Aenian plants?

denise9

Love you all - and as always a spur to get and and doing. BUT - of all the things which would be good for us to think about - a time which seemed a lot longer than it probably actually was is dedicated to growing these Aenian things from the desert. OK if you have a particular fascination, but somewhere between 2 and 0 minutes would have been preferable. Keep on with encouraging folk to use whatever they have - but please ease up on the fads. I'm afraid I actually turned the sound off mid-way though the lady identifying different sports of that plant. We all have our idiosyncrasies - doesn't make us bad people. But 10 minutes (?) of these daft plants when there is so much to be done... Not wrong in itself (unless, I suppose, you excite hundreds of people to want to buy them and they are imported and turn out to carry a very specific little critter which goes on to... well, you know the rest).  But a little more time please to inspiring people towards less faddish things. The 30 seconds or so you gave to the compost man did make me think. Could I organise it that the 5 flats in my house and the 6 or 7 in the house next door (who cross our garden to their carpark) could set up a joint household and garden waste compost heap? Yes, quite possibly. 30 seconds (or so) good - 10 minutes on Aenians, zilch, for me at least (sorry, Aenian lady).
Fond fan
Denise

TheGreenMan

The show is on for about 32 hours this year. 

10 minutes dedicated to a passionate plantsperson is fine by me. 

Definitely do your community compost thing. 👍🏼

denise9

I know - but now, April? So much to do to get folk going? I do agree with you in principle - and I love the programme. Thanks for replying, GreenMan of Tyne & Weir, I have a particular fondness for that part of the world (does Hexham count?).
I'll stick with the short compost-man item and see what I can do.
 
 

TheGreenMan

Yeah Hexham counts. It’s about 18 miles away and technically Northumberland but who’s bothered? 😂 

Give Carol Klein a watch on channel five. She’s all over the spring jobs. 

BenCotto

I agree, Denise. I lost the will to live.

Dovefromabove

My OH is a great fan of aeoniums and we thoroughly enjoyed that section. The ‘naming’ part was a fun way to show the huge variety of foliage types and colours. We only have a couple and found it really fascinating. 

As now is the time of year to prepare to move them outside for the summer, they’re appearing in the garden centres so it’s the perfect time of year to feature them.  

I really don’t see it as a fad (a rather pejorative term) more an enthusiasm for a particular type of plant … we spent a good while last week looking at hepaticas didn’t we?  What made those acceptable and aeoniums not?   The fact that they are ‘pretty’? Hepaticas are certainly not for everyone, they cost an arm and a leg and many are also imported … 

We’ve also had sections of other GW programmes on houseplants … is that not also a little niche?

Gardening and growing covers a huge variety of plants … just because some folk might find some plants less interesting than others is that a reason not to show them for a little while each year?

There was a lot of the programme given over to the growing of vegetables and fruit … but there are many gardeners who only have ornamentals … do they complain about watching Monty sowing his peas every year?

If even gardeners are saying that some sorts of gardening are acceptable and some are not, then there’s not a lot of hope for this troubled world is there? 

A little more open mindedness and tolerance please 🙏 

Posy

It's interesting, too, that the enthusiasm of the individual can make a real difference. The lady in question had a most attractive mix of passion and humorous self-knowledge that she was irresistible. 

Fairygirl

I was wondering what the OP meant - I presumed it must be Aeoniums, so thanks for clarifying @Dovefromabove.
I wonder how many people grow plants in their gardens that have come from countries thousands of miles away....
Haven't seen the programme yet, but I bet that item will be infinitely more interesting than those viewers' gardens. 

Biglad

I found her quite entertaining despite her obsession being of no interest at all to me. A little humour and loads of enthusiasm go a long way

BenCotto

I too found her very personable but 9 minutes 30 seconds seemed far too long for a time of the year when so many other garden tasks need doing and advice on those tasks could have been offered. The aeonium section could have been held over to any time in the season.

Dovefromabove

I disagree @BenCotto . .. as I mentioned earlier, now is the time of year when Aeoniums are being brought out from indoors ... we were shown how to propagate them too.  However long were we wandering around the 'green space' looking at not really anything in particular except stuff growing last year ... was that addressing tasks for this season ... and I also repeat my point about last week's hepaticas.  Lots of items are about inspiring and planning ahead.