To answer Ina's question, PBS membership (the paid membership, not
the much larger number who subscribe to this discussion list) has
been increasing slowly for at least the past three years and
presently stands at around 380. The number of new members slightly
exceeds those who drop out annually. Most new members are recruited
via the PBS website, often attracted by the archived BX offering
lists. Sometimes they use the Contact feature to ask a question,
specific or general. Most of these come first to me, and I answer
them if I can, or I post them to this list so others can answer them.
The inquirers often join PBS as a result.

An aging demographic is a problem for almost all plant societies and
is much discussed. There are many recognized causes. Young people
today mostly move around a lot, especially the well-educated
population who typically become interested in rare plants, so they
may not garden. We have obvious exceptions, such as outgoing PBS
president Nhu Nguyen, who has been maintaining a large collection in
containers until his recent job-related move to Minneapolis, and
indeed myself (I had a flower garden in the back yard of my appalling
rental house when I was an undergraduate, and I built my first rock
garden outside my utility-free Alaskan cabin with rocks stolen from a
road construction site). If you love plants enough, you'll find a
way. Then once people get a house, they may also acquire children,
and the plant club loses them to Youth Soccer (football) for years
and years. Finally, there are many very specialized groups focused on
a single genus, and I think they're suffering most of all; PBS is
wise to appeal to such a wide range of regions and specialties.

I think the best solution to this problem is just to reach out in
whatever way we, as individuals as well as organizations, can find.
I'm plotting right now to influence the new garden writer for our
metropolitan newspaper, who admits she doesn't know much but has to
prepare features for novice gardeners. A few weeks ago the young
woman who cut my hair was telling me about her cactus and succulent
collection, grown on an apartment balcony, and I realized she had the
right instincts and told her so. Our rock garden group has monthly
meetings that are open to the public at no cost (unlike the upscale
Hardy Plant Society), and we produce enough door prizes to make sure
visitors usually get one. When I moved into my new home three years
ago, one of the first things I did was build an instant rock garden
and a bulb bed right along the street and fill them with plants I
knew would perform reliably and attract the eyes of passers-by --
something interesting every day of the year, and mostly plants that
aren't well known. (The rare plants and the ones I suspect will die
are in the tufa beds and covered Mediterranean house in the BACK
yard.) I've even considered getting one of those brochure holders
used at houses for sale and stocking it with recruiting brochures for
our rock garden society. In fact, streetside "visual proselytizing"
is a longstanding practice among rock gardeners, and bulb growers can
use it too (it's harder to steal a bulb than a saxifrage, too).

Jane McGary
Portland, Oregon, USA

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