The speaker at the Jan. 16 Sun Lakes Garden Club meeting will be Steve Sheard, Master Rosarian. He attended the world-famous Chelsea Flower Show in London in the spring. It’s been held each year since 1913. He’ll take the members on a photographic tour and share his insights into this international show.

Steve is a Master Consulting Rosarian with the American Rose Society and a member of the Mesa East Valley Rose Society, and the chairperson for the Mesa Community College Rose Garden (of about 10,000 rose bushes). He’s a winning competitor in the floral design shows and a member of Desert Designers since 2000.

In 2003 he joined the Arizona Rare Fruit Growers (AZRFG). Today he has 35 fruit trees, including papaya, guava, banana, apple, orange, and pomegranate. He also has a large vegetable garden.

He lives in Tempe and is a member of the Tempe Garden Club. He gives seminars on growing roses and fruit trees and on budding and grafting. He shows how “fruit cocktail” citrus trees are created with oranges, lemons, and limes all on the same tree.

Meetings are held every month (including summer) on the third Tuesday. Attendees gather at 9:30 a.m. to socialize and enjoy refreshments and coffee and sign in visitors. The meeting is called to order at 10 a.m. The meeting ends at approximately 11:45 a.m., and members and guests often go across the street to the Sun Lakes Country Club for lunch afterward.

Check out our monthly Newsletters and Membership options to join the club on our website, SunLakesGardenClub.com.

The meeting location is the Chapel Center (house next door to the Sun Lakes All FaEiths Community Church and across the street from the Sun Lakes Country Club), at 9230 E. Sun Lakes Blvd. N., in Sun Lakes.

For questions, call Starla Kramer, president, at 480-540-8080.