Introduction:2nd International Czech Rock Garden Conference - 2-5 May 2013

[Diane Whitehead]

watch out for the dumplings 

I found stand-up snack bars a more pleasant place to eat than sit-down places because
smoking was not allowed in the snack bars.  This was in 1999, and I hope no-smoking
places are more common now.

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks Susan, Maggi and Diane for the local information, very helpful to someone whose foreign (as distinct from UK and Irish) travel is confined to an AGS trip to Greece almost 20 years ago!

A great shame about the Show. I suppose we'll be on tour then. No chance of a quick detour to take in the Show Jiri? 

[Maggi Young]

A great shame about the Show. I suppose we'll be on tour then. No chance of a quick detour to take in the Show Jiri? 

Don't worry Lesley, you know these Guys are very thorough...... see the programme .....

http://czrgs.cz/conference-program.html   .......

Thursday May 9

    gardens
    the May Show in Charles Square (Prague Rock Garden Club)
    individual tour of Prague and departure
    dinner

[Jiri Papousek]

As time is running so fast, I would like to remind that possibility to get Early fee will expire at the end of December. So don't hesitate to save money and register soon.  a All details are available http://www.czrgs.cz/conference-payment.html

[Susann]

I guess, as I have finally become a member of the Forum ( sorry it took so long, Maggi!) I have to presentate myself as one of the Swedes going to the Conference.  I am really looking forward to meet you all, and especially you, Angie and Leslie, of course!
Olga, I hope your trick at the bank worked so you will soon tell us you have finally been able to pay!
There is a heavy snowstorm right now but after reading all the posts in this thread I have my head full of Czech friends, Calliathemums, Daphnes and the wonderful Czech sour cabbage. Please, Jiri, ask the hotels to prepare a lot of it, if possible even for breakfast!

[angie]

Susann looking forward to meeting you. May will soon be here and I can't wait. Its nice this time of year to have something to look forward to. I hate these cold and the dark days of January. Roll on spring time.
Sour cabbage, now I have never tasted this before. I hope they have nice chocolate over there 

Angie 

[Lesley Cox]

Hello Susann and a very warm welcome to the Forum, as a poster. I hope you'll keep it up and become one of the "regulars" here.

Like Angie, I'm looking forward to meeting you in the Czech Republic and I'm sure we'll all be good friends soon. I think this conference is going to be a lot of fun and I certainly expect to have a ball, as we say here.

The sour cabbage sounds interesting. I'm more used to BURNT cabbage and have wrecked a couple of saucepans achieving that! I use a frypan now with a tiny dab of butter, salt and pepper and just a tbsp of water, and stand over it, watching it as if it were my baby chick.

I have a lot on before the conference so it still seems a long way off.  A Study Weekend in early Feb, then house/garden/nursery moving, then maybe a short spell in hospital (not confirmed yet) and then leaving home on Anzac Day, 25th April and NZ the next day. I'm really looking forward to a break from all the stresses here.

[Susann]

Leslie and Angie; thank you for your nice answers! I think we are already friends? There will be so much to talk about. I have no idea what is possible to grow in NZ or Scotland, but I am sure I will know a lot more when leaving the Conference. "Sour cabbage"...Perhaps the correct English expression would have been "fermented cabbage". It really doesn´t matter what it is called.
If I am some time missing when a lecture begins, please check for me at the restaurant, I might have gotten lost in a heap of cabbage.

Good news is that yesterday Olga has finally been able to pay for the Conference! She has had problems with several banks not letting her do the transfer.

Temperature keeps falling indoor and I am dressed as for a Mount Everst climbing, it is now less than +10 ( less than +50 F) and I start to get worried about the precious plants in the small conservatory where it soon is at 0, and the indoor water-pipes. May it please be Monday soon and  with a solution for the broken boiler.

[astragalus]

Lesley et al, I would really love to be at the Conference and meet everyone, not to mention seeing great plants.  The only time I left my garden in May was for the Nottingham Conference, which was superb and I don't regret it.  But I spent the rest of the year playing "catch-up" and never quite did.  Hope you all have a wonderful time and will share special things you see via pictures on the Forum, please.  I agreed to open my garden on May 4th for the Garden Conservancy, which truly prevents any change of mind re: the Czech Conference.  I'm so sorry it means I won't have a chance to meet Jiri, and talk with him about our respective crevice gardens.

[Lesley Cox]

Anne, I'm so sorry you won't be there, I was sure you would be, but I fully understand the problems. Once things get away, it's almost impossible to catch up properly and of course you can't cancel a promised garden open day. But I'll certainly be thinking of you often, with every crevice we see and I know there will be very many.

I'm delighted Olga has her payment transfers sorted as I want so much to meet her, a most generous lady who has sent me beautiful seed. I think she is also herself, beautiful and will enhance any group photos we will all take.

Susann, such interesting information you have sent me and now I think I need an extra week at least, in Prague. You are right, no plants can be brought home to NZ but the looking will be a great treat, so many things we don't have here. Thank goodness for our cameras.

I'll have to fight off Angie's Chocolate. I'll certainly try Susann's cabbage (like sauerkraut?) but for now I'm gorging on cherries and other stone fruit hoping to lose another kilo or two before I leave NZ.

[Diane Whitehead]

One thing I have done on various travels (and at flower shows with permission of
exhibitors) is to collect pollen which I then use at home on my flowers.  It's a way
of getting some new characteristics and one already knows that the species is one
that is allowed.

[sippa]

Hi everyone,
Roland and I have just booked our airtickets with my friend Lisa whom I talked into coming to the conference.  We had such a good time at the conference 5 years ago.  I seem to remember there were also a lot of dumplings but I look forward to the cabbage.  I look forward to meet you all in May.  The only thing remaining now is to get my import permit for plants.

[Maggi Young]

I can't say I  am excited about the prospect of sour cabbage  - but the thought of meeting up with so many forumists is another matter altogether- that is really something to look forward to.

[ChrisB]

Sour cabbage doesn't appeal much  so I'll be drinking Czech lager  while you eat your cabbage Susann...

[Olga Bondareva]

Susann,
I am glad you joined the forum!

Yes I hope transfer is OK. I also hope so much to meet everybody I know from SRGC forum. So many people who gave me advises, information and swap with me!

Lesley, 
Please let me know if you need any plants or seeds.

Prague is a beautiful city! I can't be impartial because I live it and Czechs very much. But it's really a city of many miscellaneous historical and cultural places. You can walk in the old center for several days. It's chip and friendly. Cabbage, lager, pork leg and strudel are waiting for us.