Just following 2008, when I first took the deep dive into rock gardening and became a member of NARGS, the hushed talk of the time was death. Membership numbers were declining, which made everyone notice that there were very few young members. It just so happened that certain greats— people who were my rock garden heroes like Joyce Carruthers and Jim Archibald—passed away just about then. But it didn’t take me long to learn that any special interest club demography has always skewed towards retirees who have more free time. That era feels like ancient history now: presently, NARGS’ clan is reinforced with plenty of pre-retirement people, many of them younger than myself. I think it was at once the inevitable rebound from a low spot as well as the concerted, focused efforts to include, celebrate, and support youth across the club by many people. My local leaders in that were Panayoti Kelaidis, Mike Kintgen and Mike Bone. I was certainly one of the supported youth by the generosity of NARGS.
