Mosman Garden Club Programme listing Guest Speakers for 2025 meeting

Click HERE to find out what happens at a Mosman Garden Club Meeting.

Club Competitions Guidelines 2025 Club Competition Guidelines.

For those keen to join in the fun, the Club Competition commences with the March meeting. It’s a good chance to show off your current garden favourites and is also a guide to what does well in Sydney climate and soils, so well worth a look even if you are not exhibiting.

There are five categories of exhibits on the competition table, some of which are further broken down into sub-categories. Category Sub-Category 1. Cut Flowers a. 1 cut b. 3 cuts c. 1 or 3 cuts from a foliage plant

2. Plants in Containers a. Foliage plants and ferns in pots b. Flowering plants in pots

3. Floral Display Seasonal theme: Autumn, Winter, Spring.

4. Fruit and Vegetables a. Fruit/vegetables including citrus (1 unit) b. Bundle of herbs (3 cuts, mixed varieties)

5. Australian Natives This may be flowers, cut foliage or container plants.

Aside from these categories, the club has only 2 rules in respect of exhibiting: 1. Except for Floral Display, the exhibitor must have grown exhibits for at least 3 months. 2. Cut flowers should be displayed in the club’s vases.

Members and judges at meetings are available to help if you are not sure in which category your exhibit fits so please ask if you are uncertain. If exhibiting please locate your name tag from amongst the laminated tags provided and place it face down beside your exhibit in the appropriate category, along with the name of your plant, face up! (Blank slips of paper and pencils are available for this purpose too.) Floral Display may be as simple as a posy of flowers and/or foliage or a more formal design as inspired by the season. Please try to have exhibits ready by 7 pm so that judges are able to complete their job before any presentations start. Each month we award 5 points to the winner in each sub-category, 3 points for second place and 2 points for highly commended. At the end of the year awards are given to exhibitors with the greatest number of points overall.

Below are tips from Taylor Harrison from Active Seniors Health Centre for helping over 55s stay fit so that they can enjoy gardening with good balance and mobility.

She suggests just picking 1 exercise that you find helpful to start with. To jog the memories of those who were present, here is a rough list of the 10 exercises:

1     Feet - roll bare soles over ball

2     Ankle rotations - as in DVT exercises on aeroplanes

3     Calf raises - toe to heel (with back to wall)

4     Thighs - Hip hinges - sit slowly or

5     Thighs - whilst sitting - point toe to squeeze thigh muscle

6     Leg swings - to loosen hip flexor - fwd & back and side to side

7     Lower Back - the ‘Yes, No, Maybe manoeuvre!

8     Neck - also the ‘Yes, No, Maybe manoeuvre

9     Upper back and shoulders - with heels and shoulders square to wall and palms facing out - slide arms slowly up and back

10  Hands - splay fingers widely then slowly push fingers (not palms) together. Finish by opening and closing hands a few times.

 Taylor is so committed to keeping us all fit and active that he also has a series of videos on his  website listed above if you need further reminders.

Thanks to those who purchased copies of Taylor’s book, Active Seniors, proceeds of which go to Alzheimers research.

Some meeting highlights

New members were welcomed, forth-coming business and an outing flagged (put Wednesday 15 June in your diaries for outing and lunch at the Coal Loader), and encouragement given to all to consider attending the Garden Clubs of Australia National Convention to be held this year in Townsville from 11-16 September. There is an educational and fun packed program and opportunities to extend your stay and take advantage of many optional extras that the region has to offer at reduced prices for conference attendees.

Our judges deliberated and entertained us with their positive and often funny comments about the plant / flower pecimen presentations that members had brought along.

Marg W. amazed us with an interesting talk and beautiful photos as you can see below, of the many and varied beautiful gardens to be found in the Marlborough area of New Zealand’s South Island. Who knew!

And, after a tea, coffee and ‘nibble’ break, lots of options from pent up propagation at the plant table where you’ll always find something special from our members’ gardens. An informative interesting and fun evening as always.

Looking forward to our next meeting on Tuesday 10th May.

July 2021 Meeting

May 2021 Meeting

It was a double treat to be able to meet again at Mosman Seniors Centre in May and to have local horticulturalist Barbara Schreiner, from Mosman Mitre10 Nursery, as our most entertaining and informative guest speaker. Barbara is so passionate about ecological sustainable gardening that it was impossible not to get caught up in her enthusiasm and tips, gleaned from many years of horticultural practice and experience. Her most salient messages were encapsulated in an amusing skit voiced by some of our members: Take the time to observe and reflect on what is happening in your garden (at an ecological level)

• Use what is there as much as possible to harness the natural ‘eco-cycle’ in your garden.

• It’s an approach that requires minimal digging, maintains natural environmental cycles and is low cost, if a little messy at times.

March Meeting 2021

Last Tuesday evening, March 9th, was our first indoor meeting for over a year. It was a great (socially-distanced) success with excellent attendance. We heard a most entertaining and informative presentation about frangipanis from Anthony Grassi, President of the Frangipani Society of Australian. He was very happy to take the many questions from the audience and left us with smiles on our faces and confidence to deal with our frangipani issues. Anthony kindly left us with his Top Ten Gardening Tips which will be reproduced with his permission in the April bulletin. As well there were the usual raffle and lucky door prizes and the plant sales table which was well-supported by both contributors and patrons. All went home feeling like winners. Many thanks to all involved! It was great to be able to get together in this way once again.

Taylor’s presentation ‘Fit for Gardening’ is a reminder to all gardeners about the importance of keeping fit so that we can enjoy gardening with little or no aches and pain.,

Suggested fitness exercise routine