On 28 Jul 2009, at 15:18, Robert Pries wrote: > plant societies are appearing to be on the way out if you look at membership. > If their members are not a bit more generous in welcoming the less informed > they can soon be talking to the wall. The malaise is much more deeply rooted than that. We live in a society centered on immediate gratification and gardening is NOT that. It takes time and EFFORT and sticktoitiveness to learn the ins and outs of any one branch of horticulture, and that's precisely what the younger generation isn't willing to supply. Modern uninformed types want knowledge and expertise handed to them on a silver platter, want to be spoonfed what others only learned by paying close attention for decades, but that's not the way you learn to grow plants or arrange a garden. You learn those by getting your hands dirty, making lots of mistakes, and killing lots of plants in the process. Another element in the gradual decline of gardening societies is that gardening, as a hobby, has a great deal more competition these days than it did when we old fossils were first hatched from pterodactyl eggs. Why go out and spray the aphids when you can be self-actualizing in the nearest mall or big box store, or finding enlightenment at the foot of your latest guru? Even if they go hiking in the mountains, they pay next to no attention to the floral beauties they pass. The Master Gardener program has been mentioned in passing. Perhaps it's a heresy that will lead to me being burnt as part of an enormous horticultural auto da fe, but I think that program is a con, a fake, a scam. All it teaches is how to look something up in books! Those who emerge from the progam tend to think "now I know everything" when in fact they should emerge with a sense of how little they know. Harumph! Young whipper-snappers! -- Rodger Whitlock Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate on beautiful Vancouver Island http://maps.google.ca/maps/…