Let me introduce myself ...

[Lesley Cox]

Add my congrats and heartfelt admiration to the batch above, Rob and Sharon. I remember the stunning pics of Cypripediums last year on the old Forum and look forward to more of the same and others over the coming months. A lovely website and a magnificent garden. Many, many thanks.

[illingworth]

Thank you indeed for the positive responses to our garden photos. Rob will be posting  pictures to the forum as spring and summer come along, although we have found it hard to post during the summer.  Our seasons are way out of synch with Britain - we are lucky if we have snowdrops by mid April - and usually we are coming in with our plants like runners trailing in last in the marathon. The compressed spring is very busy, with plants hurling themselves into growth and bloom, and we don't have the mild climate option of digging, planting, pruning etc between October and the end of April.  Rob manages to take the photographs, but going any further with them  gets put on the backburner until winter. Now he has a new and faster computer, but we have a very slow dialup connection.

And yes Luc we do have problems. Black flies alone can drive a gardener mad, as can mosquitoes, deer flies,  and even wood ticks (new to us here the past couple of years). Getting access to new plants when you live back of beyond is frustrating. Otherwise, our problems are similar to everyone else's. We all face the vagaries of weather, water or lack thereof, storms, animals...

Mark, I really like the white foxgloves and last year we had a bumper crop. They are marginally hardy here - one year we had none - but there was  seed stock in the ground to get us going again. I always yank the pink ones the minute they appear. It always horrifies garden visitors if I do this in front of them.With rescue in mind they sometimes go off with what I've pulled  up.

Our son posts a lot of bird pictures on Flickr and he got Rob set up with an account. Rob is enthused with it as he can post large numbers of big images.  You need to be a Flickr subscriber to post comments or ask questions there, but if anyone here has any questions  we are happy to respond either on or off this forum.
Again, thanks for the encouragement. You put a big smile on Rob's face.
Sharon

[Maggi Young]

Yes, Sharon, I remember the link to your son's super bird photos from the old forum. It seems you Illingworths are a talented bunch all round! Thanks for sharing with us, we really appreciate it.

[ChrisB]

We live in Canada near Lake Superior, south of Thunder Bay Ontario.

Hi there, nice to hear from a fellow Canuck!  I used to live in the relatively balmy Toronto which thwarted my gardening spirit with the long winters and short summers.  I came back here to a climate that allowed gardening year round after 20+ years.  i can't imagine how you have managed to create such a wonderful garden up there when you can only penetrate the soil for three or four months of the year.  I take my hat off to you.  Great photos, great garden, keep it up!

[illingworth]

Chris, we don't member Toronto being that great either but have since discovered many wonderful gardens in and around that city. Lori P. who lives about 50 miles north of the Toronto was on the old forum but I haven't noticed her here on this one.  Lori and her husband visited us last August.

Our brief growing season is in a way a blessing, as without it we would have both burned out long ago. And long winter is time for other passions like reading, woodworking and photography. And then after so much winter spring arrives with such a release of energy that it is euphoric.

I have posted many more pictures to the Flickr site and we appreciate your compliments about what we’ve done.

I wonder why so few North Americans are on this list when there is so much to learn and share?

-Rob

[derekb]

Hi ,I am Derek Bacon I started growing Alpines in mid 1960`s joined the AGS late 60s and SRGC early 70s.When I joined the Central Sussex Group Will and Paul Ingwerson were members and also Bob And Rannvieg Wallis so had a lot of help, Bob gave me 2 Cassiope so that started me I used to grow and show Ericaceae and Primulaceae,Bo used to take my plants to London shows with his.
I was at the Bangor and Nottingham conferences, but about 14years ago it all went Pearshape and for 10 years I stopped growing starting about 4 years ago ( and Lesley incase you ask I was not a guest of HMG) so that is the reason I have been using a lot of nurseries and asking questions trying to catchup.

[Maggi Young]

Well, Derek, it is great to have you back taking part in Club activities again. That's the thing about gardening, isn't it, you can leave it for a while , but you can always pick up the threads again later as circumstances allow.

[Lesley Cox]

Hello Derek,
   You do me wrong! It didn't occur to me that you may have been a guest of HMG, well, not until you mentioned it , and I know very well that things CAN go pear-shaped. In my own alpine gardening life of close to 50 years, that very thing has happened a few times and it was ONLY gardening that kept me sane and hopeful, so I'm pleased that you didn't give it up altogether. I was at the Nottingham conference too. But I seem to remember there were around 700 people registered that time, so not surprising we didn't meet. Maybe another time.

[derekb]

Lesley, I was not being rude just reading some of your posts I thought we had the same sense of humour but you had more Lady like language.
At Nottingham did you sit where you could hear the speakers?
   Derek :

[Lesley Cox]

There's nothing ladylike about me Derek!

Mostly I was near the back I think, and many of the speakers came across as very muffled or echoing. Not helped either by the occasional very foreign accent, such as Rolf Feidler's. Looking back, I didn't appreciate then, how lucky I was to meet him and hear him speak. A wasted opportunity.

I do remember, meeting in the coffee queue, a much younger Alan Titchmarsh. He was new to alpines and we had a good chat then we decided to write to each other, but it never happened.

[Joakim B]

This thread is an excelent thread to present Yourself on.
I have the feeling that we have got many new members on the forum and it would be interesting to know more about You.
I have already introduced myself and to make it short I garden (plant things) where ever I can and mostly in Sweden and Portugal but also in Hungary. Interested in all plants (that rock) not only rock plants.
This little fellow (Rafael) is new to the forum and his big brother (Gabriel) is now watering everything he can.

Hope we will see more introducions here
Kind regards
Joakim

[Maggi Young]

Joakim, many congratulations to you and your wife on the arrival of Rafael and to Gabriel on his smart new brother!
I am pleased to hear that Gabriel has begun to help with the watering


I think it is a very useful thing to have forumists introduce themselves here, also to add their name and location to their signature bar of their posts so we can have an idea of their gardening climate and conditions: welcome to you all.....

[Joakim B]

Maggi nice illustrations
To answer the question placed elsewhere
Rafael was born 2007 June 13 0522 at 4480g and 54cm in Lund Sweden. That is 10 pounds and 1.75 feet in old money.
I do not know how many stones that is
So far it is only daddy that use the above watering technique and never on pots and absolutely never on plants with needels
Gabriel uses water when watering and use all devices ("watering can" and buckets) he can to make it come out on the ground or floor if he is indoor.

We are now in Sweden but will go to Portugal on Friday so I will see how those plants have developed.
Gabriel will appreciate the pool (I hope) at least daddy will, even if daddy will have to inflate it and fill it him self. Sweden is currently changing temperatures every day and generally with 10C so no weather for baths for us.

Kind regards
Joakim

[Loripep]

Hello everyone;

I'm Lori Peplinskie from Orangeville, Ontario, Canada which is located just northwest of Toronto. Even though I started gardening at the ripe old age of 7 in my parents vegetable patch, I still consider myself a beginner with the alpine and other plants in which I'm interested. They include but are not limited to: hepatica, cypripedium, all woodlanders, actually I'm interested in too many to mention here. I've just started getting the necessary working areas of my garden together including a cypripedium frame, styorfoam box troughs and a sand plunge. Now I just have to convince the hubby that replacing the remaining lawn with garden beds will save him an immense amount of time for lazing about in the hammock.

Take care everyone and keep the posts coming. I've learned so much from this forum and club.

Lori

[Thomas Huber]

Congratulations Joakim and a big welcome to Rafael!!




And of course a warm welcome to Lori, too!