Dear Nick, Your detailed analysis was very interesting to read: It surely portrays the situation well. As a younger generation's representative, I would also add two more causes in favour of your thesis (= that younger people are hard to hook with flowers and collecting passion): 1. it is more and more difficult for young people (than it was for the older generations) to get anchoring and stability, with enough professional success, continuity, and money (to own a house, a garden, and infrastructures such as a greenhouse). The virtual life is a consequence that there can't be enough material resources for everyone, and diverting people in that direction is a technical way to engineer the society so that civil peace is maintained. 2. joining societies with too much passion and curiosity often results in pissing off ancient members, who may feel threatened by newcomers. Sometimes, they will show superior and patronizing attitudes as defensive mechanisms and territorial behaviours. Furthermore, it seems that societies get organized around salient personalities, and just being interested in knowledge and plant collecting will not be enough: you also need to yield to this pyramidal order or you will be discriminated by the group. Young people like their freedom, especially in hobbies, and may not be willing to accept the cost of such human constraints. Additionally, despite a global population increase, the world is also much more complex, and possible hobbies are so diverse and becoming so specific, technical, and professionalized, that it will mechanically divide the amount of people each activity may attract (not to mention other sociological factors such as the European population replacement by people with different sets of interests imported from other areas of the global village). But I also agree with other comments that the virtual world is a superb connecting tool bringing so much opportunities and allowing different universes to exist in parallel. What humankind has created is so amazing, and still going on ! I would not fear for the future though: if an activity is worthy, it will always attract people and people will create the world that suits what they are (let's hope). Maybe should you make connections with universities and schools involved in horticultural studies - where young plant passionates thrive? I'm sure you would get a public there. Christian