General Forum

As I was one of three speakers at the Fritillaria Group ( of the AGS ) Fall meeting yesterday, I travelled to the Royal Horticultural Gardens at Wisley, UK yesterday. I was accompanied on the trip by my good friend and grower expert on most of the worlds Genera !!, Mr. Fred Bundy.

We are in the process of building a shale barrens in Pittsburgh. (This is a rare eastern desert habitat.)  We are using information from Martha Oliver as well as her Rock Garden Quarterly article (vol 58 #4).  Does anyone have experience building a shale barrens or know of sources for plants and seeds?  See the article for lots of information about shale barrens. 

I was asked for some seeds of Clematis recta, so I dutifully collected some yesterday.  Same as last year (and I suspect every year prior to that, if only I was more observant), I noticed that from what must have been thousands of flowers, extremely few seeds were produced.  I had to examine the whole plant to collect about 20 seeds and I never found more than one developed seed in a seedhead... loads of tufty white undeveloped seedheads but hardly any seeds.

At the end of this week my wife and I will be headed to San Francisco through Reno, Nevada. We'll be spending one evening / morning in Reno. Anyone know of the best rock garden nurseries in Reno?

Thanks for any info!

Sometimes I come across a plant in my internet meandering, and i think, what the heck, why am I not growing this fine plant.  And, too often we look to plants from China and other far-flung locales with mystical reverence, when in fact fine plants abound closer to home.

In this first entry, I just came across Stenanthium occidentale, in the Liliaceae, and I'm struck by how utterly charming this American native plant is, now I want it :-)  The common names Mountainbells and Bronze Bells suggest a plant worth growing.

We already have two other related topics on the new NARGS Forum format:

1. "New Nargs Forum - Issues, Questions, Suggestions" - for open discussion related to problems or issues one runs into when attempting to use the form.
https://www.nargs.org/forum/new-nargs-forum-issues-question-suggestions

With so much focus on issues around NARGS Forum functionality, as there needs to be, I'd like to point out one of the real achievements in the NARGS online presence, that is the scanning and posting of all ARGS / NARGS bulletins and quarterlies from 1938 to present day.  Go to the NARGS Home page, you can't miss it.  The current three years of NARGS Quarterlies are available to members-only, all other quarterlies and bulletins are available free online.

This topic is intended on sharing tips to frequently asked questions, as well as updating forumists with changes, improvements, and fixes, as they become available.  To report bugs or problems using the forum, use the other topic entitled New NARGS Forum - Issues, Question, Suggestions, available here:
https://www.nargs.org/forum/new-nargs-forum-issues-question-suggestions

Topic for discussing issues with new NARGS Forum 2013

Important Announcement!

On Wednesday, June 12, 2013, the NARGS Forum will be closed, for transition to the new NARGS.ORG web site. The NARGS Forum as we know it will be very different, using a web-based interface instead of the SMF forum software familiar to NARGS and SRGC forum users.