Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - The Puerto Vallarta Garden Club would like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year and thank you all for supporting so generously our cause.

Bob Price, Curator of the Botanical Gardens, was our featured guest speaker on December 18th, 2014. We met at No Way José! for our regular third Thursday meeting. Bob spoke on the topic of orchids and the exciting new addition to the Gardens of the Orchid Pavilion. He brought a plant trivia quiz and prizes. Did you know that the official flower of Mexico is the dahlia? It SHOULD be the bougainvillea!

Bonnie Mott, President, explained our need to raise money for poles to support our growing bougainvillea and trees throughout town. When these went in the ground 2-4 years ago, they were self-supporting. But we live in the glorious tropics where plants grow vigorously. Some of them have tipped over and broken. Preventive action is called for immediately. Installed, these poles cost $1500 pesos apiece.

Three generous members stepped up and bought a pole, but many more donors are needed. We received a promise of matching funds for these poles, so your gift is worth more than the face value. Please contact Bonnie Mott at bonmott(at)hotmail.com, or Matthias Vogt, Treasurer at matthias.vogt(at)usa.net with your pledge and we will happily arrange to pick it up.

Beautification of our city through plantings on the following streets is solely the project of PV Garden Club. The city does not help; and we are NOT part of the Botanical Gardens. Our contributors paid for planting, maintaining and watering all the bougainvillea and primavera trees on Basilio Badillo, Olas Altas, Pino Suarez, Ave. Vallarta, Insurgentes, Ave Mexico (from Leys south) and the streets adjacent to the Mercado.

Everyone living here, visiting for a few months, and of course all the businesses depending on tourism, benefit from the efforts of our 57 members and our donors. Please join us. Become a member, buy a planter tile or make a contribution.

Now is the time to solicit your friends and neighbors to join the club. Our award-winning restaurant, No Way Josè!, has offered a dinner for two at the restaurant for the member who generates the most new members before our next meeting on January 15, 2015! Let Bonnie or Matthias know who you've recruited.

The Pier Street – Francisca Rodriguez, is now available for sponsorship tiles. $5200 pesos can buy a memorial tribute of your choosing.

By the way, on Sunday mornings, look for 'Babe the Blue Ox,' our Watering Truck.

Very cordially,
The entire board of the P.V. Garden Club