Monthly newsletter of Coffs Garden Club

1. 8
CHGC Newsletter No. 117 May 2016
Changes to our meeting venue will be advised in the newsletter,
our website and on facebook. Any cancellations to outings and
airport gardening will be advised in the same manner.
Sun 29 May Emerald Beach Fair you can see information about this event
at: http://emeraldbeachfair.info/
Wed 1 Jun
9:15am
Air-side Garden Maintenance @ Coffs Regional Airport
Meet outside the Admin Building with gloves & tools
Thu 2 June
9:30am
Outing—meet at the Botanic Garden for carpooling.
Visit: Member Mary Booth’s @ 1/21 Cornish Street
(off Thomsons Rd) where we’ll also have morning tea.
Visit: Recycling Facility, Englands Road
Lunch: Hidden Link, Hogbin Drive, Toormina (full details page 7)
Sat 11 Jun &
Sun 12 Jun
Maleny Garden Club’s ‘Gardening on the Edge’ Open Gardens
6 country gardens open plus garden market, plant stalls plus
lots and lots more. Info www.malenygardenclub.org
Sat 18 Jun
1:30pm
Meeting Botanic Garden Display Room
Steve McGrane, sustainable gardening
Wed 6 Jul
9:15am
Air-side Garden Maintenance @ Coffs Regional Airport
Meet outside the Admin Building with gloves & tools
Thu 7 Jul Outing—meet at Botanic Garden for morning tea and car pool-
ing. Visit Studio 101 Engraved Glass at Sandy Beach.
Visit: Peg Wilmott’s vast garden at Woolgoolga
Lunch: Seaview Tavern Woolgoolga
Fri 8—Sun
10 Jul
Qld Garden Expo at Nambour you can see information about
this event at: http://www.qldgardenexpo.com.au/
Sat 13 Aug Mid-North Coast Zone Day at South West Rocks $30 pp
There is to be bus transport which will be subsidised by CHGC
the cost of which will depend on numbers. Please mark your
calendar with this date as it should be a great day.
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: presidentchgc@gmail.com
Secretary: Michael Reid 6650 9485
email: secretarychgc@gmail.com
Treasurer: Anne-Maree Ely 6656 4229
email: treasurerchgc@gmail.com
www.coffsgardenclub.com
Editor: Maria Bell 6656 2429
Email contributions/feedback to:
coffsharbourgardenclub@gmail.com
Coffs Harbour
Garden Club Inc.
Newsletter Number 117
May 2016

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CHGC Newsletter No. 117 May 2016
FLOWER OF THE MONTH
June—Camellia
Although Camellias will always be
associated principally with Japanese
culture, some 75% of the world's 100
odd species originate from China,
nearby islands and the Indo-Chinese
peninsula. These handsome, woody
plants (and sometimes, trees) are
not only prized for their wonderful
blooms, but their glossy leaves
which are used in floral arrangements to great effect.
The flowers of the vast majority are neither large nor spectacular but
are about 4cm in diameter and plain white. Even smaller for the
genus C. sinensis the leaves of which make what we know as tea.
A small number of C. japonica first hit the shores of England in the ear-
ly 18th century and their blooms immediately caught the fancy of
nurserymen, so much so the varieties of C. japonica have swelled to
over 30,000 varieties!
C. sasanqua, a slender, densely foliaged shrub or tree perhaps grows
best here on the Coffs Coast. It has lightly fragrant blooms enjoying
our higher temperatures and can be grown in full sun, blooming in the
autumn.
C. japonica, C. reticulata and C. chrysantha will grow here but prefer to
be protected from the sun in deep, neutral to slightly acid soil
(reproducing their natural forest surroundings of shade, good drainage
and humidity).
++ There is more information on coffsgardenclub.com Including
growing problems and solutions.++
THOUGHT FOR THE MONTH
The work of a garden bears visible fruits—in a world where
most of our labours seem suspiciously meaningless.
Pam Brown
7
Outing Thursday June 2nd
We’ll start the day by carpooling from the Botanic Gardens
leaving at 9.30. Our first stop is at 1/21 Cornish Street, Coffs
Harbour. Just down the road from the golf club. It’s off
Thomson’s Rd. This is Mary Booth’s beautiful little garden
and we will be having morning tea there. So bring your cuppa!
Next we will be travelling to the Waste Management Depot
to have a tour of the recycling and composting sections. This
is on Englands Rd, just near where the old Bunnings was.
Then a delicious lunch will be waiting for us to feast on at
the Hidden Link Café, 631 Hogbin Drive, Toomina. We will
need to give them approximate numbers for lunch so please
let one of the committee know if you are coming.
Marg Franks 0421 366 013
Pat Roser 6690 2511
Jane Durler 0411 160 784
Sue Young 0413 883 831
Please remember to mark
your diaries for the Mid-North
Coast Zone Day Sat
13 August. This looks as
though it will be a fabulous day of ‘Friendship through Gardens’ with demos,
keynote speaker Paul Dalley (who is an exporter of Australian flora), trading
tables, wonderful morning tea and lunch, silent auction and raffle.
The cost for the bus will be subsidized by CHGC (bus cost will be advised
closer to the time). The actual Zone Day event cost is $30pp.

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CHGC Newsletter No. 117 May 2016
1. Mrs Janet Heyden.
2. Chrysanthemum.
3. Mother of pearl.
4. A mummy!
5. James Whistler.
6. ABBA.
7. The Mamas and the Papas.
8. Gin.
9. Eric Clapton.
10. Carnation.
Gavin was away for the May meeting because he
was sunning himself and partaking good food and
excellent coffee from the café culture at Noosa (we
are not at all jealous Gavin ;-)
His Bat Plant presentation was so good it was
decided to give it another airing. The full
presentation can be seen on the club website:
www.coffsgardenclub.com
The May outing to member Kris’ garden, the tube stock place and then the
lunch at Beachstone Café was a resounding success with over 20 people
attending. It was a sparkling Coffs Coast Day and many thanks to the
Program Committee for organising such a terrific outing.
Quiz Answers:
Jane Durler did another really interesting slideshow
presentation at the May meeting this time on
Bougainvillea plants.
To see full presentation please visit the CHGC
website at www.coffsgardenclub.com
3
As most of you would know, it’s been my wish for quite
some time to include more “gardening” into our monthly
meetings, and I think we are really starting to get a great
template going in that regard.
Last Saturday’s meeting is a case in point, where we again
enjoyed Gavin’s presentation on bat plants, even though he
wasn’t physically with us to answer questions, and we also
enjoyed Jane’s very informative presentation on growing
Bougainvillea. As usual, Maria has put both these presentations onto the Club
website, so if you need to know more about either of these types of plant, go
to www.coffsgardenclub.com and simply scroll down to the particular post and
click to open the full presentations. And don’t forget there are also lots of
posts about other gardening topics that Maria has put on the website – to find
them just go to the search box on the website home page and type in what
you’re looking for.
We are also fortunate to have received a very interesting and informative
demonstration on the propagation of plants by Paul Sullivan from Coastal
Works. I know many of you are already expert propagators, but for those who
are not (like me), Paul’s talk was a mine of useful information. So a big thanks
to Paul, and to the Program Committee for arranging his talk. I know the
Program Committee has also arranged a number of equally interesting
speakers for our upcoming meetings, which I’m sure everyone is looking
forward to.
And talking of interesting speakers, Paul Dalley, who is the keynote presenter
at the 2016 Zone Day Celebration at SW Rocks, is sure to impress. Paul
grows eastern Australian native cut flowers on a commercial basis near
Kempsey, particularly Christmas Bush, Flannel Flowers, Banksia, Gymea Lily
and Christmas Bells. Hopefully our club will have a plenty of members going
along to hear Paul’s talk and to participate in what promises to be a great day.
There’s more detail on the Zone Day later in this newsletter, and a full briefing
will be provided at the June Club meeting.
President’s Message
Geoff Bell

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CHGC Newsletter No. 117 May 2016
1. Who is mainly attributed with establishing Mother’s Day in Australia?
2. What flower in Australia is synonymous with Mother’s Day?
3. What sort of mother might you find inside an oyster?
4. What sort of mother might you find inside a pyramid?
5. Which painter is principally famous for a portrait of his mother?
6. Who sang the 1976 number 1 single ‘Mamma Mia’?
7. Who sang the original version of the 1965 hit ‘California Dreamin’?
8. Which alcoholic spirit is known as ‘Mother’s Ruin’?
9. Which rock star grew up believing his mother to be his sister?
10. What flower is associated with Mother’s Day in America?
(for answers see page 6)
If you are wanting up-to-date information about our club or activities
please visit our website at www.coffsgardenclub.com
This month it’s all about Mothers!
COFFS COAST FLORAL ART GROUP
CHGC are sponsoring the
establishment of a Floral Art
Group on the Coffs Coast.
There will be an inaugural
meeting on Sunday 7 August at
the Botanic Garden Display
Room at 1pm. At this meeting
Judith Little will be giving a
workshop. Judith is undoubtedly
one of Australia’s most talented floral artists and we feel so grateful
that she has agreed to travel down from Maclean to facilitate this
group. If you know anyone who may be interested please pass this
information on.
5
The Coffs Harbour Community
Recycling Centre is a FREE
community drop off point for
household problem waste ma-
terials like E waste (tv’s, comput-
ers, printers, keyboards etc), gas
bottles, fire extinguishers, paint
(oil and water based), fluro
globes and tubes, car and household batteries, motor, cooking and other oils,
smoke detectors, household cleaners and chemicals, pesticides and herbi-
cides, flammables (old fuel, turps, kero etc). This Recycling Centre facility can
be found quite easily at the Englands Road Waste Management Facility.
Wishing these members a very happy birthday:
Marie & Maria Bell, Rosalie Smoljo and Gaye Tarry
Congratulations to all the CHGC members who entered competitions in the
2016 Coffs Harbour Show held 23-24 April. Special mention has to be made
to member Helen Kayser who had the Champion Cut Flower, a wonderful
Ginger—well done Helen! Margaret Crawley had great success with 10 prizes
from her entries in the Papercraft Section. I realise there are other CHGC
members who received prizes however, there were no results posted to the
Show website for me to list them I apologise for not making special mentions.
Our Club is very proud of its involvement in the Coffs Show and ‘Thank You’ is
extended to all who helped conduct the Flowers, Pots, Floral Art and Fruit,
Vegie & Honey Sections—this may have been as a Steward, with setup or
breakdown or manning these areas during the Show. Without you, these
sections wouldn’t be the highlight of the Pavilion that they are. Of course a
HUGE special thanks goes to the CHGC Chief Steward, Marg Franks for her
tireless work before, during and after the show.
Peter Kimber (in his role as Pavilion Co-ordinator) has to be given
congratulations too—the Show Society are very fortunate to have a volunteer
so giving of their time and energy.
Member Margaret Crawley had an extremely busy time leading up to and
during the Show as Pavilion (or Exhibition Hall) Chief Steward. Margaret was
responsible for all the competitions across the whole Hall and what an
excellent job she did too!
Well done team CHGC!!
Anyone looking for cement rings to go around trees? Member
Denise Burley has some to sell at $5 each. Please call 6691 3969
for pickup details.