Wadestown Wilton Horticultural Society

President’s Annual Report 2016 – 2017

2016, our 98th year, was another great year for the Wadestown Wilton Horticultural Society.

Our membership currently stands at 54 members, of whom 8 are life members.

Our meetings covered a wide range of topics for members to think about, discuss and get ideas from. As we had become aware that some of our members were no longer able, or willing, to go out at night in the winter to attend meetings, we changed the timing of the June and July meetings to afternoons. This proved to be very successful with a large group of members attending, many of whom we hadn’t seen for a long time, and some new faces as well. As this was so successful we will, once again, be holding afternoon meetings in June and July in 2017. Our meetings in 2016 covered

• “Growing Great Fuchsias” with speaker Peter O’Hara
• “Bell’s Track/Sustainability” with speaker Des Smith
• “From Darwin to Broome by Campervan and the Flowers We Saw Along the Way” with speaker Mary Stevens
• “Growing Vegetables Successfully in Wellington” with speaker Alan Whiting
• “Keeping Bees in the City”, presentation by Urban Bees
• “Urban Agriculture” with speaker WCC Community Adviser, Sarah Adams
• “Christmas Quiz” with Bethney McLennan

Thanks to all of our guest speakers.

In addition to the above, we also had our June afternoon meeting at the Film Archive where, amongst the movies we were shown, we saw a documentary on Salisbury Garden Court, a community in Wadestown, based around a communal tennis court.
Thank you, Colleen, for organising this.

Our annual outing was a visit to gardens in the Horowhenua area, where we saw three lovely, but all very different, gardens and had a very nice lunch. As the numbers for this were not sufficient for a bus to be hired we used members’ cars, with the drivers receiving petrol money. Many thanks to those who volunteered their cars.

Our three annual shows, Summer Show in February, Spring Flower Show in September and Rose Show in November were all very well supported with a large array of entries. We are keeping a close eye on the entries for each show and continue to refine our entry schedule for the following year accordingly.
Once again, thanks to our guest judges, some of whom travel a fair distance to be there to help us.

To raise the society’s public profile, the posters that members have been receiving by email, advertising our meetings and shows, have also been displayed in various places in the local area and, for shows, a larger poster has been displayed at the top of Park Street. Our secretary, Ann, has also put many of our events into the “New Zealand Gardener” “Kiwi Gardener” and “The Wellingtonian”. Notification of our meetings is posted on the website “Neighbourly”. The WWHS also has a Facebook page and a website (www.wwhortsoc.nz) and I would encourage you to visit both of these. Thanks to Peter Milne for maintaining the website.
We have had visitors to our events, as a result of this, and this has led to some new members.
Towards the end of the year we were invited to take part in an expo at Crofton Downs Mitre 10. Ann and I were very happy to do this and spent an evening showing people how to grow potatoes in a bag (doing it over and over again!) and answering questions about gardening and also who the Wadestown Wilton Horticultural Society is. This was great advertising for the society as many people there had no idea that we existed!

On a much sadder note, we record the deaths of two of our members during the year, firstly Jackie Latimer, and later in the year, Doreen Green. Both of these members made a great contribution to the society over many years.

As for all incorporated societies, we are required to maintain a current constitution. A few areas of our constitution need updating to reflect our current practices. All changes to a constitution need to be passed by a general meeting. To this end I have included a notice of motion in the agenda for our Annual General Meeting.

Finally, I would like to thank all of the committee for their contribution and support during the year, working away in the background. A special thanks to Ann, our secretary, and Colleen, our treasurer – they are the two people whose tireless efforts keep everything running smoothly and efficiently.

Thank you, all, for your continued support of our society.

Graeme Schofield
President WWHS

April 2017