European Alpine Event in 2013- 2nd CZECH INTERNATIONAL ROCK GARDEN CONFERENCE

Submitted by IMYoung on

I would like to introduce to all NARGS members, the CZECH ROCK GARDEN SOCIETY (CZRGS):
A new society combining local groups to promote the Czech love of rock garden plants in true rock garden settings: http://czrgs.cz/about-us.html

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CZRGS have selected for their emblem their best alpine plant Primula minima forma sudetica: it is a beauty from the fell-fields (alpine stony ridges) of Mt. Sněžka (the highest peak in the Krkonoše Mts. in NW of Czech Republic***). The charming, stylised logo is shown above.

The main object of this group, apart from publishing an online journal, with which the SRGC and IRG is very pleased to cooperate, is to bring photogalleries of rock gardens and ,their major project will be the organisation of the 2nd CZECH INTERNATIONAL ROCK GARDEN CONFERENCE
http://czrgs.cz/conference.html

Reservation, pricing and other details, will be available on their website later on: if you wish to be notified, please e-mail to [email protected]

Conference Dates : 2nd to the 5th May 2013

Place: The Town of Tabor, situated 90 km south of Prague See the CZRGS website for links to videos of the town and the conference venue.

Speakers: (to be confirmed):
Ian Young
Jiri Papousek
Martin Sheader
Ota Vlasak
Peter Erskine
Ron Ratko
Vojtech Holubec
Zdenek Zvolanek

POST CONFERENCE GARDEN TOUR
Dates 6th to 10th May 2013
"The post conference tours are designed for a maximum of 120 delegates, which will visit the circling rock gardens in 4 buses with our experienced guides. The tours are prepared for 5 days, visiting 20 rock gardens (many of them have the sale of alpines, rock garden plants, dwarf shrubs and dwarf conifers/witches brooms) and Prague downtown with the famous May Rock Garden Show."

Conference committee:
Zdenek Zvolanek – chairman
Jiri Papousek
Milena Foltanova
Petr Divis
Vojtech Holubec

For those of you who may be curious about the FIRST Czech Conference in 2007, the SRGC forum already has many pages of reports about that wonderful event. The reports there may help you make up your mind to support the second conference, held in the land of so many talented growers and garden makers!

You can find a link to all the forum pages about the First Conference here:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=8484.0

From my first pleas for photos for those of us who could not attend......... through the show, to the post conference tours .... there are pages and pages about the wonderful conference, the great show of plants, the many tours to fantastic gardens.... all the great people the vistors met... it is all there!

I have not spoken to anyone who attended the first conference who is not happily looking forward to the second.

For those who have visited before it is an excellent reason to go again. For first-timers, it should be regarded as a really exciting prospect.

I commend it to all of you who all looking for a reason to make a european visit!

MY

Comments


Submitted by McGregorUS on Sat, 02/04/2012 - 03:59

CLASH with NARGS ANNUAL MEETING in ASHEVILLE, NC

Sounds like a brilliant event but unfortunately its the same dates (exactly the same weekend 2-4 May 2013 !!) as the NARGS Annual meeting in North Carolina in Asheville which will be one of the 5-star events with trips in search of the flora of North Carolina at exactly the moment when North Carolina is a dream.

It's tragic that these two great events are going to cut into each other.


Submitted by McGregorUS on Sat, 02/04/2012 - 05:36

It's a rotten miserable shame for those who love conferences - these are both going to be good enough to have served as a full-blown Interim International Conference - and then two come along at once !!!!!  Really all the Europeans ought to go to North Carolina at least once in their lives and all the North Americans should go to Prague - they will both be brilliant.


Submitted by Ward on Sat, 02/04/2012 - 07:18

NARGS Annual Meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, May 2 - 5, 2013

It is too bad that both of these great conferences coincide on the same weekend, continents apart in May 2013. The Czech conference is sure to be wonderful with the great speaker line up and the organizers, most of whom I know personally. And for those who have never attended the Czech Rock Garden Club’s great spring show in Prague, held in a quiet, enclosed churchyard adjacent to Charles University, you’re missing a treat. I highly recommend it.

However, for those who can’t attend the Czech conference, here is the western North Carolina alternative, the annual meeting sponsored by the North American Rock Garden Society, to be held in Asheville, May 2 – 5, 2013. Asheville is located in the Southern Appalachian Mountains in a region called the Blue Ridge. Hence, the title of the NARGS conference is “Exploring the Flora of the Blue Ridge.”

The after-dinner speakers are James Reynolds, a professor of geology at Brevard College, who will speak on the topic of  “The Geology of the Southern Appalachians” and how geology influences the regional native flora. The Appalachians were once as tall as the Himalayas, but the southern part was never glaciated, resulting now in a richness of plants and animals.

Also speaking is Timothy Spira (Clemson University) and author of the book, “Wildflowers and Plant Communities of the Southern Appalachians and the Piedmont.” His topic is “Wildflowers of the Blue Ridge.”

The banquet speaker is Patrick McMillan (Clemson University), a natural history museum curator and host of a South Carolina public television show titled “Expeditions.” Patrick’s lecture is titled “The Crucible of Life in the Southern Blue Ridge,” an overview of the rich floral and faunal biodiversity.

Perhaps more important are the day trips around the area to see native flora, as well as private gardens. On the tours, attendees can expect to see natural stands of several species of rhododendron, woods of thousands of trilliums, orchids, sundews, hypericums, bog asphodel, grass-of-Parnassus, wild ginger, viola, bluet, and vaccinium. The native dogwood, redbuds, serviceberry, mountain ash, Fraser’s magnolia, and silverbell will be coming into bloom as well as trout lilies, wood anemone, Iris verna, and Heuchera villosa.

The background setting is one of waterfalls, outlooks and bluffs, granitic domes, meadows, and quiet woodland.

The May 2013 NARGS conference will be held at the Double Tree Biltmore Hotel (Asheville) off Interstate 40 and near the Biltmore Estate.

For further information, email me at:  [email protected] and further details will be posted on the NARGS Web site under “annual meetings.”

--Bobby Ward
Raleigh, North Carolina
Zone 7/8 depending on the new USDA hardiness map