bowral garden club inc. · harpic ‘white n shine’, a pump action container of sorbolene and a...

address: P.O. Box 910, Bowral NSW 2576 Page|1

Bowral Garden Club Inc. (Established in 1963) Affiliated with The Garden Clubs of Australia Inc. Patrons: Chris & Charlotte Webb OAM

June 2019 Newsletter

From the President

And another year comes to an end, this my

first as President of our Club.

It has sped by and we’ve done a lot and grown

in membership!

Once again we’ve had some great speakers,

Margaret Stuart with ‘The Throsby History’,

Carolyn Dwyer - ‘Roses and Races – Cup

Week in Melbourne’, Elaine Lye – ‘A Year in

my Garden’, Nicholas Bray, Landscape

Architect, Steve Falcioni from Eco Organic

Garden, Kathy Finigan – ‘My Productive

Backyard Garden’, Melanie van Til –

‘Keukenhof Garden’ in the Netherlands and

Simon Grant with his talk on ‘Armenia and

The Caucasus’. Aren’t we a lucky lot and

there’s so much yet to learn.

We’ve also been to some wonderful gardens

both locally and afar. With a trip to the Blue

Mountains and ‘Wildwood’ garden and Mount

Tomah Botanical Gardens, Elaine Lye’s

beautifully peaceful space, 2 suburban Bowral

gardens, thank you Helen and Kristine. Meil

Kroon invited us to her garden with the added

bonus of The Art Trail, one of which is

proudly hanging in my loungeroom and then

we tripped to ‘Prittlewell’ in Fitzroy Falls,

well done Patty.

We changed the pace a bit with a visit to

Cuttaway Hill Wines in February and then to

Kathy Finigan’s property in Wildes Meadow.

And last but not least we have 5th Chapter

Estate Garden on 27 May.

And, our overnight coach trip to Cowra. 32

members braved the roads and had a really

enjoyable time at the Japanese Gardens and

Cultural Centre and Iandra Station. See the

later article.

What’s on in June 3 June (Monday) 2.00pm:

Club Meeting and AGM.

Speaker: Charlotte Webb

**** Change of Venue ****

‘The Camellia Room’ at the Moss

Vale Services Club on the corner of

Argyle and Yarrawa Streets, Moss

Vale

Membership renewals due. Annual

subscription $30.00

Catering is provided, so no need for

contributions for afternoon tea. Also,

we don’t have a trading table at the

AGM, so please save your donations

till the July meeting.

17 June (Monday) 10.30am:

Garden visit to Glenys Lilliendal,

‘Ashgrove’, 26 Eridge ParkRd,

Burradoo

What’s on in July 8 July (Monday) 2.00pm:

Club Meeting. Speaker: Horticulturists

from Wingecarribee Council –

preparation and work behind the scene

for Tulip Festival

22 July (Monday) 10.30am:

Garden visit to Corbett Garden, Bowral

31st July (Wednesday) 12.00 for

12.30pm Luncheon at Scottish Arms

69 Boardman Rd, Bowral


We participated in the Tulip Time Parade

again, with our fancy blue feather boas and

photographs representing the theme of

‘Memories’, this time winning prize money of

$500. Not sure what happened to the

trophy…….

We again celebrated Christmas at ‘Briar’s’

Function Centre. A pleasant lunch, but this

coming year we’re planning something a little

bit different. Stay tuned!

And much more to come……

As you can imagine a program like this takes a

bit of organizing and it couldn’t be done by

only one! So, a very big ‘thank you’ to a

wonderfully collaborative committee. Each

member brings something different to this

group and we all seem to gel, so it’s fun, not

hard work, well, not really hard work! Also,

the committee appreciates the involvement of

all the helpers involved in afternoon tea and

washing up, the trading table and setting up

the hall. And to all members for your general

participation in club activities.

Sadly, after 6 years of dedication, Lorraine

Richardson will be stepping down. Thank you,

Lorraine for a job well done and for your

commitment to the success of our club.

Standing again – Myself, Maryann, Ros, Sue,

Annette, Elaine, Glenys and Judith, all in our

same positions. Sue will also take on

Membership Secretary. Ray Bradley will be

seeking election to our team and I’m sure you

will join the present members of the

committee in welcoming him.

I look forward to another year as President

and I thank you all for your support and kind

words.

Let’s go have fun……

From the Editor

When the trip to Cowra was first planned, I

remembered giving my father a book ‘A Night

of a Thousand Suicides’ - quite some time ago

now, which I later read myself not having

known that Australia held Japanese POW’s

during WW2. 1,104 Japanese soldiers

attempted to escape from the Cowra Prison

Camp resulting in 4 Australian soldiers and 231

Japanese soldiers killed despite the fact that the

soldiers in the Australian camp were not

mistreated. On the contrary, they were well

cared for. From the tragedy of war and the Cowra

Breakout came a long-lasting friendship

between the people of Cowra and the nation of

Japan.

Today we share in the peace and reflection of

the beautiful Japanese Gardens and Cultural

Centre at Cowra.

Friendship through Gardening!

Quote for the Month

‘A garden is a grand teacher.

It teaches patience and careful watchfulness;

It teaches industry and thrift;

Above all it teaches entire trust.’

Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932)


Plant of the Month

There was quite an interest at last Monday’s

meeting with ‘Show and Tell” when Lois

brought in some cuttings of her Medlar tree

(Mespilus Germanica), which belongs to the

Rosaceae family.

A deciduous tree, native of Europe and Asia,

grows to about 5m tall 2m wide, leaves are

oval and can turn red in autumn. Mespilus

Germanica requires warm summers and mild

winters and prefers sunny, dry locations and

slightly acidic soil. Generally, it is shorter and

more shrub-like than tree-like.

In Spring, the

tree produces

lovely white

or pale pink

single style

flowers, fruit

should not be

picked until

autumn.

The fruit has been cultivated since Roman

times, has brown almost rough skin - is round

and up to 2cm x 5cm diameter, flattish, and

should not be eaten until it is soft (bletted).

The flavour similar to pear. Medlar fruit is

used to make chutney, relish etc.

A drought tender tree but frost hardy - can be

grown from seed or cuttings.

THANK YOU, LOIS for bringing this to us!!

Maryann

Muriel’s Musings

Because of a case of writers block I’ve gone

back to July 2011 to fill in the ‘musings’ -

hopefully the new members will relate to my

difficulties and long-time members will

forgive me for repeating the following.

Is it only me?

that just as you sit down with a hot, sweet,

creamy cup of coffee,

* The phone rings?

* That popping little tablets out of medical

packs needs a sharp pointy instrument to break

the seal - then as you tip the little tablet into

the palm of your hand it bounces off and

disappears somewhere on the white vinyl

kitchen floor . They do say that if you pick

anything up from the floor within 5 seconds it

hasn't had time to become contaminated!!

HULLO, I’m talking about a tiny white

tablet on a vast expanse of white floor

and….while in the mood I may as well get

ALL my miffs off my chest

* Why are the tops on the milk cartons so

narrow and difficult to grip and open and why

do they cross thread when you try to screw

them back on?

* What size teaspoon do they use to fill the

sugar sticks that you get at coffee shops - they

only measure a LEVEL teaspoon - so you have

to use 4 of them to get your preferred 2

teaspoons full.

* And those little packets of butter that never

quite cover your slice of ‘Motel Toast’.

* On a recent shopping list I had written - not

necessarily in this order - Jonnie Walker,

Harpic ‘white n shine’, a pump action

container of Sorbolene and a re-fill

for Airwick room freshener, now as Hamlet

said, ‘Here’s the rub’. Back home I couldn't

squeeze the Harpic top hard enough to open it ,

no amount of pulling up or pushing down

delivered any Sorbolene and the

little Airwick - Frangipani and Vanilla

wouldn't fit into the Ambi Pur plug.

Fortunately, the Jonnie Walker cap came

unscrewed first go - but there was no way that

I was going to rub it on my arms and legs, waft

it around the room or slosh it around in the en-

suite.

My wee dram of Jonnie Walker is my evening

pick me up.

Muriel

Thought of the Day from Muriel

Every now and then a sight or sound touches

you and stays with you.

At present I am enjoying waking at 5.30am

and looking out of my east facing bedroom

window, watching the sparkling, beautiful

Morning Star - planet Venus, heralding the

dawn.


Garden Tips for June - Maryanne Hewitt

Now for the bad news - for those who know

where there is an Oriental plane tree - from the

Dept. primary Industries: Stigmina leaf spot on

Platanus orientalis (oriental plane tree) small

1-5mm black spots on the underside of the

leaf, looks like sooty mould and is easily

rubbed off - blackening fingers. Top-side of

leaf can be ‘faded green’ spots or ‘dead’ spots.

It can be right through the whole tree. This is

NOT affecting the London plane tree; Platanus

x acerifolia. If you do find this on a tree,

please contact [email protected].

And from the Council: There is a beetle eating

elm trees (Ulmus) in the area - there is a

programme (carried out by contractors) to

inject elm trees that have signs of the beetle.

The beetle was first found in Victoria in 1989

and last year was detected in the Highlands; it

is an ‘introduced’ species. The larvae of the

beetle emerge in spring to eat the fresh leaves

of the tree. The tree can withstand some of the

attack but repeated attacks will lead to the

death of the tree. Look for leaves that have

‘shot holes’ or look ‘skeletonised’. The adult

beetle is approx. 6mm long, yellow to olive

green in colour with a black stripe along each

side of the back. IF YOU FIND THIS IN

YOUR GARDEN, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR

LOCAL NURSERY OR WSC.

And thirdly, there is something attacking our

glorious Claret Ash - the crown appears to be

the main area of attack and looks like die back.

If you have any Claret Ash in your garden or

nearby, do look to see if the crown of the tree

is at all damaged (leaves) and contact WSC.

You may have seen the WSC media release a

few weeks ago re these matters - it would be a

disaster for the trees in this area (or anywhere

for that matter) to be destroyed - they are so

much of what we take to be the ‘Glorious

Southern Highlands’.

And jobs to do now - just continue with the

notes from last month, now that there have

been a couple of frosts, it makes ‘getting

things done’ a bit more urgent!!!

Happy Gardening! Maryann

Minutes of General Meeting 13th May,

2019

Present: 85 members and 2 visitors

Apologies: Sandy Westwood, Pat O’Boyle,

Bev Andrews, Marilyn Gleeson, Carole Scott,

Susan Hand, Roslyn Taylor, Peta Peter, Carole

Smith, Roz Wootton, Heather Johnston

President Deb Evered opened the meeting at

2pm welcoming members.

Deb introduced our guest speaker Dr. Simon

Grant, a local endocrinologist and passionate

maple tree lover. The club had visited his

stunning garden last year.

He was awarded the Medal of the Order of

Australia (OAM) in June, 2018 for his service

to medicine and particularly to endocrinology.

Simon’s talk on ‘Plants of Georgia and The

Caucasus’ was more a lesson on the history of

the region and discovery of plants and trees

along the way. He took us on a journey

through ancient and wonderous lands steeped

in ancient history and culture. The Caucasus

region is one of the world’s most beautiful and

important biodiversity hotspot, lying between

the Black Sea and Caspian Sea and is

earthquake prone.

This unique region is characterised by

extremes in altitude, broad variations in

climate, soil and vegetative conditions which

combine to form a wide range of landscapes,

from semi-desert to high altitude tundra, from

alpine meadow to deep forest.

The flora of the Caucasus includes many

ancient species. Notable relict species include

endemic rhododendrons and Persian ironwood.

The region also harbors a remarkable

concentration of economically important

plants, particularly wild crop relatives such as

wheat, rye and barley, as well as nuts and

fruits like walnuts, apricots and apples.

Maryann Hewitt presented Simon with a gift

and thanked him for his fascinating talk.

Minutes:

The minutes of the April 2019 meeting were

printed in the May newsletter.

Motion: that the minutes be accepted as a true

record of the meeting

Proposed: Jenny Clegg

Seconded: Mary Mowbray


Correspondence In:

❖ Card from Margie Charlwood from

Curly’s Compost thanking the Club for

the card and kind words. She says she is

on the mend and back to bagging

❖ A ‘Save the Date’ from Crookwell

Garden Festival to be held 9 & 10

November, 2019

❖ Receipt for the annual payment of

Bowral Garden Club domain name

❖ myopengarden – upcoming events

notice – see the noticeboard

❖ Flyer from Panania Free Rangers

advertising a ‘Harvest Festival’ on Sat.

25th May at 7.00pm for the Launch and

the Eco Market and Judging with be on

Sunday 26th May at Panania Public

School

❖ Flyer from the NSW Camellia Research

Society Inc. for the 50th Annual

Camellia Show to be held at

Ravenswood School for Girls at Gordon

on Sat 13th & Sun 14th July

❖ Flyer for a presentation by Fergus

Garrett The Dynamic Plantsman to be

held Saturday 16th November at

Annesley, Bowral speaking on ‘Planting

Combinations Successional Planting

Dixter Through the Seasons.’ Enjoy the

infectious enthusiasm and wild energy

of Fergus Garrett - international guest

speaker who is head gardener at Great

Dixter

❖ 4 x Winter Edition of ‘Our Gardens’

from The Garden Clubs of Australia

❖ Flyer from the Garden History Society –

‘An Autumn Seminar’ to be held

Sunday 19th May, 2-4 pm

Correspondence Out: none

Treasurer's Report:

The financial report was read, proposed by Sue

Ciscato and seconded by Pam Cornett

Welcome Gift to New Members: Deb

presented new members Jennifer Woodwell,

Tina Burgess, Beverley Clayton, Carl Gorsuch

and Teresa Miller with a welcome gift, then

Muriel Stuart welcomed them to the Club

General Business:

❖ The bus trip to Cowra was a smashing

success. Deb thanked Ray for all his

work in organising the trip

❖ Roster to set up chairs before the

meeting – we have 3 members so far. A

thankyou to Valerie Heaton for setting

up all the chairs for this month’s

meeting

❖ Thank you to Maryann Hewitt who had

arranged for a bunch of native flowers

to be laid at the Bowral Memorial for

Anzac Day

❖ Deb mentioned we had a website

enquiry from New Zealand

❖ AGM will be on 3 June in the ‘Camellia

Room’ in the Moss Vale Services Club

at usual time of 2pm. Afternoon tea will

be provided so don’t bring a plate and

set up is not needed. If you haven’t paid

your subs today, they will be due on 3rd

June. This can be done by direct debit,

cash or cheque. If using direct debiting

please note change of account number

❖ Sandra Regtop from the Southern

Highlands branch of The Royal Society

of NSW brought to our attention an up-

coming lecture on the ‘Importance of a

Seed Bank’ by Dr. Damian Wrigley

from ANU Botanic Gardens to be held

Thursday 16th May – see Sandra after

the meeting if interested

❖ A follow on from last month’s talk –

Meredith (Melanie Van Til’s mother)

phoned Deb so she could have a chat

with Muriel. She will catch up for tea

with Muriel soon

Show and Tell:

❖ Jonquil Temple spoke briefly of her trip

to India and brought in a quilt she had

purchased which had been made from

saris. She had a fantastic time and

would recommend the trip to anyone

interested

❖ Annette Lane had brought in her

Miltassia orchid a delightful purple

coloured spider-like orchid.

❖ Lois Morrison had brought in some

cuttings of her Medla tree for anyone

who was interested in planting. They

have beautiful white flowers

Lucky Door Prize: Lucky door prize won by:

1. Miel Kroon 2. Maureen Lynch

3. Alison Durbin

Any Other Business:

❖ Maryann Hewitt spoke of disease

affecting the oriental plane tree. More

on this in the newsletter

Next Meeting: 3rd June, 2019 at 2 pm, The

‘Camellia Room’ at the Moss Vale Services

Club on the corner of Argyle and Yarrawa

Streets, Moss Vale

Guest speaker: Charlotte Webb


Your Committee

President: Deb Evered 48621407

Vice-President: Maryann Hewitt 0431717634

Secretary: Rosalyn Mulligan 48713667

Treasurer: Sue Ciscato 48713732

Membership: Lorraine Richardson 4801 2741

Public Officer: Maryann Hewitt 0431717634

Welfare Officer Maryann Hewitt 0431717634

Committee: Elaine Lye, Glenys Lilliendal,

Judith Lewis, Annette Lane

Website: bowralgardenclub.com

Newsletter Editor: Rosalyn Mulligan Newsletter articles can be emailed to:

[email protected]

Welfare Officer

Please contact Maryann Hewitt at the

meeting or by mobile phone 0431717634 to

notify the Club of a member’s change of

circumstance and welfare. Thank you

1. Miltassia/Miltonia

2. Miltassia/Shelob

3. Miltassia/Charles M. Fitch 1


Cowra Bus Trip

Early to the bus and some of us leaving sad

husbands behind…however will they cope?

This was a friendly trip and we were joined by

members of the Mittagong and Goulburn

Garden Clubs.

Our first stop after morning tea, was the

Cowra Japanese Gardens and Cultural Centre.

Typically sculptured with green being the

dominant hue. I found these gardens

particularly serene. The peace and quiet was

tangible and the wildlife kept most people

occupied …..feeding them. How those ducks

don’t burst, I’ve no idea!

We wandered in groups and singles with

people taking time to photograph specimens,

view the Tea House, or just sit and listen to the

running water or the silence.

Lunch in the café consisted of sandwiches and

freshly baked scones.

We went on to visit the Prisoner of War

Campsite and getting to be late in the

afternoon, it was easy to imagine how bitter

and miserable this place would have been in

the middle of Winter when a mixture of

Japanese, Italian and Indonesian prisoners

were kept here.


A fun night ensued and what happens on

tour stays on tour….apparently!

Then on Wednesday morning it was off to

Iandra Station in Greenthorpe, a small

dwelling not far from Cowra. This was an

unknown factor for most of us and it turned

out to be a truly interesting experience. We

were given a talk on the history of the “castle”

and how it came to be established in the

middle of nowhere as a wheat farm and then a

Methodist Boys Home. The property continues

to be farmed today and the house is opened to

the public throughout the year.

The house itself was built 1908-1910 and is an

exceptional example of reinforced concrete

construction. It has been lovingly restored and

furnished throughout with period furniture.

The stained-glass windows are fabulous and as

you walk through the mansion you can

imagine the boys running through the corridors

and lining up for breakfast. Or maybe that’s

just me!

It was a great visit.

So we plodded our way home and when

afternoon tea was mentioned, it was greeted

with a groan. I

think we’d had

our fill……..

Thanks Ray, well

organised.

bowral garden club inc. · harpic ‘white n shine’, a pump action container of sorbolene and a...

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