Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - As you drive into town from the airport, walk down the Malecon, Calles Augustin Rodriguez and Encino adjacent to the flea market, Ave. Vallarta, Insurgentes, and Mexico, and especially Basilio Badillo and Olas Altas, you will see the trees and bougainvillea that the Vallarta Garden Club installed.

The Club is beginning its fourth full year with the important mission of stimulating the knowledge and love of gardening, beautifying and protecting our local environment through civic planting projects, educational, and horticultural programs.

The Club’s partnership with the city for filling and maintaining planters when the new sidewalks went in two years ago is our primary accomplishment. The Club sells sponsorship of these planters, which are filled with a single primavera tree surrounded by colorful bougainvillea plants with Corona de Cristo (Crown of Thorns) and other flowering plants. Custom-designed tiles, painted at Mundo de Azuelos "World of Tiles", featuring the sponsor’s names and often a philosophy or memorial, are affixed to each planter.

Most tiles are in English but if you look closely there are some in Spanish, French, and German - reflecting the truly international flavor that is Puerto Vallarta. The foliage and yellow blooms of the primavera trees will provide shade, and the brilliant bougainvillea blossoms will cascade over the streets.

Sponsorship of a planter can be purchased for $3200 to $5200 pesos depending upon the location. Please walk the city and as you see a planter location, or trees planted in circular cut-outs from the sidewalks, pick one you’d like to sponsor and we will place a tile denoting your sponsorship. Maintaining these plantings is an ongoing and often Sisyphean endeavor. Everything grows fast here in the tropics and that includes weeds. We pay a gardener throughout the summer in addition to planting and replacing plants. Contact us at suzkirk66(at)gmail.com to help

The Garden Club is planning the second annual Puerto Vallarta Bugambilia Festival. The vision behind this festival is to provide an additional reason to make Puerto Vallarta a destination city for tourism and to awaken our residents - Mexican nationals as well as expats - to the potential for further beautifying our city.

While the physical beauty of Puerto Vallarta is undeniable, we expect that as with other floral festivals - such as the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington DC, The Rose Festival in Portland, Oregon and others - an additional draw will be created by the opportunity to see the height of the blossoms. The Club is deeply committed to making this vision: "Puerto Vallarta – the Bougainvillea Capital of the world" a reality. This season’s festival will be May 9-12, 2014.

The Vallarta Garden Club meets the third Thursday of each month at 11 am at the Paradise Community Center in Old Town on Pulpito #127. Guest speakers present topics pertinent to gardening in the tropics. Sandra Cesca, author of a tropical plant book, and local walking tour guide, will be our speaker on November 21st.

Annual dues are only $200 pesos and are used to support the ongoing efforts described herein. The Vallarta Garden Club is registered as a non-profit organization in Mexico. Dues obligation can be paid at the meeting, or dropped off at Mailboxes Etc. in the Zona Romantica to Club Treasurer, Matthias Vogt, Box #298. We gladly accept donations above that amount. We receive no assistance from the city so it is up to us to make this a more beautiful place.

Friend us on Facebook and visit our website - vallartagardenclub.com.