
Upcoming Leaflet: October 2013 Working Draft (Under Construction)
LEAFLET DREAM TEAM |
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Writers:Editor:Translator:Photographers:
Mail Distributor: Facebook Manager: Membership C: Webmaster: |
Neil, Pamela, BobPamelaAngieNeil, Jesus
Jesus Jesus Michaela Dante |
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Step | Deadline | |
Proposals of Topics/Articles/Events Submitted– To Writer(s) & EditorNote: Remember to check last year’s leaflet for ideas, content, and photos, recycling when possible. Look for fresh quotes. | 15 (Midnight) | |
Articles Submitted (Don’t forget to add quotes)- To Editor, Translator & Photographer | 18 (Midnight) | |
Photos with Captions Submitted– To Editor | 22 (Midnight) | |
Edited Articles Submitted– To Webmaster & Translator | 20 (Midnight) | |
Translations Submitted– To Editor | 22 (Midnight) | |
Updated Trustee/Copa Lists Submitted– To Editor (From the Membership Coordinator) | 22 (Midnight) | |
Edited Translation(s) & Captions Submitted– To Webmaster- To Facebook Manager- To Mail Distributor | 24 (Midnight) | |
Press Release Sent– To Press Distribution List | 25 (8:00 am) | |
Layout Submitted– To Editor & Translator | 26 (Midnight) | |
Edit of Layout Submitted– To Webmaster | 27 (Midnight) | |
Leaflet “Goes Live” and notice is sent– To Mail Distributor | 28 (2:00 pm) | |
Email Blast is Sent– To General & Press Email ListsAlthough the 1st of the month is the obvious target, Mondays emails statistically have the lowest open rates followed by the weekend (Fridays through Sundays) so except for holiday weekends, we should shoot for a Tues, Wed, or Thurs. Statistically the best time of the day to optimize readership in North America is around lunch time (noon or 1:00pm) EST. | SELECT A SEND DAYTime of send out should be noon PV time (1 EST.) | |
Contents
Features
The Curator’s Corner
Palms to Pines Highway Progress
September Services
Peak Butterfly Season Begins
Mexican Orchid of the Month
Conservation Awards
Computers as Donation Items
Information
Garden Amenities and Services
Please Join Us
A Thank-You to Our Sponsors
A Request for Feedback
General Visitor Information
Curator’s Corner
Dear Friends of the Gardens,
A vision of the Vallarta Botanical Gardens that has simmered quietly on the backburner for the past few years is suddenly back in the limelight in a major way. Longtime donors to the Gardens have now pledged to match contributions to the Vallarta Conservatory of Mexican Orchids dollar for dollar up to $100,000 USD from now until December 31st, 2013 towards our overall project goal of $350,000 USD. There is now a sense of urgency like never before to share what the Gardens means to our community and to the conservation of Mexico’s precious natural resources.
Public gardens bring beauty and pride to their communities and are considered places of culture and inspiration. We are confident that our new orchid conservatory will become an iconic landmark destination for our region and that our excellence in plant care and display will ensure that it teems with the best examples of the exquisite natural beauty of Mexico. This conservatory is sure to build added value into Vallarta as a tourism generator, maintaining and even strengthening the backbone of our local economy. For these reasons we feel that this project means more than just plants but will be of great benefit to the people of our community.
Since receiving the exciting news of this matching gift program only a few short weeks ago, fellow board members and I have shared this opportunity with a handful of other garden donors and supporters. We have already received thousands of dollars in our conservatory account and thousands more have been pledged. We can feel the excitement of this project quickly building in momentum and our inspiration will soon change into construction as we continue to receive support. Your donation can help secure that this project will become a reality in 2014. Please consider what the Vallarta Botanical Gardens means to you and to Vallarta. Please share in our vision to showcase Mexican orchids—true wonders of this country’s biodiversity.
To make your contribution online please do so through our Conservatory Campaign Page
(preferred) or our FundRazr Campaign through Facebook. The Gardens’ Executive Director, Neil Gerlowski, and the project architect, Joe Sanchez, are available to answer individual questions about this project and can be scheduled for speaking engagements for potential donors.
Without the direct government funding that many of the other “TOP 10 Gardens in North America Worth Traveling For” receive we thank our members and donors for allowing us to continue our mission, “to create Mexico’s foremost botanical garden for the discovery, study, propagation, conservation and display of native and exotic plants for the enjoyment of Puerto Vallarta’s residents and our visitors.”
To those of you in Puerto Vallarta, please come up to the mountains and visit us soon; to those of you in other places, we’re well worth the travel!
From the Gardens,
Bob Price, Curator and Founder
<<<—INSERT IMAGE: Mahatma Gandhi —>>>
Choose a Gandhi quote:
Action expresses priorities.
Where there is love there is life.
To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.
In a gentle way, you can shake the world.
What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea.
The good man is the friend of all living things.
Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into.
To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.
—Mahatma Gandi
<<<—INSERT VIDEO: Sensitive Plant—>>>
Sensitive Plant
We’ve all been told at some point that, “plants have feelings too,” but have you ever seen a plant retract its leaves from your touch? This is exactly the peculiar trait of Mimosa pudica, the sensitive plant or “touch me not.” Many plants retract their foliage at night and extend their leaves at the break of daylight, but the sensitive plant also responds to a touch. It is thought to have evolved this curios ability to scare off larger predators or shake off smaller ones. Originally from Central and South America it has naturalized itself throughout tropical and subtropical regions around the world. So just when you think you’re the only one with feelings…don’t forget the plants!
Use the following photos to identify the sensitive plant upon your next trip to the Vallarta Botanical Gardens. Don’t be afraid to give it a poke!
<<<—INSERT PHOTOS: Sensitive Plant Leaves & Flower—>>>
<<<—INSERT IMAGE: Gabriel García Márquez, Octavio Paz, or…—>>>
Choose one of the following quotes:
“La sabiduría nos llega cuando ya no nos sirve de nada.” / “Wisdom comes to us when it’s already too late.”
—Gabriel García Márquez
“Merece lo que sueñas.” / “Deserve what you dream.”
—Octavio Paz
“La noche es la mejor representación de la infinitud del universo. Nos hace creer que nada tiene principio y nada, fin.”
/ “Night-time is the best indication of the infinity of the universe. It makes us believe that nothing has beginning or end.”
—Carlos Fuentes
“La incertidumbre es una margarita cuyos pétalos no se terminan jamás de deshojar.”
/ “Uncertainty is a daisy whose petals are never fully plucked.”
—Mario Vargas Llosa
<<<—INSERT IMAGE: Barkeria shoemakeri—>>>
Mexican Orchid of the Month
T.J. Text: “From Michoacan, Guerrero and Oaxaca at elevations around sea level to 620 meters along dry creek beds as a deciduous leafed, mini-miniature to medium sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte with slim, fusiform, 4 to 7 noded pseudobulbs enveloped white, scarious, close fitting sheaths and carrying 2 to 6, ascending-erect to arcuate, distichous, lanceolate, acuminate, basally round and clasping, very fleshy, purple spotted beneath often strongly conduplicate leaves that blooms on an apical, rarely racemose to often paniculate, 2 to 4 branched, laxly (3 to 40) several to many flowered inflorescence with successive opening flowers occurring in the mid-winter. This species is the same as most Barkeria, needs to be mounted on a branch or twig and given ample water, fertilizer and bright light through the spring and summer and then needs a cooler dry period in the winter.”
… This is just one example of the kinds of endemic orchids that will be on display at our new Vallarta Conservatory of Mexican Orchids which will be coming soon…with your help!
(Many thanks to Vallarta Orchid Society President T. J. Hartung for permission to draw on information from his publication “Orchids Found ONLY in Mexico,” available in the Gardens’ gift store.) We continue to seek sponsors for the Vallarta Conservatory of Mexican Orchids; please click here to donate today!
<<<—INSERT IMAGE: VBG 2014 Calendar—>>>
VBG 2014 Calendar
UPCOMING EVENTS
<<<—INSERT IMAGE: Day of the Dead—>>>
Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead)
November 1?2?
Celebrate Mexican tradition with us as we decorate the Garden of Memories (our cemetery) with marigolds and candles and host a bonfire near the Hacienda de Oro. Musicians are welcome to bring their own guitars, and everyone will be invited to join us for a complimentary shot of tequila. A special dinner package will be offered for those who show up with an appetite!
<<<—INSERT IMAGE: House Hunters—>>>
House Hunters Charity Event
November __?
Bla, bla, blaaahhh…

…More Bla, bla, blaaahhh…
Garden Amenities and Services
Visit the Gardens’ Hacienda de Oro Restaurant for authentic Mexican food and brick-oven pizza. Our new menu includes delicious dishes such as fish and shrimp tacos. Hike the Gardens’ nature trails and bask in tropical mountain scenery. Experience the Orchid Conservatory, Gift Shop, plant nursery, tequila tasting and more. You can even shop the Gardens remotely through our online store. The very best of Vallarta!
Please Become a Member or Renew Your Membership
Become part of the family that preserves this important sanctuary forever!
Become a member today. Click here for more information: Memberships.
We Would Like to Acknowledge Our Trustees
and Copa de Oro Sponsors for Their Ongoing Support
of the Vallarta Botanical Gardens:
TRUSTEES:
Gary & Susan Adamson
Thomas Bernes
Alan & Patricia Bickell
Adelaide Blomfield
Barry Briskin & Dr. Susannah Briskin
Edith Briskin
Eric Chamberlain & Joseph Weidman
Christopher Davidson & Sharon Christoph
The Galeana Family
Frank Glinsky & Eric Grossman
Pam Grissom
The Holstein Family
Richard Lindstrom
Robert Major
The McCall Family
Ralph Osborne
Charles & Judith Silberstein
Anna Sortino
Issa Sweidan
Barbarita & Bob Sypult
Michael Trumbold
COPA DE ORO MEMBERS:
Jim & Kimberly Bennett
Chris Danner
Ron Gauny
Buri Gray
Paul Harrington
Robin Knepper
Villa Los Arcos <<<http://villalosarcos.net/>>>
Dr. James Manne
No Way José! Restaurant-Bar<<<http://www.nowayjosemx.com/>>>
Darrell Rumsey & Mel Maeda
Roger & Joana Smith
David & Pam Tomlin
Villa Balboa <<<http://villabalboa.com/>>>
Devin & Ellen Zagory
Shirley K. Schlafer Foundation
We Appreciate Your Feedback!
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VallartaGardenClub.com
The Vallarta Botanical Gardens
Your Best Vacation Value!
Spend the day in the Gardens for only $60 pesos.
Located 30 minutes south of Old Town, Puerto Vallarta, on Carretera a Barra Navidad at km 24, just past Las Juntas y Los Veranos.
Telephone (322) 223-6182
Open from 9 am to 5 pm, Tuesday to Sunday