A reply in two parts WAS Re: Plants magazine

In a message dated 12/23/02 8:02:32 PM Eastern Standard Time, ECPep@aol.com
writes:



 With the various licensed UK varieties coming on market here, do you think
 it
 could be better now?  Many of the perennials coming into New York and New
 England are from Canada.  These will be assortments quite different from
 the
 local nurseries.  I read some nursery-pro magazines from the family
 business
 (again, not mine), and what is available out there is quite varied.  Local
 nurseries will not take a chance on unknown plants and I guess I cannot
 fault
 this as they know their market.

===>I do understand why marketing theory prevents introduction of very new
plants, Claire, but why do all the markets have to ignore us plant
collectors?
I wonder how much of the slow trickle between Europe's cutting edge coming here has to do with plant import rules. The FDA (and others) want their cut and the native plant movement has a loud voice.

  Is this a fat magazine, how many pages - a >
guess would do? 

===>I don't have one handy. My recollection is that the size of Plants
magazine is about the same as Reader's Digest, and about 32 (perhaps 48)
pages. It may have changed since then. Some of the color reproduction is a
little off, some misregistered; maybe they've improved that since I last saw
it a couple years ago. But it was still chock full of lots of new plants,
many quite exciting.  There's really nothing else like it.

 I had the RHS for a while but also gave it up as it carried >

 a lot of organization news of no interest to American gardeners.   If you
 want the show dates and other travel info, it is all on the website.


===>Yes, the RHS mag is full of local stuff on shows and tours, but still has
a couple of quite interesting articles in each issue. Sometimes the AHS
magazine gets almost as good.

 We > could use some new publications here that do not speak down to

 gardeners. It
 seems they try to find a market somewhere in the middle and that does not
 make for good reading.  Not everyone can subscribe to every journal out
 there
 and some do not address a gardener, rather a specialist in a specific
 field.


===>Yes, we need a magazine for the gardener's gardener, right?  Some depth,
unusual plants, some taxonomy, genera surveys, etc.  But no one perceives
that there is a market for such a thing, apparently.
The daylily journal sometimes has very good scientific articles - understandable to most with a decent high school science background or the willingness to learn. A recent one was on the narrowed genetics pool of daylilies. I'd love to see similar articles (in any magazine) on the breeding/hybridizing programs for many species (not just daylilies).
Another area I love to read more about is about the personalities themselves. Many moons ago, I did an article for the regional newsletter on a local hybridizer - I felt that knowing more about his background and about other interests changed the way I viewed his program. I know meeting and talking to several other hybridizers has turned me on or off to their plants. I would love to know what makes Alan Bloom tick!

What would your ideal magazine cover - would it be more regional? more focused on the cutting edge? the scientific?



 I can't believe that I can have the computer this week with kids all over
 the
 place.  It is that PPV on the satellite.  A few hours of quiet!  I have
 seen
 Scooby-Doo five or six times today.




===>My deepest sympathies. It wasn't too long ago that every time I was
together with the young nieces and nephews, Barney videos played on the VHS
nonstop. Now they go to the computer and play some violent game.
Bill Lee




Mine too - I didn't like Scooby-Doo when it was new, can't stand it
now! My son is into all those old 70's Hanna Barbara cartoons with
the awful cartooning and worse dialog. I monitor the video games
carefully - I really worry about the concepts behind some of them.



Well, I am off to see how much I can get done today - happy
Christmas, Season's Greetings and I hope you enjoyed your solstice!
(gee did I cover everyone)



warmly!

Cheryl

--

Cheryl Isaak

Londonderry, NH

AHS Region 4, USDA Zone 4B/5A

growing, stitching and reading in NH



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