Gardening Friends Western Australia

INFORMATION FOR GUESTS AND NEW MEMBERS

After our initial  interstate garden tours, we have held a reunion dinner each time here at our home in Perth, enabling tour members to meet again, to enjoy each others company and look each other’s tour photographs. All of them have been friendly happy events.

But since the reunions, tour members kept telling us that they wished they could continue to meet the others on a more regular basis. So the idea was born- why not launch a garden travel club?

Gardening Friends Western Australia was launched with our inaugural meeting being held on 22August, 2002. Subsequently we have met bi- monthly, usually on the FIRST OR SECOND THURSDAY EVENING of EVERY SECOND MONTH.

We will meet in 2005 in February, April, August, October and December.

MEETINGS ATTENDANCE BY INVITATION ONLY ( at least a fortnight before a meeting, a letter with  guest tickets is mailed out to each member)..

Ex tour members from any of our extended tours to the Eastern States or overseas, or from our Western Australian Country Weekends away only need to travel once to receive EXCLUSIVE  MEMBERSHIP and issued with a membership badge. There are no membership subscription fees, simply a door fee of $7 each on the night to cover meeting costs ( hall & equipment hire, talks,  supper etc).

The reason for this ruling is firstly to limit the size of the club, and secondly to create a feeling of belonging. Each member will know a group of fellow travellers, and everyone loves looking at other people’s gardens even though they may not necessarily be gardeners themselves.

EACH MEMBER THEN HAS THE PRIVELEGE OF INVITING TWO VISITORS TO ANY ONE MEETING. The members are issued with visitors tickets, which they then pass on to their friends. They may ask the same or different people to each meeting. We do not contact the visitors, unless they request to be put on our mailout list for tour information. So visitors must bring their VISITOR TICKET to the meeting, and also pay the $7 entry fee ( and also have an equal chance, along with the members, of winning the door prize.

AT THE MEETINGS

We do not conduct a business meeting- there are no minutes etc

There is no Committee and hence no Annual General Meeting.

Gayle and Nic Monzu are the Directors, and Gardening Friends Western Australia is their business venture (ABN BN09360451).

What makes the club unique is that we do not attempt to teach you all about gardening, but rather we focus on bringing the world’s gardens to you, especially with beautiful visuals. We will profile some of the plants which make these gardens so special. We will point our design tips which make these gardens work. No doubt there will be something new that you will learn and can apply to your own garden.

The meetings will have one to one and a half hours of talks- the remainder of the time will be for socialising. You will enjoy a delicious supper. There will be wonderful garden plants and products to win in the raffle.

So far our meetings have ‘visited’ the Chelsea Flower show 2002, Monet’s garden, Keukenhof in Holland, the gardens of Wales and northern England and some special gardens in Victoria, Tasmania and New Zealand, to name but a few.

Every year at  our Spring  meeting, we sell plants- the newest releases from Woods wholesale Cottage Nursery. Popular owner Steve Woods gives us a most enjoyable talk on the newest plant releases for the coming spring and summer months. August is also our birthday month, and we will be three year old this  August 2005!

At our Christmas Function, we enjoy delicious food and drinks with the highlight talk given by Gayle on some famous garden. The 2005 Christmas  Function is on December 8, and tickets need to be pre-bought

At Gardening Friends Western Australia, we are also conducting at least two garden weekends away in Western Australia every year. These are proving very popular and book out very quickly.

Email Gayle on gmonzu@gardentours.com.au for any updated information on these local tours ( details of this years Garden Tour of Ireland are displayed elsewhere on this website, under 'About Our Tours').

Gayle and Nic Monzu

Directors.