February 2023

We had our first garden club meeting for 2023 on the 1 February with 63 members.  It was so nice to see so many members returning for another great year of guest speakers, auctions, plants, afternoon teas and so much more.  Co-President Rosemary Edwards welcomed all and joked that it was the Year of the Rabbit and may the rabbits stay out of our gardens.

We welcomed 3 new members to our club and we hope that they enjoy our convivial club.

Our new Bus Trip co-ordinator Stephen advised the meeting that a bus trip is being organised to Tenterfield’s Glenrock Gardens and Ivy Leaf Chapel for the 6 May 2023.  These gardens are beautiful and it will be a very enjoyable excursion.

Our member Gayle told us of the “dangers” of planting Hypoestes, Polka Dot Plant in gardens in our region as it is extremely invasive and very hard to eradicate.

Once again the plants displayed for the Flora of the Month were amazing and such a tribute to the people caring for them.  Marie introduced:

• Carol Lea – Anopterus macleayanus, Macleay Laurel, a native shrub or small tree the QLD and NSW. Attractive leaves and white waxy flowers; Tibouchina organensis ‘Blue Moon’ – a shrub to 1.5m x 1.5m; Scabiosa grown from seed from Lesley Player
• Beth Noble – Ornithogalum arabicum, Black Pearl Lily or Arabs Eyes.
• Lesley Player – Lagerstroemia speciosa, Pride of India, native to southern tropical Asia, medium to large tree with large purplish-violet flowers
• Ian Lacey – Hoya, climber with waxy flowers. Ian showed us the stem cuttings, laid along the ground with roots coming from the nodes
• Judy Baker – Hibiscus schizopetalus, with attractive red frilled petals
• Jim Parsons– Dendrobium Sweet Kisses a beautiful orchid
• Jim Parsons– Cattleya Rth Guanmiau City ‘Black flower’ with a large perfumed crimson/purple flower. Jim has owned the Cattleya for 20 years and flower has lasted for 3 weeks.
• Steven Wedd –Dahlia ‘Casino Barry’ with very large blooms
• Joan Neate – Chinese ground orchid, Bletilla striata a beautiful easy care terrestrial orchid with lovely lilac blooms

The auction was so much fun with Steven Wedd as auctioneer.

Margaret introduced the first guest speaker for the year.  Noelene Plummer from the Bangalow Land & Creek Care.  This Landcare group was started 25 yrs ago after a fish kill in the creek.

The group aims to restore the vegetation along 6km of creek, in 5 sites, from the highway to Binnaburra, including wetland and riparian zones.  She spoke about the whole catchment approach in order to stabilize the stream banks, filter sediments and hold soil and the various native planting used to hold the soil.  This Landcare group is always looking for volunteers to work with the group, interested people should email bangalowlandcare@gmail.com.

Margaret thanked Noelene and donated $200 to Bangalow Land & River Care

Margaret advised that the March meeting’s speaker will be Linda Sparrow from Bangalow Koalas

• Afternoon tea was a great time to catch up with friends with the food made by the committee members was delicious.