Boyce Tankersley wrote: >The stalwart venerable plant societies have generally been in >decline for about 20 years, some less than others. It seems the >older they are, the more they have declined. The internet has >removed the need to join to discover sources, and learn about >cultivation. Is the plant society a vanishing species? I think the specialist society may be generally in decline, and perhaps some of them continue only because they mount competitive shows. However, even England's venerable Alpine Garden Society with its many shows is experiencing a fall-off in membership. Here in North America we are scattered at such great distances that we just can't get together as the Brits and Scots do. Moreover, the smaller a society gets, the more likely it may be to fall apart when the tiny group of frequent workers get tired of doing everything; or factional disputes may doom it when the few members decide it's just not worth fighting for. I was saddened recently when one of the most effective and prominent members of NARGS told me that she probably would not join the Society as it exists today. The only way to prevent our societies from vanishing is to offer benefits through them that can't be obtained any other way. Once this was journals and book sales, but as Boyce wrote, the Internet has taken over this function to a large extent. Even the photo lectures we enjoy have competition from sources such as the PBS wiki and the Scottish Rock Garden Club's website. However, you still can't get seeds (and bulbs) via cable, nor does a virtual tour compete with the field trips available through some groups. A few years ago I was appointed to head a "think tank" to develop ideas for increasing NARGS membership. One idea we floated was to establish "interest groups" similar to those sponsored by AGS (e.g., the Fritillaria Group, to which I belong), and to draw into these people who have specialized collections in, say, certain plant families. Such enthusiasts have come together for a few years from time to time, for instance as the now defunct Dianthus Society or Hepatica Society (now they can exist mostly as e-mail lists, like this one, or Trillium-L); or they belong to longstanding groups that are now fading away (I won't cite examples, but I'm sure you know of some). Leading members of at least two "fading" societies told me privately that they would like their groups to affiliate in that way. However, NARGS had an ineffective leadership at the time, and our report sank without a trace. Another idea in it was to start a botanical tour program in association with a tour business (such as AGS has with Greentours), but no one could be found to coordinate it. Perhaps American plant societies will go the way of fraternal/sororal organizations like the Elks, Moose, and so on. Their heyday was in the decades surrounding 1900, when many American communities were forming and stabilizing, and people had fewer leisure activities available so they had time to go to meetings. Has the enthusiasm for unusual plants thus formed and stabilized to the extent that we no longer need anything beyond electronic communication and the occasional exchange of material? I hope not: I wish someone would show up tomorrow to take a look at Narcissus humilis and Colchicum pulchellum here. Jane McGary Portland, Oregon, USA