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NEWS

Winter 2008

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From the Office

 Our stall at the Springwood Foundation Day celebrations was very successful and we gained a couple of new members. Irene Domes and Jenny Carseldine have been running monthly stalls at Springwood, Wentworth Falls and Blackheath. Response has been good. We would like to expand these stalls to other locations but we need some more volunteers willing to commit on a regular basis - monthly or bimonthly - to running a stall. If you would be prepared to volunteer to run a stall please contact us now.
Reminder to members your annual membership fees are due on July 1st.

Making money from print:Blue Mountains Wildplant Rescue has become a Publisher Member of Copyright Agency Ltd. This means that every time our name is used in a public arena we are paid for the usage. We have had one claim to date.
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Nursery Coordinators Report

 Installation of water tanks should begin soon, thanks to the Federal Government Community Water Grants. We hope that later in the year Green Corps Team will help to do some work around the nursery. This will be very helpful as (yes) once again we are a bit low on active volunteers. Winter is a slow time of the year, but we are still selling quite a few plants and we have tree day coming again soon. It will be interesting to see how much the required plants have changed as I guess some of the smaller schools and even some of the bush care groups are now requiring fewer plants. We have got a bit low on mid-mountain seed but thanks to Robin Hall we are now building up our stocks again!
Tanya McLean
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Rescue Coordinator's Report

 Rescues have been a bit thin on the ground over the last few months. However, for the first time in ages we have a rescue in the lower mountains. These are from Warimoo and we are getting Steve Pfeiffer from the lower mountains to look after them as they certainly wouldn't want to over winter up here!

We had a small rescue at Clairvaux with a group brought along by Jill Rattray. We found some very nice plants to rescue.

I want to thank Irene and Dianne for all their hard work in labelling all the rescues as they become ready for sale.
Tanya McLean
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Winter Features

 "A HOST OF GOLDEN DAFFODILS"
a great swathe of them around the ancient city wall of beautiful York.

I had five lovely weeks in England from the middle of April and into May, a time I recommend for a visit. The trees, bare when I arrived, were dressed in spring light green leaves when I left. The daffodils were glorious in April and were followed by the other spring flowers.
The narrow country lanes of Yorkshire with neatly cut hedges and hedgerows of green spring grass and masses of flowers surrounded me in nostalgia. There were banks of primroses (Primula vulgaris), woodlands and hedgerows covered by bluebells, (Endymion non-scriptus) and clumps of cowslips (Primula veris )nodding their bright yellow heads. In the woodland were wood anemones (Anemone nemorosa)pink turning to white and even the purple spotted orchid (Orchis mascula).
The primroses caused me again to inspect them closely to see if they were pin or thrum eyed i.e. whether the stigmas was at the top or bottom of the corolla tube and the anthers in the reverse position A clever mechanism to ensure cross pollination by bees or other insects.
It was very good to see many clumps of cowslips which over the last 15 to 20 years, have had a time of becoming less and less in number. They seem to be back on track and giving delight again.
stBluebells grow so thickly in some woodland that they make a carpet of blue. It would seem that we all have our problems of invaders. The Spanish bluebell (E. hispanicus)
is similar to the British but has flowers all round the rachis and not on one side, and they are a paler blue. These have been introduced and being very vigorous they are overtaking the British species in many areas. Botanists, led by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew are at present trying to discover the distribution of this invader. I was also concerned that the daffodils planted and spreading in country lanes will in time threaten other species. They looked beautiful but reminded me of Caryopsis beside the Great Western Highway

I left beautiful weather in England when I returned to the rain of home. I retain my love of the plants of my youth and it was lovely to see Spring in England again, but, home is home and when I saw my garden, when I went on an identification foray in the bush and when I returned to Wildplant Rescue I was recaptured by the incredible beauty, variety and complexity of our plants. Nostalgia has its place but now I am marvelling at Pseudanthus divaricatissimusand I am fired again to help maintain our Blue Mountains biodiversity.

Anne Rickwood

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Report from the Chair


Well I am coming up to my second year as chair of Wildplant rescue and still there is lots to learn and lots to be done to keep this wonderful community organization continuing. Hopefully this year having culled some of my other commitments I can put more time into Wildplant and learn more about the organization.

Having had a lot of experience in working with community groups in the Blue Mountains over the past 15 years, including President of 2BLU FM for many years and also having had a huge involvement in Winter Magic Festival I hope that I can bring some of my skills and talents to the table.

Wildplant Rescue is fantastic and the work that they do is invaluable and needs lots of help from the community to continue to promote the planting of native local plants in our area. Especially in these times of water shortages and restrictions.

This year we are concentrating on building our membership base up. The more members we have, the more people will hear about us and the more we will grow and in the ultimate end the more resources we will have at our fingertips.
Another project I would like to get the ball rolling on is a skills register. These can be invaluable to community organizations that always manage on a strict budget. If someone can help us out with their skills in any area and it saves us time and money it can only be a good thing. So look out in the future for the skills register and make sure you put yourself on it so you can help us out. Even if you don't think you are of any use you may be surprised !!!
Don't forget to renew your membership. Sorry about the rise in fees but it was necessary to cover the ever growing costs in running the organization and I hope this wont discourage you from renewing. You are a valued member.
Thank you
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