About 140 gardening friends, including invited guests Pat Pryor, past editor of Our Gardens magazine and George Hoad, president of Gardens Clubs of Australia, were welcomed by Gloucester’s past president Shirley Hazell.

George gave a most enjoyable presentation on successful Garden Club biennial conventions across Australia since the first one at The Menzies Hotel in Sydney, 50 years ago this year. The next one will be on heritage-listed Norfolk Island from October 14-18, 2019. Details will be available in late October.

Pat Pryor spoke of her interesting experiences as editor over many years until her retirement, after Issue 72. She showed some pictures of her favourite gardens from around the world, including the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens proclaimed in 1838.

Sharon Blanch organised few of the members into a Guess the Flower skit which finished with George’s rendition of the song The Sound of Music.

Several other items of interest were presented, including a Show and Tell of plants from the various visiting Clubs, the Killabakh Club’s bus trip to the Kariong area from September 22-24, the Dig Gloucester event during National Gardening Week being held as part of the Destination Gloucester Weekend on October 13-14,  Magaret Blamires’suggestions as to what to do in your garden in August and Bruce Barnes’ membership report noting that we now have 111 Gloucester members. Multiple Raffle and Lucky Door prizes of beautiful plants were won and the Membership Draw of $40 went to Brian Hardwick.   

The Narraweema Gardens this month will be tended by Margaret Blamires and Anne Williamson. The next regular meeting will be held at Shirley and Peter Hazell’s garden at 87 Barrington Street, Gloucester on Wednesday, August 22, from 10am.