‘Connect – Promote – Protect’

July 2026

---

Special Events

💮2hr Bonsai Watercolour Workshop with Leticia Collins

Sun Jul 12, 10:00am-12:00pm
Bonsai House, Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens
FBBGSA Members: $25 / Others: $50

💮BCC Guided events: National Trust Trees of Significance

Wed Jul 22, 10:00am
City Botanic Gardens – Information Kiosk, Brisbane City

💮Ekka Display

Sun 9 Aug – Sun 16 Aug

💮Annual General Meeting

Wed Sept 9

Regular Events

💮Every Monday: Nature Walks, different locations, usually 8:30am. Contact Anne on 0408 093 307

💮Every Tuesday: Plant Propagation at Rocks Riverside Park, 17 Mile Rocks, 8:30am. Register

💮Last Sunday of the Month: Plant Sale, 8:30am-11:30am outside the Visitors Centre, Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens

💮Last Sunday of the Month: Explore with Friends, 9am, meet at the Visitors Centre, Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens

💮Wed Aug 5 7:30am-9:30am: Kitchen Garden Volunteering, Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens. Contact Patty on 0499 097 084

For further details about all of these events, see our Events Calendar

From Julie

The End of the Financial Year (EOFY) calls for special actions like our EOFY Plant Sale, and reviewing FBBGSA activities – what is working, what needs changing, and where do we go from here (for finances and reputation).

Our Annual General Meeting is due in September and we are hoping for more involvement by members to advance our activities.
Plant Sales: Our City and Mt Coot-tha plant sales made good income and are starting to get “regular” buyers, as well as members donating plant material for our sales. These two factors make a wonderful commitment to FBBGSA. Mid-year or winter is not the best time to grow plants nor to sell them. Maybe next year we will offer different materials to sell at this time.

Our events are still busy – Botanic Garden walks and walks in nature nearby are creating an enthusiastic group learning about plants whilst walking short distances. Consider trialing either options on Mondays or the last Sunday of the month – you will definitely see and learn new things (and keep yourself active).

Ongoing FBBGSA Podcasts continue every month with increasing numbers of people listening to them after promotion to organisations like Friends of Botanic Gardens throughout Australia; Qld Council of Garden Clubs, Brisbane Organic Growers Inc and through social media. If you think we could promote them elsewhere please write to us via secretary@fbbgsa.org.au. The Podcasts will be uploaded to Brisbane Botanic Treasures at the end of this year.

As it is the 50th Anniversary we have designed specific T-shirts and tea towels to promote this event, with the artwork shown below.  If you would like a T-shirt please view thetshirtco website to select the style, size and colour. Please email your requests for T-shirts and tea towels to director@fbbgsa.org.au.  An order will be lodged with the artwork and delivery and payment options will be advised.

Our brochures are about to change – we have decided to produce postcards with photos of places, flowers, plants, birds, insects etc from the Brisbane Botanic Gardens. We have been particularly lucky to have excellent photographers who are prepared to give us their photos (with the photographer’s recognition on the postcard or not as the case may be).  With the number of interstate and international visitors to our Botanic Gardens I am sure they will also appreciate the photographer’s skills.  Please give us feedback on these initiatives and any other ideas you may have to keep FBBGSA active into the future.

The Ekka

FBBGSA will display at the Ekka this year. As this is the 100th year of the Ekka, we have framed our exhibit around “Gardens / Trees Across the Ages”. We are hoping to produce an interactive exhibit to encourage the public into the exhibit.  We also wish to have children create a “Garden/ Tree of the Future” too!

We are looking for members to volunteer at our display. We have at least 30 places to fill (3 shifts per day, 8.30 until 12.30pm, 10am till 2pm and 12.30pm to 4.30pm).  We acknowledge you may not know answers to the public’s questions so we are prepared to do training on this before the event and/or you could choose the 10 till 2 shift where you will be with experienced members.

Please express interest in the Ekka and FBBGSA by contacting secretary@fbbgsa.org.au with your name and phone number and best time to call you to discuss this option. I really appreciate you all considering this request.

Julie

Monday Nature Walks

Monday Nature Walkers have been enjoying the beautiful winter days – perfect for walking.  At least since the unseasonal wet weather has cleared up.  Winter walks bring the promise of the spring to come, with lots of small plants and bushes budding up in preparation.  But already we are also enjoying the winter flowers – Acacias in various shades of yellow starting to pop, and many of the Eucalyptus in such abundant flower that they are dropping carpets of gum flower stamens, perhaps with the help of cockatoos!  Other flowers to be enjoyed at the moment include Westringiaeremicola, Daviesia (Gorse Bitter-pea), several of the Pultenaeas, and the Hoveas just starting to display their abundant purple/blue flowers.

One of the joys of Monday Nature Walks is that we are never sure what botanical treasures are there for our discovery.  And different geological and topographical environments of course support different types of plants, often in the course of one walk.  Sometimes we are enjoying the Malaleucas of a swampy section of a park, only to shortly after be admiring the Xanthorroeas on the more rocky slopes.

Recently we have walked at the John Sprent Reserve at Moggill, the Daisy Hill Conservation Park, and the White Rock / Spring Mountain Conservation Reserve at Redbank Plains.  The Bluff Lookout and Little White Rock Lookout were each interesting in the types of small plants sheltered among the sandstone rocks, as well as the common Basket Fern.  

Our walks always end with a coffee and catch-up. Lately we have discovered some great little coffee shops in some of the newer outer suburbs of Ipswich and Redlands.

We invite all FBBGSA members to join us!  No obligation – come on any of the walks that interest you.

We walk each Monday morning, meeting at about 8.30 am and finishing each walk around 12 midday, with a coffee break and chat.  Car-sharing is available.

Want more information?  See the FBBGSA website.  Or contact Anne on 0408093307 or aelliott@powerup.com.au

Anne

Monday Nature Walks: White Rock

We were surprised to find the carpark almost full when we arrived – it seems that White Rock is very popular in the school holidays. We walked to The Bluff lookout, part of the way to White Rock, then back, with a very rewarding detour to Little White Rock. The parts of the track by the creek were easy walking, but there were short steep climbs to the lookouts – sticks recommended.

The parts by the creek were mostly eucalypt forest, with some big old Eucalyptus trereticornis, and a few unusually big Moreton Bay Ash (Corymbia tessellaris).  Wattles were flowering, Acacia julifera, with bright orange-yellow spikes and one with pale yellow spikes. I think this was A. concurrens, but this is hard to distinguish from A. leiocalyx. A. maidenii, with long dark green phyllodes was present but not flowering.

We were amazed at the plants growing on Little White Rock, which is hard sandstone with hardly any soil. We saw grass trees (Xanthorrhoea latifolia); Acacia juncifolia, with long thin phyllodes and bright yellow ball flowers; Hibiscus splendens, with typical lobed hibiscus leaves, but hairy; a small fern, probably a Cheilanthes, possibly C. distans. Also three more that I couldn’t guess at. I’m thinking the plant with 3-winged seed capsules could be a Dodonea, but I can’t find one that fits.

Below the bluff lookout, we saw a beautiful pattern of reddish waves on a light background in the eroded sandstone. This may be what is called Liesegang banding, but there is no generally accepted theory of how it formed. It must somehow involve water and iron minerals.

Ian

Kitchen Garden

Blue skies greeted the 9 volunteers on 1st July. Leeks and Bok Choy were ready for harvest and the comfrey was in flower and will hopefully be a bee magnet. The summer cosmos is still in flower and the seeds will be kept for future planting. The vegetables planted over recent weeks are growing well as long as they are netted at night and weekends. Depending on the wildlife, the strawberries should crop well. We all look forward to our August working day.

Patty

Explore with Friends

On the last Sunday of every month, you can join the Friends on a casual one-hour or so morning walk exploring a part of the Mt Coot-tha Gardens.

The Camellias didn’t disappoint on our June walk through the Temperate Region Plants collection – they were blooming marvellous! We were amazed at how many different species there were in the collection. There is such a great variety of flower structures and colours, and we were quite fascinated to see different coloured blooms on the same bush in several species.

Our favourites for the morning included the absolutely perfect Camellia japonica ‘Red Red Rose’, the aptly-named Camellia japonica ‘Blushing Beaty’, Camellia japonica ‘Julia France’ with its ruffled graceful petals, the exquisite Camellia hiemalis ‘Kanjiro’, and the very striking Camellia japonica ‘Tama-no-ura’.

The different species in the Gardens don’t all bloom at the same time. While many of the Sasanquas had already bloomed, the Japonicas were putting on a great show for our walk. Many of the shrubs were laden with buds at the end of June, so if you haven’t visited the Camellias this winter, now is the time to go.

While you’re there, also keep an eye out for magnolias in flower. A few were just starting to open.

Helen

Plant Propagating / Greenhouse

The Greenhouse project has been operating for a year now and  it  has been a real learning curve for everyone involved.
We are still working out what grows well in our particular environment. In winter the whole greenhouse is in full shade all day while in summer one end has a few hours of sun.
We also have to be conscious of what sells at our plant sale at the end of every month and while demand has been variable our customers appreciate something different and well grown.
We now have a very good bulk potting mix and this consistency has been helpful, because a simple thing like the variability of smaller quantities has meant plants in the same corner of the greenhouse but with a different potting mix, needed different watering requirements. So some were drying out very quickly and other blends not drying at all.
We rely on lots of different skill sets. Some people have a keen eye for presenting the plants to their best advantage while others have the very essential propagating skills. Others are happy to label the newly potted up plants and fertilise.
There is room for every interest.
If any of this appeals please come and find out more at our next plant sale at Mt Coot-tha Visitors Centre on the last Sunday of the month 8.30 to 11.30am

Mary Jo