Meetings so far this year...

In August 2024 we had a Plant Raffle Extravaganza. This proved to be a popular and convivial gathering. We are going to repeat this at our September 2026 meeting. There will be about 13 plant prizes - some individual plants in pots, groups of plants in tubes and two planted hanging baskets. There will be a presentation about each of the prizes. This is intended to both entertain and give you enough information to determine which plants you want. Raffle tickets will be for sale at $1 each or 6 tickets for $5. The raffle will take the form of having a separate ticket box for each plant prize. You can put as many or few tickets into whichever box you choose. If you are desperate for one plant in particular, you can put all your tickets in that box. Or spread them around if you prefer.

Mt Arapiles is located 34 kms west of Horsham and is a favourite place for Peter. As a young boy he spent time there with his parents when they were visiting relatives in the area. When his parents moved back to the Horsham area in the mid 1970's, he and Alison were able to spend more time there getting to know the flora and fauna a little better. In his talk, Peter will provide a little history but mainly focus on illustrating plants and animals found there.

No matter how long you've been gardening, there is always more to learn. Let's start at the very beginning though and look at our garden as its own person. What are the characteristics that make it your garden? How's the soil, where's the light, is the land flat, how much rain does it get? Getting to know your garden this way puts you on the best path to creating a healthy garden with less effort. Chloe is a lifelong horticulturist and gardener. Her career began working in wholesale and retail nurseries, before moving into high-profile horticultural positions with Melbourne Zoo and Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne, specialising in the cultivation of hard to grow species. Chloe loves creating engaging gardens and helping people select the "right plant for the right place". This philosophy spills over into her teaching Horticulture at Melbourne Polytechnic, where she spends her days getting students excited about plants and gardening. She co-hosts the successful 3CR Gardening Show, and is the author of beginner gardening book "The Rookie Gardener".

With their house falling down around their ears, the owners decided to embark on their own Grand Designs journey with a knock down and rebuild of their Surrey Hills house and garden. Of course, things did not go entirely to plan, but what emerged from the chaos is an amazing native garden full of character, complete with a creek that flows into a fish and frog pond, and even a rooftop garden above the garage.

Warren Worboys was the Curator of Horticulture at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria Cranbourne Gardens. He was an employee of the RBGV for 50 years but throughout that period he worked in a diversity of roles at the RBGV Melbourne and Cranbourne Gardens which had included working in both of the Gardens, managing the nurseries, managing the grounds at Government House, and managing the bushland and early garden development at Cranbourne Gardens, thus developing a strong familiarity of native and exotic flora in heritage and contemporary landscapes, and the fauna and ecosystems of the Cranbourne region. He started his career in a small country retail plant nursery then gained an apprenticeship in gardening at the Melbourne Botanic Gardens. He then spent three years in advanced study of horticulture at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, Scotland and visited and studied many botanic gardens and allied institutes in Europe and America. He has travelled widely across Australia, studying the flora and collecting plants to extend the RBGV’s collections of wild provenance plant species. With the development of the Australian Garden, he was heavily involved for over ten years in the hard and soft landscape design and construction of the Garden in collaboration with the designers Taylor, Cullity and Lethlean and engineering design consultants, to help ensure the design fulfilled the horticultural, operational, educational and ecological goals of the RBGV. Warren has appeared on Gardening Australia, ran short courses and lectures at the University of Melbourne, Burnley Campus, is a guest speaker for numerous garden clubs and societies, was part of the team who created the gold medal winning exhibition at the 2011 Chelsea Flower Show and is an Honorary Life Member of the Cranbourne Friends of the RBG Victoria. After commencing work at the Cranbourne Gardens in 1988 Warren finally met Abe ‘Alf’ Salkin in person, after hearing about his exceptional work liaising with numerous native plant enthusiasts who had collected an extraordinary collection of Proteaceous species but had nowhere to grow them except in pots. From 1977 Alf collaborated with the RBGV and his fellow enthusiasts to plant out hundreds of species from the family Proteaceae, including rare and threatened species, even a new and unidentified rare species that had not even been observed in the wild. These plantings became known as the Special Collection and Alf’s horticultural legacy is perpetuated with many plantings in the Australian Garden that have been propagated from these original ‘amateur’ collections.

In 2024, Marilyn and Geoff travelled to and around Western Australia on what Marilyn called her "Wildflower Trip".
This meant that she could stop and look at flowers when she wanted!
The first leg of this trip was between Alice Springs and Step Point – the westernmost point of Australia. This is 2100 km in a straight line. But the Bulls rarely travel in a straight line, favouring the roads less travelled. This talk will look at some of the highlights along the way - both floral and landscape.
The closer they approached Steep Point, the more flowers they found as the wildflower season commenced. Marilyn hopes to present many places that most members will not have visited and many flowers that she still struggles to identify (all help appreciated) as well as some well known and favourite species.

Robyn Tyson, is currently President of the APS Victoria Executive Committee. She also holds the position of Leader/President of APS Mornington Peninsula District Group. She joined APS in 2013 after visiting the flower show and plant sale at Eltham, but she has loved Australian native plants since childhood, when her family did a lot of searching for grevilleas in the bush, with other likeminded families. The family belonged to both SGAP (as APS was then) Waverley and Maroondah District Groups,. She also worked in the nursery that her parents owned, during school holidays and weekends, as a teenager. Conservation of the environment as a whole is very important to her ethos. She will speak to us about the indigenous flora of her local area - the Mornington Peninsula. Within the Peninsula’s small area there are many habitats – forests, fern gullies, coastal, heathland, salt pans, mangroves, wetlands and swamps. Robyn’s talk will focus on the habitats in the Peninsula, which is a place of great botanical diversity .

Geoff Lay, a long-time APS Maroondah member, is no stranger to us. He has provided a number of talks on various subjects over the years.   Geoff is a well-known naturalist, photographer, and volunteer for the Australian Plants Society (APS) and the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. He frequently speaks at APS meetings throughout Victoria on various topics, including the flora and fungi of specific regions like Wilsons Promontory and the Grampians, as well as bushfire recovery and desert plants.  At our February meeting Geoff will talk about the South East Queensland Rainforest.

As it is customary, the Opening Meeting of the year comprises Maroondah Group Members to talk on their favourite topic.
Ryno - Clay Minerals;
Peter - Some Garden Projects at Home;
Elaine - Planting the Nature Strip.