Lest I've been misunderstood--I too have not been impressed by master gardeners of any stripe. They've never been able to answer any of my questions I do consider them a possible resource though, and wanted to support Tony's idea--gotta start somewhere -- in inaugurating a staged program for noticing and alerting to invasiveness in either plants or their pests. But maybe Boy Scouts would be better who were working for a merit badge would be more eager and alert . . I remember that Bird Study was a really tough one to attain. .. ----- Original Message ----- From: <totototo@telus.net> To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Tuesday, July 28, 2009 7:44 PM Subject: Re: [pbs] plant regulation-Trivial-and OT > 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/… > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/