January 2024

Welcome to the first meeting of 2024

It is always nice to reacquaint ourselves with existing members, meet new members and talk about what we did over the break.

The Moller pavilion was awash plants for the auction and beautiful dahlias for Flora of the Month.  Our members outdid themselves with their generosity.

After welcoming all,  including our new members, our co-President Rosemary introduced the 2024 committee members and described them as the heartbeat of the club and ‘simply the best’.

Our co-President Diana introduced a few new initiatives that we will be implementing in the New Year.  She advised that membership badges would now be the responsibility of individual members and must be brought with them to the meetings, Saturday open garden visits, bus trips and other club events.  She introduced a very exciting initiative; workshops that will be available to members and conducted by subject matter experts within the club.

Flora of the month saw Steven, our dahlia grower, displaying a selection of beautiful dahlias that he and his brother have cultivated.  These included Bangalow Ruby, single, collarette and ball dahlias.  He also showed a gorgeous large pink dahlia which was named Casino Barry.  Anthony Hillin showed some lovely roses; the highly perfumed David Austen’s Windemere and the beautiful Jude the Obscure.

The first guest speaker for 2024 was our own member and ex-co President Adelina who spoke about indoor plants, their increasing popularity and the vast variety that is now available not only from nurseries but from Bunnings and other stores. She spoke about the ones that she has found to be most successful for her; what is required to keep indoor plants healthy and happy; diseases and pests and more.  We thank her for her presentation.

The Auction was conducted by our new auctioneer Steven and was a great success.  The variety of plants presented was truly unbelievable.  The auction is the clubs main form of fund raising and the generosity of our members is so much appreciated.

The committee members provided the afternoon tea and they outdid themselves.  Afternoon tea is a highlight of our meetings and is such as great way to meet new members and get to know the other members of the club.  The thing that unites us all is a love of plants