The National Arboretum last week won the Tourist Attraction award at the Canberra Region Tourism awards evening. It was fantastic for the National Arboretum with its amazing staff, volunteers, Friends, Ginger Catering and Curatoreum to collectively win this substantive award. The Arboretum is now automatically entered into the National Tourism awards being held in Canberra March 2020. This award is testament to the wonderful resource we have in the Arboretum. Well done to us all!

These wonderful sessions on Trees at the Arboretum are run through the U3A. Please see below for more information and bookings. This course, originally developed by an Arboretum guide, is being run again in 2020, led by four other Arboretum guides. Each of four parts of the course cover 24 tree species planted in forests at the Arboretum. The course content covers: how the trees became ‘known to science’; distributions, descriptions, uses; whether they grow elsewhere in Canberra; and some related stories. Each of the four parts includes a guided walk at the Arboretum and another elsewhere in Canberra.

This month there are some stunning images at STEP to see (view photos below) including an echidna and a beautiful blue devil!

What a great outcome for our Christmas Market Stall held last Saturday! Thank you to everyone who helped - there were so many - and what a fun day! At 10am we had a crowd and then steady flow of people buying until lunchtime, then a bit of a quiet time over lunch, and then steady again until we started packing up about 1.45pm. The new Harvest Stall booklet sold well and there are just a handful of copies left. Colette went on ABC radio on Saturday morning and was interviewed by Jamie Travers who promised to drop in … and he did. And he even bought some jam and had a guided tour of the garden by Ange. How lovely is that! We also had a photographer from Out in Canberra for a couple of hours taking photos of the stall and our customers. And financially it was a great outcomes too - Friends made over $2,000 from the day's produce.

The latest issue of Eucalypt, newsletter of the Australian Association of Friends of Botanic Gardens (AAFBG) is now available. There's an article from the Australian National Botanic Gardens and one from the Royal Edinburgh Botanic Gardens, recently visited by our Friends' Chair, Trish Keller OAM. I'd love to run a winter program of coffee mornings and talks - what would the theme be for the talks ... Anyway, read all about it here!

'Name That Flower' - now being published in its 3rd edition - is a valued source of clear and concise information on identifying flowering plants from around the world, both cultivated and in the wild. This edition is updated to align with current systems of plant classification that incorporate advances in molecular DNA analysis. It includes more than 130 detailed line drawings, 64 colour pages and information on 46 plant families.

The Friends' of the National Arboretum Canberra have two fabulous ideas for Xmas gifts for you to choose from.

The Australian Federation of Friends of Museums (AFFM) has just published its latest biannual Review. Includes articles on The World Federation of Friends of Museums, Gold Museum photographic collection, Tamworth Regional Gallery centenary, Brooke Museums and other news.

At the National Arboretum Canberra the new Friends sponsored garden in the Central Valley is planted with salt bushes (Rhagodia spinescens). Amalie Shawcross, operations manager at the Arboretum, says the plants were purchased from Yarralumla Nursery which propagates the majority of the saltbush it supplies as it is highly successful and is grown to Canberra conditions.

The latest issue of the Australian Association of Friends of Botanical Gardens (our peak association) is now available. For some cheery reading, click on the link below.