by Julie
UPDATE: Monday is a day for change and our Ekka display has new bonsais and flower arrangements. Can you guess where in the Botanic Gardens the plant material has come from?
2025 is the 149th year of the Ekka and FBBGSA has made a presence there this year!
We have a half sized space and decided to only have a static display this year. The approval to have bonsais from the collection at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Mt Coot-tha was a major step in deciding the content of the display. A special thank you to Prue McGruther, the Curator and Perry Naumann, the Gardens supervisor and Chris, the Gardener looking after the Bonsais, for all your help and attention. On top of this Bimer Bonsai Group members agreed to attend to water the plants. Every 3 or 4 days the Bonsais will be changed to ensure their growth is not compromised.
To connect with these beautiful specimens we will have flower arrangements from materials from the Botanic Gardens. I wish to thank Fay Stutt for her significant help to acquire the plants, prepare them and produce lovely Ikebana arrangements for the stand. Every time the Bonsais change so will the arrangements.
Nicole Cresswell from the Herbarium came forward with two copies of Herbarium type prints in frames and as she also does drawing courses through the Council at the Botanic Gardens these were advertised (with QR codes) on the display.
Whilst we are part of the Competition for Horticulture area in the Ekka our main outcome is to encourage more people to attend the Botanic Gardens at Mt Coot-tha and the City and of course to become members of FBBGSA!
Behind the scenes Ros Laundon has kindly stopped painting for the duration of the Ekka so we could use her easels (thanks Ros) and Fay and Sue have acquired another easel from their Church). The FBBGSA Board agreed to buy 3 stools suited to secure the Bonsais just in case!
Please promote this display to all your friends and family so we can feel the energy around the Botanic Gardens!