Let me introduce myself ...

[admin]

resistance to the myriad charms of the little plants that so captivate us here on this forum is futile....

You will be assimilated and become part of the collective. 

[Joakim B]

My name is Joakim Balogh and I am interested in hardy orchids, hepaticas and anemones (nemorosa) that also grows wild around where we live in Sweden. I am also interested in galanthus and crocus (that have escaped captivety and lives semi free around where we live).
Another interest is in hardy cyclamen and colchicums that grows wild in Hungary the country of my father.
Since we now also live part time in Portugal, the country of my wife, I will also test "non hardy" spieces of the above spieces.
I must admit that I buy more plants in the supermarket than in specialised stores. I am now going more towards the true spieces then commercial hybrids.
Is it OK to like both?
Thanks for a lovely webpage

Kind regards
Joakim Balogh

[mark smyth]

admin must be a fan of the Borg!?

[Tim Murphy]

... 'seven of nine' in particular, I'll bet...

[mark smyth]

definitely

[Lesley Cox]

So THAT'S the problem. Thanks everyone for excellent advice and I'll get onto it shortly. In fact, it's quite interesting going all those steps back to last Forum etc. I even had various pics come up from the BULB LOG but I swear to God the pornography pics weren't mine. Apart from any other consideration, they were all women and any I downloaded wouldn't have been! NO-ONE else uses this computer so something from outside must have been lurking. But I have the softeware to clean up, just need to set it in motion. Thanks again.

[BjorgS]

Well, here's another one from Norway.
My name is Bjørg Sookermany.  I live in Bergen, on the West Coast of Norway, and my main hobby is gardening.  I have been interested in plants for as long as I can remember, and that is a good many years.  I used to have a good collection of Fuchsias, but have been cutting back on that lately.  There are so many other plants I would like to grow, and space is limited here in my garden.  The garden is approx. 750 sq.meters and I have absolutely no lawn as I need every bit of land for my plants.  In the Summer I also have plants in pots all over the place.  This creates a lot of work (watering) when the weather is good, like it can be here in Bergen.  This year we have had a lovely, warm and sunny Summer followed by a mild, windy and wet late Autumn.  Actually it has rained more or less every day for the last 5 weeks, and the forecast says more wind and water is on its way.  BUT.. this is great weather for staying inside, dreaming and making plans for next season.

[mark smyth]

welcome to the forums Bjørg. Glad you have come in from the side lines. You'll learn lots here as we all do

[Hkind]

I think it's time to introduce myself.

I am borne in Hamburg, Germany, but live since 40 years in Stockholm, Sweden.  I got my garden 1980, when we bought a summer house 300 km north of Stockholm. Since I retired 2001 I use to spend the time between 1 May-15 October in my summer house/garden.

My first plant obsession were the Kabschia saxifrages. Now that the garden has grown up and there is more shade I have more woodlands and peat beds, but there are still some small rock gardens and I still growe Kabschias.

My special love are Gentiana, Anemone nemorosa cultivars, Hepatica, Meconopsis, orchids and ferns.   But there are plants of all kind. Restrictions are only given by the unfriendly climate. We have almost every winter temperatures down to -35 C. Snow cover is not reliable. Summers can be hot and very dry, but it's a good thing that nights are usually quite cool.

I have a husband - who doesn't share my gardening interest - three sons and two grandsons.

Here are two pics of my garden. If you want to see more of my garden, you can visit my web site.

[Thomas Huber]

Welcome, Bjørg, Tim and Joakim.
And a special welcome to Hannelotte - didn't know that you were born in Germany!!

[Hkind]

Vielen Dank, Thomas!

I felt a bit silly when introducing myself, since I have been with the forum almost from the very start (old forum).  But I am not always participating in the discussions - mostly because I have nothing to say  .

My gardening conditions differ so much from most other forumists: when the discussion starts about Hepatica my garden is still covered by snow and when they start blooming in my garden, the thread is dead. New Zeeland plants are beautiful and exciting, but I cannot bring them through our rough winters, etc. Most bulbs don't survive more than one season, etc. - On the other hand there are plants - like for example Chinese gentians, which are very easy in my garden and most of you have difficulties with them. 

By the way, I am quite often in Germany. This spring I visited Eugen Schleipfer (the man who raised the double gentian 'Eugens Allerbester). So maybe we'll meet some time in the future.

Hannelotte

[Thomas Huber]

Would be great to meet you, Hannelotte!
You will be welcome here every time!!!!

[John Forrest]

Welcome, Bjørg, Tim and Joakim and Hannelotte. It's wonderful to see new forumers appearing from cyberspace, although some are reappearances. Must be the magic of the new forum site or the enticement of this thread.
Hannelotte I have just been pearing over your garden fence to enjoy some of your beautiful flowers.

[snowdropman]

My name is Chris Sanham, I am a Retired Banker, and I live in West Sussex, close to the south coast of England. No prizes for guessing that my main interest is snowdrops! I grow most of them in and around a wooded area in my garden, mainly under a large horse chestnut tree - I do not have a greenhouse, so they either survive outside, or not at all - so far they seem to have survived and I am able to grow the more 'sensitive' varieties, such as g. cilicicus, without any apparent problems. My house is sited on a sandstone ridge, which stretches all the way up into Kent, so my soil is very sandy & free draining - good for snowdrops, but not so good for other plants/shrubs (quite a few of which I lost during the drought this summer)

We have had a hosepipe ban in place here continuously for the past 21 months, which makes for some challenging gardening, & we got close to a drought order in the summer. We have just had the warmest autumn since records started about 350 years ago but, thankfully, we have also had buckets of rain so fingers crossed that our water reservoirs are being filled up ready for next year!

I am also interested in cyclamen, hellebores, trillium & camellia and have just tried some colchicum for the first time.

I do not own a camera but if and when I do I will try to post some photo's.

[hadacekf]

A warm welcome, Chris! I'm looking forward to seeing the first photos from you.