Subject: Horticulture tips in rec.gardens

From: [email-masked] (Una Smith)
Date: 16 Mar 1995 14:11:47 GMT

Many of the questions posted to bionet.plants would probably get a
better response if posted to rec.gardens.  That newsgroup is the
primary forum for discussion of all aspects of horticulture among
Usenet readers.
  
-- 
	Una Smith			[email-masked]

Department of Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT  06520-8104  USA

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From: [email-masked] (Clarke Brunt)
Date: Sun, 19 Mar 1995 19:42:34 +0000

>primary forum for discussion of all aspects of horticulture among

That said, I have had to give up on rec.gardens because I could not 
keep up with the volume of messages. For anyone with even a vaguely
scientific interest in plants, rec.gardens is just annoying - full
of items like "My <common name for plant> is sick", when I have no
idea what plant they are talking about, or "Which is the best 
leafblower?" (leaf what? never heard of them in the U.K.). I enjoy
bionet.plants much more (and wouldn't dream of posting anything
which didn't have some sort of scientific interest). Pity though if
rec.gardens ends up with lots of people asking questions and nobody
who has a clue to answer them.

-- 
Clarke Brunt ([email-masked])

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From: [email-masked] (Angeline Kantola)
Date: 20 Mar 1995 17:20:17 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Clarke Brunt <[email-masked]> wrote:

>leafblower?" (leaf what? never heard of them in the U.K.). 

Now, now, give the layfolk a break. The volume of traffic
at rec.gardens is pretty huge, but manageable with a decent
news reader, and can be considered an indicator of its value.
And I can think of several regular contributors to that forum
who clearly have scientific interests in plants; I'm a huge
fan of Kay Klier, an academic plant taxonomist who shares her
vast knowledge generously there. 

I enjoy
>who has a clue to answer them.

Arguably, Clarke, you just _did_ post something 'which didn't
have some sort of scientific interest'. :) All joking aside,
I concur with the suggestion to 'professionalize' the name of
this group, or to post a regular FAQ of sorts emphasizing the
academic nature of the group (though arguably, if someone's 
been lurking a while they'll realize this is not the forum for
questions about their droopy dieffenbachia). There's a similar
split in newsgroups about reptiles/herpetological subjects--
rec.pets.herp gets questions about 'what's wrong with my pet'
and there's a bionet.group for more academic topics. Sure, 
r.p.h. gets a lot of repetitious and boneheaded questions, but
more often than not someone has a knowledgeable answer. 

Cheers,
Angie Kantola
Ph. D. Candidate in Biochemistry,
avid amateur horticulturist.

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From: [email-masked] (Clarke Brunt)
Date: Sun, 19 Mar 1995 19:42:34 +0000

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From: [email-masked] (Angeline Kantola)
Date: 20 Mar 1995 17:20:17 GMT

I enjoy

Cheers,
Angie Kantola