The new structuring on this site puts too much restriction on what you can ask. I find it very frustrating.
Equally, you're actually within the site's target area. Those of us who are in the exterior have had even more closed to us. Take a bit of time to navegate the site and you'll find that it's not as difficult as you think. I, for one, am extraordinarily glad that the site still exists, even in this abbreviated form.
"General Gardening Question and Answer" pretty much covers whatever you want to ask; if it's plant/garden related, don't see where there are any restrictions.
After my next trip is concluded a week and a bit from now, I'll sit down with my managers and advocate for re-opening some portions, if moderators can be found for specific areas. I will be noting that the moderator system is working quite well for those areas that presently have them.
Re: sorry. And with regard to your banana question, that cultivar simply isn't available commercially anywhere in Canada. You'll have to look to US sources.
Re Daniel's plans for the forums -- great, we'll be waiting! Just some different topic-clusters as sub-forums, with a monitor for each, in each of the Pacific Northwest and the General Questions forums, would be helpful -- as it is now every little question comes in new and goes into the pot un-classified as to topic, and it takes a lot of browsing to find answers and questions. For example, even just a sub-forum for shrubs, a sub-forum for trees, a sub-forum for perennials, for annuals would make a convenient difference.
Well, that's true, one could! I'll try using it more frequently... it will be an interesting experiment to see if one could browse "shrubs", for example, that way... I have used it when looking for a particular named variety of something, or on the other hand a species [correct word? i.e. say looking for spireas] and that has certainly turned up old and new posts... but if one is just browsing others' successes or issues with one of these general classifications or is looking for some ideas, it's not really possible... I really liked the old structure best, that's why I gravitated here, so of course would be wanting to go to something more like that...
Well, I just tried "shrubs" and got a very relevant item on something that had been bothering me, leaf curl on shrubs and in this case viburnums -- and a reference in the search list to one of your posts, Ron, which in turn led me to a Garden Web recipe for a home-made spray for aphids... great! So, it's useful, at least sometimes, as the general term will bring up items one has been noticing or trying to solve... Glad you are posting here, Ron.
Some ideas for a suggested organization for forums under Pacific Northwest of North America (not that you asked, Daniel, but seeing the title of this thread, I couldn't help myself): Gardens of the Pacific Northwest separator bar (can you have sub-separator bars?) List the UBC Botanical Gardens set under this, and then add a fourth forum: - Gardens of the Pacific Northwest, which could have what's in bloom now (photos) and plant lists from arboretums and botanical and private gardens. Gardening separator bar - Growing pains, how to grow, pests - What to grow, particularly concerning growing non-natives here - Looking to find - invitations to suppliers to respond to requests for particular plants? BC Native trees and shrubs forum, or as a separator bar with, as Janet suggests: - BC Native trees - BC Native shrubs - BC Native plants The rest of the existing forums: VCBF, Events and Swaps should stay as forums under Pacific Northwest of North America. I don't understand the Identification threads - there are now four locations: - with or without an Identification prefix under Pacific Northwest - Expert Identification - General Gardening Question and Answer - Plant Identification (the archived but still somewhat active forum) Maybe replace the Elsewhere in the World separator bar, and have Identifications as a forum (not under Pacific Northwest), or as a separator bar, with - Tree identification - Shrub identification (some of these will get misplaced, but it doesn't matter so much) - Annuals and perennials identification I think it would be better though to just have a single Identifications forum for everything, so the people who do most of the identifying have just one place to look. Merge all the existing ID forums into a single one (but leave cherries and maples where they are).
I'd also suggest a single forum, wherever you want to put it, for the tropics. Right now, somebody wondering about how sweet corn will do in Jamaica, for example, hasn't got somewhere to ask that will attract the notice of our other tropical members - they have to hope that one of us sees it in General Q&A.
I was a bit dismayed to see the current structure but can understand why a change was needed. I do hope a less restrictive identification forum will be reopened. I don't visit often but I liked the helpfulness of the people frequenting that forum. Charles
My post of an unknown weed in the General Area resulted in 100 people looking at my post (and pictures). However, no one offered a name for the plant. The rules prohibit me from posting to the Expert Identification area, but I am supposed to be grateful that this forum even exists? I joined this forum for that particular I.D. But, that does not mean that I will never have any other questions...I have 5.5 acer hobby farm with domestic Blackberries, tart and sweet cherries, blueberries, grapes, peaches, pears and wild blackberries. Nevertheless, if I cannot get any help with my turf weed problem, why should I stay around?
Dahermit, the same knowledgeable people look in the General Area as look at postings in the Expert Identification. I'd guess your posting got more notice where you posted it. I think no-one knows the name of your weed.
To go back to wcutler's comment re subdivisions, although we are talking about gardening in the Pacific Northwest in this instance, I would prefer not just native shrubs, native perennials, native trees, but all shrubs, all perennials, all trees... and the resulting facility for sharing successes and failures in the Pacific Northwest climate for any garden plant. It would be nice, of course, to have a separate Native Plant forum or similarly divided subforums... As a person who has moved to Vancouver Island from Nova Scotia, I see tremendous differences in the way the same plant grows in each place... the very cold winters of Nova Scotia create a later leafy growth and a later flowering, in deciduous shrubs, and I find that flowering deciduous shrubs here bloom so early here that the flowers are over by early to mid June -- except for trusty Weigela, and roses, but I can't grow many roses owing to the deer predations and the fungi so only have two shrubs which I can cope with spraying with my smelly concoction -- and then I wonder what to plant in order to have blooms in July... Now I know why Cistus is used here for late-summer bloom, and the various lavenders and similar spikey late-blooming perennials.
Me again, checking in. When is more structure for the forums going to be experimented with, per the previous discussion? I too like this Forum and find the discussions intelligent and beyond-the-basic, compared to some other gardening forums -- you have a posse of real experts who know what they are talking about. Still, I'd like some approximation of the divisions according to subject which the forums used to have before the changes in 2009 I guess it was. Daniel, did you have any luck with getting interest from the powers-that-be for either time, funding, or finding monitors for sub-forums? Hope you are having a pleasant summer and that things are going well for the Botanical Garden and the Forum. One other suggestion: owing to the proliferation of planter pots and the use of them in patios and small garden patches, it would be nice to have a subforum, intelligent like the rest of the UBC Gardening Forum subforums, on planter-pot gardening, both annual and perennial or evergreen... sometimes it's frustrating trying to grow certain types of plants in pots until one comes across just the right advice -- and other forums are mainly non-analytical.
Daniel, Even as it is, it is still the best forum I've found!!! The forum stays more serious and doesn't get "cute" as others do. (Humor is fine, just not pointless comments) Maybe being in the PNW I have more access than others, but I find myself coming here for serious questions and answers. Especially since, I run a gardening clinic every Thursday here in Anacortes and though there are 200 plus Master Gardeners for me to ask questions of - most of the time I rely on this forum and the tremendous amount of knowledge found here. I may "run" the clinic but it's because I'm a good organizer and haven't learned to say NO. Certainly not because I am any great fund of gardening knowledge. You people make me look great, and I give all of you full credit when I talk to clients. THANK YOU!!! ;))))) barb