THEY'RE the gardeners who swoop on other gardens and are famous for doing club business in the yards of green thumbs all around them, so the 25th birthday celebrations of the Ogunbil and Dungowan Valley Garden Club have been a bit special.
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They have about 40 members these days and count their gardeners from as far afield as Tamworth and Nundle, but their birthday party a few weeks back attracted like-minded souls from even further.
Once a group of wandering women who used to roam all around friendly gardens, women from the area decided to make it an official club.
But while they're all formal when it comes to constitutions, they still have a laid-back approach when it comes to the places they meet they love going bush to do business in gardens.
It is, they say, one of the gems of their gardening life.
In May they went to Susanna O'Keefe's garden at Dungowan, the month before they saw Sally and Barry Smith's haven and before then it was up to Hanging Rock to visit Gerry Chan. In February they were at Lyn and Gary Sommerville's garden back at Ogunbil a paradise described by assistant secretary Jan Hahn as amazing and absolutely beautiful.
"We have our meetings in gardens. Sometimes we go to other clubs, but the garden settings are wonderful," says Mrs Hahn.
"We walk around the garden, see what grows well. It's a learning thing and you can't get better than that."
So when it came to sharing their birthday honours at a club anniversary lunch, they had many other green thumb ramblers to invite too; to be welcomed by president Gay Hammond.
Among only a couple of foundation members able to share the limelight on the day was Betty Reed, who was one of those there when they formally started the club and met at the Dungowan Tennis Club on May 15, 1989.
Betty got to cut the cake too and then was surprised by an even greater honour when her life membership was announced.
She was one of about 10 originals among the early members like Robyn Thompson, Faye Upward, Lyn Disher and Margaret Brady. Among the first officers elected back then, according to long-time member and executive Jan Hahn, were Pat Hardman, Gay Alt, Sue Murray and Kate Bull.
Robyn Thompson was there at the start too, but had to suspend her membership when she went back to work, leaving Betty as the only continuous member for the silver anniversary.