Lions and bulbs

By Kath Gannaway
HEALESVILLE Lions Club enlisted the help of Steels Creek Garden Club when it needed help to put a bloomin’ good idea into practice.
The club bought 300 starter collection spring bulb kits to distribute to fire-affected property owners, schools and other groups as part of its bushfire support program.
“The idea is to progress along with the emerging needs of people, and bulbs were thought of as a way of raising spirits in the bushfire areas,” said Lions president Alex Brown as he handed over several boxes of the bulbs to garden club president Maggie Lloyd-Smith and member Chris Lumsden last week.
“Maggie and her crew are helping us out immensely by assisting with distribution of the bulbs, which is a very big job,” Mr Brown said.
Incoming Lions president John Widdows was on the job, too, seeing that the Chum Creek and Flowerdale communities were looked after.
Ms Lloyd-Smith said one of the things that lifted her spirits after the fire was seeing the pink belladonna blooms literally rising from the ashes along Steels Creek Road soon after the fires.
“If you have just lost everything in the fires buying or planting bulbs would not be the first thing you would think of, but they will certainly be appreciated,” she said.
The bulbs can be planted immediately and will progressively bloom from winter into spring.
Ms Lloyd-Smith planned to deliver the bulbs to primary schools in fire-affected areas from Kinglake through to Toolangi and around the Yarra Glen district, and to householders they know of who have lost their gardens.
The bulbs are also available at the Lions Den opportunity shop in Healesville and from the Yarra Glen Community Relief Centre.