennis Hawkins, 510-657-8229 [email protected] for more information about selling bonsai and material at the Mammoth or visit Mammoth Info   and select Programs/Mammoth Fundraiser. If you wish to place a reserve price on your item in the Auction, you will be charged a fee of 10% of that reserve if the item does not sell at the reserve price. This fee goes to help defray the cost of the auction.

A very large vendor area will open at 9:00 AM on Sunday and continue to 4:00 PM. This is will be one of the largest vendor areas we have had in years. One reason is that we are holding the Mammoth one week earlier than the Bonsai-A-Thon at the Huntington Gardens to enable vendors to participate in both GSBF fundraising events. By moving the Mammoth Auction & Sale a week earlier, we do not conflict with a race around Lake Merritt that has taken up all of our parking places in past years. Food will be sold to attendees to save you the trouble of moving your cars and thus losing your parking place to find lunch.

Please keep in mind that the Mammoth Auction & Sale is the biggest annual fundraising event for the Bonsai Garden which generates much of the revenue needed to operate the Garden for the coming year. The massive Garden Revitalization Opportunity (GRO) project that has been described in this magazine is budgeted at $100,000 and the funds raised at this event will go towards meeting that funding goal.  The GSBF kicked in $5,000 at their fall Board meeting to get the ball rolling.

We are some different entertainment for you on Sunday afternoon around 1:00 PM – the “Now What?” presentation. Have you ever won a tree at auction and then turned to your friend and said “Now what do I do with this?” So have I, so we created a styling seminar and demo for some of the lucky auction winners. There will be a star placed on your tree ID card and if you agree, you can return with it the next day and have Kathy Shaner, BGLM curator, and Gordon Deeg, BGLM Garden Master, show you what you can do with your purchase. They may even make a few cuts or wire a few branches with your blessing, of course. We feel that this styling seminar will help all of envision the next steps that we can take with any bonsai we purchase. This will also provide added value to your auction prize and may encourage you to bit a bit higher. After all, the funds go to the largest all-volunteer bonsai garden museum in the country.

The Mammoth Auction & Sale is one of the most popular bonsai activities you will find in the Bay Area, so mark your calendar – Mammoth Auction, Saturday February 18, and Mammoth Sale, Sunday February 19.

Mammoth Activity Calendar

Saturday, February 18
Auction Preview 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Auction 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Café Open 12:00 PM -3:00 PM

Sunday, February 19
Vendor Area Open 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Sales Area Open 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Styling Seminar fo

lect Auction Items 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Café Open 8:00 AM -3:00 PM