CHGC Newsletter No. 121 Sep 2016
- 1. 8 CHGC Newsletter No. 121 September 2016 Changes to our meeting venue will be advised in the newsletter, our website and on facebook. Any cancellations to outings will be advised in the same manner. Sat 1 Oct Woopi Orchid and Spring Fair at the Woolgoolga Public School Wed 5 Oct 9:15am Airside Garden Maintenance @ Coffs Regional Airport. Meet outside the Admin Building with gloves & tools. Thu 6 Oct 9:30am Outing to Bello—full details on web and page 7 of this newsletter Fri 14 Oct Closing date for Garden Clubs of Australia photo competition— see their website for full details or check out the link on the side panel of our website. Sat 15 Oct 1:30pm Monthly Meeting—Guest Speaker: Tini Sochon on looking after our bodies whilst gardening. Wed 2 Nov 9:15 Airside Garden Maintenance @ Coffs Regional Airport. Meet outside the Admin Building with gloves & tools Sat 19 Nov 1:30pm Please, please consider taking on a role. Some of us are getting a bit tired and there is a need for fresh faces on the Executive and Committees, contact Geoff 6656 2429. Sat 26 Nov Bunnings BBQ—This is our major fundraising event of the year and money raised for this assists with the running of the Spring Garden Competition. Simon Young 0417 526 522 will be the co -ordinator for this event. Tue 6 Dec 12 noon Club Xmas Party Greenhouse Tavern, Coffs—Payment and RSVP to Treasurer by the AGM meeting on 19 November $20 per member, $33.50 for non members Meetings are held the 3rd Sat of the month (Jan-Nov) and commence at 1:30pm, Botanic Garden Display Room, Hardacre St, Coffs Harbour Any meeting venue changes will be advised in the newsletter, CHGC website and on facebook. CHGC welcomes anyone who has great ideas on how to meet the needs of our membership. Please call Geoff if you would like more information on the various roles within the Club or to discuss your ideas T:6656 2429. President: Geoff Bell 6656 2429 email: [email protected] Secretary: Michael Reid 6650 9485 email: [email protected] Treasurer: Anne-Maree Ely 6656 4229 email: [email protected] www.coffsgardenclub.com Editor: Maria Bell 6656 2429 Email contributions/feedback to: [email protected] Coffs Harbour Garden Club Inc. Newsletter Number 121 September 2016
- 2. 2 CHGC Newsletter No. 121 September 2016 FLOWER OF THE MONTH October—Waratah Waratah blooms are a symphony of curved florets, cupped by a skirt of petal-like bracts. If you think of waratahs, deep blood-red is the common image, but over the years the colour choice has expanded and today you can enjoy varieties in pure white, pink and soft golden yellow. All are gorgeous, and well worthy of a space in your garden. Waratahs are mainly spring flower- ing, evergreen shrubs, occasionally reaching small tree size in the wild. They belong to a very small genus of plants, just 5 species and are endemic to NSW, Vic and Tassie. Telopea x corroboree is a dense, medium/large shrub with broad grey-green foliage and large flat flower heads providing nectar for honey eating birds. It is a cross between Telopea speciosissima and Telopea mongaensis, giving this plant great hybrid vigour. A great feature shrub for general garden beds, rockeries or large container in full sun to part shade and a fantastic cut flower. The NSW Waratah, (Telopea speciosissima) is the best known species—it is the floral emblem of NSW and is grown commercially for its superb cut flowers. Like all members of the Proteaceae family they are highly sensitive to phosphorus, so best to use a fertilizer low in phosphorus—a good native slow release one should work well. NSW Waratah THOUGHT FOR THE MONTH Pleasure is the flower that passes; remembrance, the lasting perfume. Jean de Boufflers 7 Outing—Thursday 6 October The Program Committee have organized an absolute ripper of an outing for October to Bellingen. Meet: Botanic Garden to carpool (or The Rose Patch at 10:15am) Departure time: 9:30am VISIT: The Rose Patch, 63 Reids Road, Bellingen About this destination—Until 1987 this 4ha garden was part of the Kethel’s dairy farm and the only existing plants besides grass and bracken fern were a clump of Callicoma in the gully, a mature Tallowood and an Ironbark. What had been difficult terrain for farming turned out to be an asset for the creation of an interesting garden with hills lending themselves to natural display areas. Ulrieke & Ian Kethel operate the property as a B&B and they have created a magnificent garden that features roses, day lilies and hippeastrums (which they also sell—good retail opportunity!). BYO morning tea overlooking the wonderful vista of this garden (hot water provided). Directions: (from Bellingen town centre) turn right into Bridge St, cross the river and follow to left as Bridge St becomes Hammond St. At roundabout, take 3rd exit to Wheatly St, which after a distance becomes North Bank Rd, travel about 1km; Turn left into Hydes Creek Rd, travel about 2.5kms; Turn right into Reids Rd and look for Rose Patch at number 63. VISIT: North Bank Community Garden, 100 Northbank Rd, Bellingen. We are planning to arrive here around 11:30am. This should be easy to find given we drove past it on the drive out to the Rose Patch. LUNCH: Old Butter Factory, Cnr Waterfall Way and Doepel St, Bellingen. The Program Committee are looking forward to an enjoyable day. See you then. Please give one of the committee gals a call if you need a lift or have any questions. Sue Young 0413 883 831 Jane Durler 6656 1041 Pat Roser 6690 2511 Marg Franks 6656 0941 Thanks Sue for the Outing Details.
- 3. 6 CHGC Newsletter No. 121 September 2016 Due to family illness a huge collection of plants is being sold off before a move north. Brian Newman is a renowned orchid and bromeliad grower of great repute. Brian would like for his plants to go to homes where they will continue to be nurtured and loved. Brian has been the President of the Woolgoolga Orchid Society for some time so there is bound to be some absolute beauties up for sale. If you are interested in purchasing some plants please just give Brian a call on 6654 1432. Quiz Answers 1. Photoperiodsim is defined in plants as the developmental response to relative lengths of light and dark periods. 2. Typical short day plant would be the poinsettia. Because of this, producers manipulate or mimic winter growing conditions by the use of shades to block out the light. 3. A classic long day plant is the carnation and this is also manipulated to produce flowers during the winter by the use of artificial light to mimic the long days of summer. 4. Vernalisation is the number of chilling hours below 7o C that a plant has before blossoms are produced—eg cherries, plums etc Toormina High ‘Coffee in the Courtyard’ During the judging of the Snowpea Teepee Competition President Geoff and I visited many schools throughout the Coffs Area. One of these schools was Toormina High School Support Unit. The Support Unit conduct a ‘Coffee in the Courtyard’ twice a term to assist students with disabilities to learn vocational skills. They extended an invitation for members of Coffs Garden Club to attend— apparently there will be music as well. The dates for this term are Thu 3 Nov & Thu 1 Dec 10am—2pm. The CHGC Nov outing is on Fri the 4th and our Xmas Party is on Tue 6th Dec, so both of these dates are free of CHGC activities. Would any members like to attend on either of these two days? It is my intention to go in November and would love to have some company to support Toormina High. It was wonderful to see their vegetable garden and feel sure others would appreciate their efforts too. Phone Maria 6656 2429 or (M) 0418 695 113 3 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE – SEPTEMBER 2015 The rain that’s falling as I write this has been really soft and nice for our gardens, although I guess it wasn’t helpful to those people wanting to take a look at the prize winners from the Spring Garden Competition. Anyway, I’m sure this bit of welcome moisture will go a long way to setting up your gardens very nicely as we move quickly towards the warmer months. The September Club meeting means that our Garden Competition has been run and completed for another year and I would like to congratulate everyone who entered, whether you were successful or not. Lots of people have contributed mightily to the success of the competition, and I would like to say, on behalf of all Club members, a massive thankyou to each and every one of you. And a big thanks also to our sponsors, who are absolutely critical to the success of the competition, and ultimately to our Club. And what a great group of sponsors we have. Would you all please take the time to familiarise yourselves with who they are, and if you come across them, please let them know that we appreciate their support and, of course where it’s appropriate, support them with your business in return. I mentioned at the last couple of monthly meetings that we need people to continue putting their hand up to help run our Club. Please remember that every club depends on its members being active and involved, because without that, there really isn’t a club at all. Our Club has a long and successful history in Coffs Harbour, but it is self-evident that no-one from our current membership was around when the club was initially formed. That means successive generations have kept the club alive for some 65 years now, ultimately for our benefit as its current members. I think that benefit comes with a responsibility on all of us to ensure the current and future gardeners of Coffs Harbour will continue to have the opportunity to join a vibrant, broadly-based community gardening organisation where friendships can be made and gardening expertise shared among like-minded people. Our AGM is fast approaching, so whether you’ve been around for a while, or are new to the Club, please consider taking on a job for next year, either on the Executive or perhaps one of the committees. If anyone would like information on any role within the Club, please give me a call on 6656 2429 and I’ll fill you in on what’s involved. President’s Message Geoff Bell
- 4. 4 CHGC Newsletter No. 121 September 2016 1. What is photoperiodism? 2. Can you name a ‘short day plant’? 3. Can you name a ‘long day plant’? 4. What does the term ‘vernalisation’ mean? If you are wanting up-to-date information about our club or activities please visit our website at www.coffsgardenclub.com Wishing the following members a very happy birthday for September: Andrea Baker, Graham Davey, Daphne Douglas, Harry Glynn, Maudje Harman, Robyne Moulds and Noelene Sell (for answers see page 6) A huge thank you to the CHGC team in excellent co -ordination for the Spring Garden Competition Presentation Night. Everything was just perfect from the Hall setup/ breakdown, members who provided wonderful food for the scrummy supper (I think we still hold the title of providing a ‘Great Old Fashioned Supper’), John Staggs for heading up the Cavanbah liaison and award/banner co-ordinator, Margaret Crawley & Jeannine Young for their terrific efforts in organizing the food, Jeannine Young for leading the floral team, Margaret Crawley for the district Trophy collection, Simon being the ‘go -for’ Presentation Awards /Trophies and contributing to the raffle, Peter for the banner handout, Michael for his photography, Mary Booth, Anne-Maree & Tom Ely selling tickets and of course President Geoff for his excellent MC-ing of the night—even when the mic battery ran out of puff he just notched up his volume a bit so the awards went ahead seamlessly. WELL DONE TEAM! It’s just fabulous how we can band together to make this night one befitting an Awards night. This IS an important event for the entrants in the Spring Garden Competition and we, as a club have the responsibility to make it as memorable and special as we can for them. 5 Spring Garden Competition Round Up. Both CHGC and Woolgoolga Garden Club members had great success in the Garden Competition this year. A huge thank you to all members who worked so hard to prepare their gardens for judging and entering the competition. COFFS HARBOUR GARDEN CLUB WINNERS: Tobyn & Jim Tozer— Champion Garden 1st Home garden block from 601m2 to 1000m2 1st Best Garden Feature—pool area Mary Booth— 1st Home garden, owner/occupier of strata/community, dwelling Annette & Laurie Gardner— 2nd Home garden, owner/occupier of strata/community, dwelling 1st Patio, courtyard or balcony garden Ted & Melva Grebert— Highly Commended Home garden maintained by entrant over 75 years of age Mary Duroux— 2nd Home garden on rented property 2nd Most attractive front garden Green Gardens Villas (Peter’s Complex) - 2nd Whole garden of complex operating under a Body Corporate structure Betty Durler— 1st Vegetable Garden, small up to 4m2 Simon Young— 2nd Vegetable Garden, large over 4m2 CHGC— 2nd Coffs Harbour Regional Airport Airside Garden WOOLGOOLGA GARDEN CLUB WINNERS: Judith Jackson— Waterwise A Peter & Yvonne Drysdale— Highly Commended in Home garden, owner/occupier of strata/community dwelling Peg Willmott— 1st Home garden, block size from 1001m2 to 4000m2 2nd Home garden maintained by entrant over 75 years of age Joan Simson— 1st Home garden on rented property Fiona Simmonds— Highly Commended Garden maintained by a disabled person