YES!!! The "I'm so happy" thread. 2009

[David Nicholson]

She's beautiful Angie, cherish and enjoy.

[Paddy Tobin]

Have a look at what I have in  mind for the garden:  http://gizmodo.com/5400303/worlds-tallest-most-expensive-fountain-in-sparkling-action


Paddy

[Maggi Young]

Charming and understated , Paddy.... but I'm not confident that your water board and electricity connection  will be up to it

[Paddy Tobin]

So much water for a desert country!

Paddy

[Rodger Whitlock]

While the rest of you are cooing over a successfully propagated specimen of Homo sapiens, I'm cooing over a self-sown plant of Cyclamen libanoticum. I must be doing something right if this species is self-sown!

Just a couple of leaves, but it's put itself in a site I wouldn't have planted it in, right next to my front walk. Probably too young to flower, but in a couple of years...pow!

[Lesley Cox]

Actually, Cyc. libanoticum will flower at as young as two.

Paddy, such a design will look very tasteful near your hydrangea bed. The splashing should help to keep them cool too. Pleased you've found something so eminently in harmony with the southern Irish landscape.

[Paddy Tobin]

Spot on, Lesley. Just the place for it!!!LOL At present the ground in the garden is completely squishy and splashy - wellington boots essential. We have had lots and lots of rain here of late.

Paddy

[Maggi Young]

In this thread : http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=249.msg119812#msg119812 you may have seen reference to an article, featuring Ian and mylself, that has been published in a glossy magazine/catalogue which is produced by a family owned firm of Jewellers in Aberdeen. Finnies the Jewellers have been in business for around fifty years and or on of the largest family owned jewellery businesses in the city. Let's just say that Ian and I have known the family and their business for a long time.....for trophy engraving, for a start, before you all begin with your bling jokes!
The Finnies know about our involvement with SRGC and the world of plants and gardening and I was asked if we'd like to have a piece about Ian and I  in this issue of the magazine, which will go out to ten thousand customers of the firm, and I though it a super chance to get the Rock Garden Club a bit of publicity and so we went ahead, with the slant being that there is a strong Aberdeen connection to the SRGC in its world wide presence on the web...... here is the article..... it is in pdf form, just click on the link below....

[Paddy Tobin]

Maggi,

I must compliment you on two fronts immediately. The article is excellent, a true representation of the SRGC and due praise for the work yourself and Ian do for the club.

Secondly, you look very well in the photograph.

Paddy

[Maggi Young]

Thanks, Paddy

[Ragged Robin]

Maggi, I second Paddy's thoughts - I kept searching for the elusive article and then suddenly noticed the attached pdf on your post.  Wonderful to have such happy publicity for the SRGC, beautifully written, and to see you and Ian so at home in your glorious garden. What treasures you have there, congratulations in every way and thanks for all the hard work you do on behalf of us all to make the Forum such a vibrant meeting place 

[Paddy Tobin]

Maggi,

A stray thought/question: what awareness of the online SRGC is there among the terrestrial members? Are we, here, in a sort of parallel SRGC world but, perhaps, a little divorced from the club on the ground, so to speak?

Paddy

[maggiepie]

Maggi, I'm with Paddy and Robin.
It's a lovely pic and your gardens ( the bits I can see) beg to be explored.
Would love to spend a day doing just that!!

[Maggi Young]

Sadly, Paddy, it seems that there is little understanding of the sheer size and scope of the website and, particularly, the Forum, among the "terrestrial" members, as you put it. There are those, who  though they may not frequent this place, are aware of the importance it has in bringing so many of us together in the name of the SRGC around the world and, of course, both our current President, Ian, the Christie kind,and our soon to be President, Liz Mills, recognise fully the part the website plays in the continuing health of the club, but I am keenly aware that there are those who regard all we do here as some sort of vague entertainment : if only they could or would see for themselves the wonderful photos, with habitat and cultivation descriptions of the marvelous plants of the world that forumists share in these pages. Luckily those folks are in the minority !  
In times when membership  coming through local groups  tends to be falling, the numbers finding the SRGC and joining via the website are at a rate of around  6 to 1 of postal applications. A very tangible illustration of the value to the Club of the website!

As was pointed out at the recent Discussion Weekend, when it was heartening to see the number of registered forumists and the lovely Lurkers stand to show their support of the venture, the numbers of simply the registered forumists visiting the Forum every day constitutes a DAILY gathering of the size of the audience assmbled for the weekend! We are the largest "local group" of the club... and the most active!

With the online seed ordering service about to be in use again, and things like our project to document seeds by scale photos etc, never mind the tens of thousands of people every week who are coming to read the Bulb Log and so on, the website is really the engine house for the future "prosperity"  of the club in terms of generating membship and giving world wide members a place to meet and call home as they exchange views about the wee mountain plants of the world that so fascinate us. I must say that our "unique selling point", so to speak, is undoubtedly the fact that we are not afraid here to discuss all sorts of other things, too.... from Tree Dahlias to mice ..... just as one would in a face to face social interaction.... that's what makes this a friendly welcoming place and what so very many people remark about the Forum......I very much hope that this place will prove not only a tonic, but a backbone to the SRGC in the coming years of the 21st Century...... the world is not as it was in 1933 when the Club was founded and the Club must realise that and embrace this new world! The Terrestrials will catch up with us in the end.... we just need patience!  Of course there will always be a place of prime importance for the Journal and I fervently hope that local Groups can survive the downturn in society membership that seems to be rife in this era of home cinemas and gyms etc. but the vigour of a good website and a popular and busy Forum, such as we enjoy, can surely not be understated?
Thank goodness for Fred, our WebMaster/Designer, beavering away in the cold high country outside Aberdeen and praise be for a broadband connection here in the city so I can be at hand for the website's email enquiries and to lend my assistance in the Forum in whatever capacity is called for, minute to minute! Long live the Scottish Rock Garden Club!!

[Paddy Tobin]

A very informative response, Maggi. Many thanks.

Hopefully, the local terrestrial club will thrive to match the online interest and I have no doubt that it will. Although many garden clubs worry of aging membership and lack of interest among the young there is an enormous interest interest among younger people in vegetable growing and the like. This interest will mature into general gardening and, perhaps, into a more specialised gardening interest such as the growing of alpine plants.

In the meantime the online branch of the SRGC will continue to spread the message of the joys of gardening and of meeting other gardeners.

Paddy