Eighth International Conference- Alpines 2011- UK April 2011

[IMYoung]

Forget the 2012 Olympics, the next international event that we rockgardeners and alpine lovers are interested in is the next International Rock Garden Plant Conference... coming up in 2011.These conferences are held every ten years and Interim events have been held in previous times in New Zealand and by NARGS in the USA and I know that many of you will have attended more of these events than you perhaps care to count!
The Eighth International Rock Garden Conference will be held at Nottingham University....a venue for a previous conference but one now wholly changed from the era of that distant gathering. This long-anticipated event will be held at the Nottingham University  in the East Midlands Conference Centre from  Thursday 14th to Sunday 17th April, 2011.
Readers of the International Rock Gardener ( http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/index.php?log=international  )will have seen introductory pieces about the Speakers for the Conference, including NARGS' own Todd Boland,  in the last two issues  The AGS is making the arrangements for the 2011 event, supported by the SRGC :   booking arrangements will be found on the AGS Website.  See here for a flavour of the venue: http://www.nottinghamconferences.co.uk/emcc/
and here for the programme : http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/events/Eighth+International+Rock+Garden+Conference+/235/ and for booking: http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/sales/conferences/bookings/2011/
The deadline for making a saving of £100 or just over $150 dollars (at today's currency exchange rates) on the cost of registration for the event  is the end of August, so it would be wise to get your booking fixed soon!
Further to this reminder about booking for the Eighth International Conference- Alpines 2011,
 I would like to draw your attention to the information about the Tours being organised  by the AGS, both PRE and POST Conference.
Details here in the SRGC Forum : http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=2751.msg161651#msg161651
or on the AGS website http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/tours/forthcoming/Eighth+International+Rock+Garden+Conference+Tours/53/
There was great support from NARGS Members at the last Conference in Edinburgh in 2001 and
we're looking forward to  both meeting old friends and making new ones, in Nottingham in April 2011 !

[IMYoung]

There are only a few days to get your booking for this conference made in time to qualifiy for a 20 percent discount !


 The programme for Alpines 2011 has been revised by the AGS organising Committee in the light of the sad death of Jim Archibald, one of the proposed speakers for the event. The new programme is as follows:

Revised Alpines 2011 programme

Thursday 14 April 2011
15.00-16.00   Registration
16.00-16.30   Tea
16.30-17.30   Welcome & Opening Lecture-Brian Mathew: provisional title ‘Ever-changing Frontiers: of all sorts!’
19.30 onwards   Dinner
    David Haselgrove ‘ Southern Hemisphere Treats’

Friday 15 April 2011
09.00-10.00   Harry Jans ‘Plant Hunting on the Roof of the World’

10.00-11.00   John Richards ‘Asiatic Primulas Old and New’

11.00-11.30   Coffee
11.30-12.30   Martin Walsh ‘The High and Low in the Himalaya’

12.50-14.15   Lunch
13.30-15.00   WORKSHOPS
15.00-16.00   Toshio Yoshida ‘Endemism in the Sino-Himalayan Alpines'

16.00-16.30   Tea
16.30-17.30   Henrik Zetterlund 'Beyond the Last Frontiers with Jim Archibald'

19.30 onwards   Dinner
   Robert Rolfe ‘Location, Location Location: Alpines Near and Far, Narrowly Endemic and Nationalistic'


Saturday 16 April 2011
There will be a one-day National AGS/SRGC Show all day.
09.00-10.00   Keith Wiley ‘An Holistic Approach to Alpines in the Garden’
10.00-11.00   Todd Boland ‘Alpine Plants of Newfoundland through to the Appalachians’
11.00-11.30   Coffee
11.30-12.30   Bob Wallis ‘Fritillaries on Four Continents’

12.50-14.15   Lunch
13.30-15.00   Free Time (to allow opportunity to see Show)
15.00-16.00   John Good ‘Alpines in a changing world’

16.00-16.30   Tea
16.30-17.30   John Watson ‘Three decades in the Andes’
19.30 onwards   Dinner
    Roy Lancaster ‘My world of Plants’
    Plant Auction
Sunday 17 April 2011
09.00-10.00   Ian Young ‘Highland Gathering’

10.00-11.00   Michael Kammerlander ‘Juno Iris – the Persica Group and Some Others’
11.00-11.30   Coffee
11.30-12.30   John Grimshaw ‘Giants and Dwarfs: the Alpines of Africa’

12.50-14.15   Lunch
13.30-15.00   Workshops
15.00-16.00   Vojtech Holubec ‘Central Asia: Plants under burning sun and cooling snow’
16.00-16.30   Tea
15.00-16.00   Christopher Grey-Wilson ‘A Lifetime of Alpines’
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You will see that the changes are on Friday 15th April, where Toshio Yoshido the well known photographer of the book 'Portraits of Himalayan Flowers' will now be speaking  as will Hendrik Zetterlund, the great planthunter from Gothenberg will be take as his subject,  'Beyond the Last Frontiers with Jim Archibald'.
Robert Rolfe will now speak after dinner on Friday.

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Why not take advantage of the "early bird" discount to make your  booking now? We'll look forward to seeing  you there!

[Booker]

Book, book, book ... only ONE week left for the discounted price! 

JUST TOO GOOD TO MISS!!!   

[Fermi]

Book, book, book ... only ONE week left for the discounted price! 

JUST TOO GOOD TO MISS!!!   

Glad to know that you've lived up to your name! (I mean Booker, not Cliff - I wouldn't want you to drop off!)
Look forward to seeing you and others at the Conference. We have about 8 members of our local (Aussie) Alpine group booked in and I know of at least 3 from NZ coming over to the UK next April.
cheers
fermi

[IMYoung]

Dear Friends,
The AGS has cancelled three of the tours planned around the Alpines 2011 conference.
 
It is intended that all the gardens listed in the  Scottish tours which the AGS have had to cancel, and more, will instead be available to be visited by Members on a private basis after the conference.

Naturally, with the announcement from Pershore of these cancellations we must now contact the garden owners to gain their agreement to this new arrangement and this is underway. 

Instead of fully organised tours there will be the opportunity for Members to make their own way to visit available gardens.
The private gardens will only be open for visits by SRGC Members to comply with Insurance conditions  but of course many NARGS Members are already SRGC members!
We are hoping to  see as many friends from North America as possible both at the Conference and in Scotland, afterwards.
Ian Christie will be at helm for this venture but he will be out of the UK for some weeks in the near future.
So, please contact me via info AT srgc.org uk (substituting the AT for @ )  to register your interest in visiting the Scottish Gardens.
It's simple enough for those of you with internet access , of course, but I would be grateful  if you were to inform any of the "electronically challenged" members of your acquaintance that they can get in touch with me by snail mail at

SRGC Garden visits April 2001
63 Craigton Road
Aberdeen AB15 7UL
UK.

Or, you could offer to email me on their behalf  !

There will be a West coast list, which  Mike and Sue Thornley will liase with and an East coast version, with Ian Christie in charge.

There are SRGC Folks happy to welcome visitors to our gardens after the Conference and we look forward to seeing as many of you as possible! 

 Maggi Young

[IMYoung]

Home now  from the Conference.... a great chance to meet so many old friends and to make lots of new ones... including the NARGS Vice President, Maria Galletti.
There were a good number of North Americans there, sadly disappointed by the lack of plant inspection and phyto facilities that hampered their desires to be able to  take lots of great polants back home from the UK.

That inspection process was one of the first arrangements made by Ian Bainbridge for the 2001 conference in Edinburgh.  I really do not know why the AGS did not arrange these facilities, it was a source of upset to many travellers and I know that NARGS has arranged such facilities for events with only two overseas members attending.

Anne Spiegle was there too.... it was a delight to meet her in person.
Among the other N.A. visitors where Stephanie and David Ferguson, from Calgary,  who, at the eleventh hour hopped on a real bargain flight to the UK and were a great asset to the event.  Stephanie, who NARGS folks will know, for instance, as a grower of rosulate violas and wonderful Callianthemums has a smile a mile wide- and I don't think it was simply the cheap air fares that pleaseed her!

Lori Skulski has pictured the Ferguson garden in these pages I think.
Then there were great "gals " from Seattle, a charming folks from Minnesotta... and lots more.... a pleasure to  see you all!

[Todd Boland]

I concur it was a great meeting!  So nice to finally have faces to put with all the great European names we all know in the alpine world.  Finally meeting, in person, Ian and Maggie, Anne Spiegel and Malcolm McGregor was wonderful, not to mention chatting with Maria, Cliff, Harry Jans and others I have not seen in a while.  I must say I had a warm welcome by all the organizing committee as well as many AGS and SRGC members.

My talk was a hit and I lost track of the number of compliments I received.  Glad it went over well....I did have to rush a bit at the end as I was running out of time.  Too many neat plants in my part of the world!

It was disappointing that there was no plant inspector.  I had great intentions of purchasing plants and there were MANY choice ones offered!   Hope I have the opportunity to attend the 2021 meeting!