It started out looking to be a challenging year for gardeners, with January delivering heat wave conditions and warnings of massive storms and high winds. The suggestion was made that it might be a good time to consider weather-proofing our gardens.
Our first meeting for 2025 was held on Feb 5th with 70 members in attendance. Co-President Diana Sharpe (DS) welcomed all, including life members, guests and regular members.
Committee positions were all filled at our AGM, with the exception of Vice-President. Suzie Johnson kindly stepped into this role afterwards. Our 2026 committee members are:
Co-Presidents – Diana Sharpe, Karen Bono
Vice President – Suzi Johnson
Honorary Secretary – Diana Harden
Honorary Treasurer – Liz Hind
Assistant Treasurer – Sue Brennan
Public Officer – Steven Wedd
Membership Officer – Sue Brennan
Communications & Social Media Coordinator– Adelina Linardon
Welcome Team – Helen Barlow, David Hind
Flora of the Month – Marie Pfisterer
Guest Speaker Team – Patricia Di Tullio, Lesley Player
Saturday Garden Visit Team – Suzy Johnson, Lauren Julian, Rose Kooy
Bus Trip Team – Stephen Stocker, Diana Harden and Sue Brennan
Catering Team – David Williamson, Suzie Dempster and Cas Veriga
Guest Speaker Team – Patricia di Tullio and Lesley Player
Photographer – Rita Field
Auctioneers: Steven Wedd, Adelina Linardon
Previous committee members Carole Lea, Joelle Baker and Wayne Furnance – Catering Team, Margaret Bruce – Photographer, Rosemary Edwards – Out-going Co-President were all presented with thank you gifts at the 2024 Xmas function.
Life Membership was awarded to Steven Wedd, a most worthy recipient.
The year commenced on a sound financial footing with some $5500 in the bank.
All meetings were well-attended.
There was a letter sent to the committee late 2024 regarding inclusion of an Acknowledgment of Country to our meeting agenda and in response the committee advised that it had decided, because of diverse opinions on this matter, that a secret ballot be carried out at the March 2025 meeting. With cancellation of March meeting due to adverse weather, this vote was conducted at the April meeting with 63 members present, but failed to gain support with 40 against and 16 for the change.
A new item for the meetings agenda was added during the year – Jobs for the Month – Suzie Johnson very kindly supplied a To Do list for the garden for each month of the year. This has proven to be a very worthwhile opportunity for the sharing of knowledge and experience between our ‘old hand’ gardeners and those who are still keen to learn.
The lists can be found in the newsletter each month.
Stephen Stocker organised another great day trip to Roma St Parklands and Brisbane City Botanic Gardens on 17th September, Stephen’s usual resounding success by all accounts.
Flower of the Month segments continued to be very popular with members bringing in interesting and sometimes unusual specimens for discussion.
At Apr meeting, Diana Harden presented a Power Point version of Monty Don’s Paradise Garden series. Paradise Garden originated in Persia circa 6th century BCE. For those interested in further information, the Power Point presentation forms part of the April minutes.
Margaret Byrne, a long-time member and club historian, stepped down from her role after many years. Christine Greenwood has agreed to take over acknowledging that she has big shoes to fill!
Sadly, long-term member Athena McIver passed away late 2024, after a long battle with cancer. She will be remembered for her vivacious character and infectious laughter, and her love for the colour red.
Elspeth Lacey was also lost to us in 2025. Elspeth was another long-term member of the club and the local area, having relocated from England in 1974.
The Auction and Produce Table remained the main fundraising activities for the club.
We re-introduced Q & A and Special Plant Requests back into our meeting agenda. Q & A sheet or Special Plant Request sheet located on the Membership Desk when signing in each month.
August’s newsletter detailed a number of herbal tea recipes for those who like their herbal teas, kindly supplied by Adelina.
Workshops were held in September for Floral Artistry, one for beginners and another for those who wanted to proceed further from the 2024 workshop. Both were well attended and some beautiful final results were shared in the newsletter by the students.
Guest speakers during the year included:
Nicki Walker from NE Waste who expanded on her previous talk to us about recycling.
Carole Gamble who spoke about plants that are happy in shade, having moved to a 1/4 acre block with some large trees already established. She also had some sample native plants from Miss Tree Nursery in Mullumbimby. It was a very informative talk that went on to group discussion of other plants that enjoy shade.
Dr John Grant, a soil expert who lectures at Southern Cross University, spoke about soil related research, soil interpretation and land and soil mapping.
Phil Dudman spoke about spring and summer vegetables. He raises new veggies from seed in a portable greenhouse. Full details of his suggestions and tips and procedures are listed in September minutes. It would seem that he has extensive knowledge of most vegetables and how to grow them.
Club members, Lesley Player presented on propagating and maintaining Salvias & Steven Wedd imparted some of his extensive knowledge on all things Begonia.
In October Bruce Tom, Stephen Wedd, Hazel Sowerby, Marie Lou, and
Sue Barrett brought along their favourite garden tool, items that are either labour saving or back/knee/hand saving and of great interest to our members.
Garden visits
With 2025 being an extremely wet year, some of our garden visits were cancelled, however some went ahead as planned, namely:
15th February, to Gayle and Rick Hultgren garden
5th April , to Ian and Elspeth Lacey garden
10th May to Vicki Brookes Gretel Farm garden. Sadly, last year’s visit was cancelled due to rain.
7th June to Parkers Nursery
July’s garden visit was deferred. It was Suzie Johnson’s garden. Suzie very graciously offered, for anyone interested, to visit informally and possibly take cuttings as her home was on the market.
16th August Nature’s Decor Alstonville Garden Centre – Stephen Powell welcomed members and showed us around the beautifully plant gardens, retail and wholesale production areas.
4th October is to Piccabeen Park, Bangalow. Lynn gave a tour and explained the history of the park and recent improvements, then Noelene from Landcare explained the riparian improvements and regeneration works.
Plants of the Month. Further detail on each of these can be found in the newsletter for the relevant month.
February
Galphimia glauca, also known as Rain of Gold, Golden Showers, Thryallis
and Shower of Gold, a lovely perennial flowering shrub 1.8-3m x .500 -1m high, native to Central America.
March
Aster.
Asters, commonly known as Michaelmas daisies are members of the Asteraceae family
April
Plectranthus
Plants from the Plectranthus genus have been widely used in our gardens as useful plants for shade or partly shaded areas. Belonging to Lamiaceae family, many have pleasant minty fragranced foliage. The foliage of others is not so pleasant. They are commonly known as Spur Flower.
May
Glorious garlic: A stinking good guide to success – By Kirsten Crombie
When the rain won’t drain: Restoring soggy soil – By Kirsten Crombie
June
Crowea and Correa
Winter is normally a very quiet time for plants that provide colour in the form of flowers.
Some of our prettiest winter flowering plants are native to our country.
Correas and Croweas are two genera of flowering plants belonging to the Rutaceae family (citrus family). They are often grown in gardens for their ornamental value, with their attractive flowers, fragrance and evergreen foliage.
August
Rhodoleia championii – Hong Kong Rose, with its deep pink blooms – and which is not a rose at all! It is a small evergreen tree or large shrub growing to about 12m, and is a member of the Hamamelidaceae family. It is native to China, Bhutan, Vietnam and Napal.
September
Lawn and order: Restoring soggy grass to glory! Lots of tips on how to do this.
October
Citrus
Adelina shared an article from Katherine Krosby, who generously allowed us to
include her wonderful work in our newsletter. A big thank you to Katherine for her
contribution!
The year wrapped up with a healthy bank balance as at the end of September and 64 members present at the final meeting