How we all started - our humble origins and a potted history
The geranium family has been known in the botanical world since c. 50AD. A Greek physician of the Roman empire of that time included it in a plant dictionary and references to its existence have recurred down the centuries.
Much later, c.1602, officers of the Dutch East India Company identified the pelargonium and linked it with the geranium family. Modern botanical usage tends to refute this connection, though the common heritage cannot be denied.
Of the five original components of the family tree geraniaceae some 615 species have been catalogued and from these thousands of cultivars are now known to exist.
The Australian story starts with the arrival of Capt. James Cook in the Endeavour in Botany Bay in 1770. He had in his crew two very dedicated collectors of botanical material - Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander. These gentlemen found on the shores of Botany Bay indigenous specimens which they named pilosum (later solander) and australe (later pelargonium australe.) Further indigenous specimens were found with the passage of time and the extension of settlement.
When the first fleet arrived in 1788 it is reported geraniums were amongst the plants they bought with them.
The first Geranium Society in Australia was formed in Victoria in the 1950 Later a branch of the Geranium Society of New South Wales was formed at the Gold Coast.
Subsequently other societies followed - Toowoomba in 1960, a Queensland Division in 1963, Hannaford in 1964, Brisbane in 1970, and Nambour later.
The first show of the Queensland Division was held in 1984 and has been an annual event since.
In 2000 the Brisbane Society and the Queensland Society amalgamated to form the present body - The Geranium and Pelargonium Society of Brisbane Queensland Inc.
This present Society pursues with enthusiam and dedication the furtherance of public interest in the species and welcomes support from those who have a similar vision.