Gardening events: Celebrating rare fruits and Begonias

If you have a plant-related class, garden tour or other event you’d like us to mention, email me at jeanette.marantos@latimes.com — with at least three weeks’ notice, please! — and we may include it later. Include a high-resolution horizontal photo, if possible, and tell us who to credit and what we’re seeing.

Aug. 11

Cactophile Wendell (Woody) Minnich shares his quest to see the ancient Copiapoa cactus in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile at the South Coast Cactus & Succulent Society’s August meeting. Minnich led a group to the Atacama Desert in August 2018, to find the ancient Copiapoa cactus, famed for its exotic blooms and ability to survive on the moisture it gets from the dry region’s heavy fog. 1 p.m. at the South Coast Botanic Garden, 26300 Crenshaw Blvd., Rolling Hills Estates. southcoastcss.org

Aug. 16-18

The Festival of Fruit, sponsored by the Foothill Chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers (CRFG), is a three-day conference of fruit-growing workshops, talks, garden and nursery tours and tastings at the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden, 201 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia. Registration is $85 for CRFG members, $115 nonmembers (which includes an annual membership in the national organization). festivaloffruit.org

Aug. 24

Palos Verdes Begonia Society’s 28th Begonia Show and Sale includes unusual begonias on display and for sale, as well as specialty vendors from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the South Coast Botanic Garden, 26300 S. Crenshaw Blvd., Rolling Hills Estates. Free parking and admission to the show after $9 entry to the garden ($6 seniors and students). southcoastbotanicgarden.org