Enjoy Buds & Blooms fest for Mother's Day

Spend Mother's Day this Sunday with mom and blooming rhodies, world-class bonsai, tea, gardening experts, local history and more at the Buds & Blooms spring garden festival in Federal Way.

Spread across multiple venues on Saturday and Sunday, the festival includes:

• Federal Way Farmers Market. The market will celebrate Buds & Blooms and opening day of its season Saturday with a pancake breakfast. Local gardening expert Marianne Benetti speaks on "Penny-Pinching Garden Tips and Secrets to Easy Veggies," and there will be kids' activities all day. Shop for, or with, your mom for locally produced Mother's Day treats including fresh flowers, crafts, bread and honey.

• PowellsWood Garden. The three-acre garden oasis of rhododendrons and ferns, spring flowers, perennials, shade and woodland gardens edged by a 35-acre native forest, is open to the public for special events and by appointment only. Festival events Saturday and Sunday include speakers, music, tea, beekeeper demos and a plant sale of fuchsias and perennials. Most areas of the garden are accessible via lawns and graveled walkways; sturdy walking shoes are advised.

• Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection. This outdoor display of 60 world-class miniaturized, living bonsai trees, usually closed to the public, is featured at Buds & Blooms and open additional hours Friday and next week. The collection is on the Weyerhaeuser headquarters campus.

• Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden. Next door to the bonsai collection, it features flowering trees, shrubs, spring bulbs and perennials and hundreds of varieties of rhodies in peak bloom.

• West Hylebos Park. Festival activities, including tours of the historic 1880s Barker Cabin, are hosted by the Historical Society of Federal Way. One of the last bogs remaining in King County, the park includes a mile-long boardwalk among 120 acres of wetlands.

Free shuttle bus service to festival sites is available Saturday from The Commons Mall and Saturday and Sunday from the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden.

The details

Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection: Guided tours and demonstrations 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday; festival events 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday; also open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. May 10-12 before closing again until further notice; 33663 Weyerhaeuser Way S., Federal Way; free. www.weyerhaeuser.com/bonsai.

Federal Way Farmers Market: Pancake breakfast, 9-10:30 a.m., $5; Marianne Binetti presentation and book signing, 11:30 a.m.; kids' activities, 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Saturday, open 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Commons Mall parking lot, South 320th Street and Pacific Highway South, Federal Way. 253-261-8157 or www.federalwayfarmersmarket.com.

PowellsWood: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, 430 Dash Point Road, Federal Way; $5/admission, $8/person, tea and cookies. 253-529-1620 or www.powellswood.org.