Southern Arizona Koi Association (SAKA) is having their annual Garden Pond Tour will be on May 14 & 15. The club will be donating $1 from each ticket sold to the Japanese Red Cross for earthquake relief.

Tickets are only $5 each and children 12 and under are free. They are available at many landscape and garden centers in town as listed on the flyer:

Civano Nursery, Green Things, Harlow’s, Magic Gardens Nursery, Mesquite Valley Growers, Ponds Plants & more, Rillito Nursery, Sheldon’s Nursery, Tohono Chul Park, Tucson Botanical Gardens, and Mt. View Koi (in Hereford, AZ).

I’ve never been on this koi garden tour, but I intend to check out some of these lovely ponds this weekend.

A few highlights for this year’s pond tour will be several very large ponds of over 20,000 gallons with jumbo koi. There will be a dozen ponds, plus one bonus pond in a variety of styles. SAKA tried to group them on Saturday and Sunday, so there will be a little less driving than in prior years.

More info: www.sakoia.org, 520-390-0879, tucsonpondtour@yahoo.com.

And doesn’t it sound peaceful to drop by several cool koi ponds on a hot almost-summer day?
Enjoy the koi!

13 beautiful ponds around Tucson will be highlighted at the Southern Arizona Koi Association’s Parade of Ponds on May 1 and 2. Only $5 to see all of them (and children under 12 are free with paid adult). The event runs 9 to 5 p.m. both days, so there’s lots of time to see koi in the ponds.

Southern Arizona Koi Association, Inc. logo

By the way, koi are colorful ornamental fish, otherwise known as Japanese carp.

6 ponds will be open on Saturday and 6 on Sunday with one pond open both days. It is a self-guided tour, so you can see one or all of the ponds. Each ticket is also an entry in our prize drawing for some nice pond books and a subscription to Koi USA Magazine. There is also a koi trivia game to play along the way, to learn something new about koi which makes a great “day trip” for the whole family.

“Tucson has had an active Koi Club for over 30 years. Two Associated Koi Clubs of America certified Koi Judges and two trained Koi Health Advisors (like Koi Doctors) are members and live here in Southern Arizona”, according to Jeanmarie Schiller-McGinnis, Pond Tour Committee chair.

More information: www.sakoi.org, tucsonpondtour@yahoo.com, 520-628-0381.

Tickets available at Magic Gardens Nursery, Mesquite Valley Growers, Harlow’s, Tucson Botanical Gardens, Green Things, Pond Plants & More, Rillito Nursery, Sheldon’s Nursery, Civano Nursery, Tohono Chul Park, Mountain View Koi (Hereford, AZ).

So if you’re passionate about these lovely koi fish (and I knew many back home in Hawaii who were and probably still are, as koi can live to 200 years), get your tickets and visit these lovely ponds.

The Southern Arizona Koi Association is also having their 31st Annual Pond Show coming up on November 13 & 14, 2010, so mark your calendars now.

Enjoy koi!

Parade of Ponds flyer