Rock Garden Quarterly

Seconded!

Latest Quarterly just arrived in Aberdeen today- Thanks!

IMYoung wrote:

Latest Quarterly just arrived in Aberdeen today- Thanks!

And in Central Victoria yesterday! Excellent edition unless you dislike rosulate violets :o ;D
cheers
fermi

I got my copy yesterday - and I remembered to keep the envelope!
Wonderful edition!

Tim wrote:

Steve - I had to retrieve the the wrapper from the bin! Once you have your number there is a useful place to write inside the Quarterly for future reference. Someone has thought all this out!

In fact I had to retrieve it from the bin too ;) But I got the idea to write the number inside the Quarterly myself without asking anybody ;D
When I think of it I have to write it down another place to in case of I don't find the Quarterly in the heap of old magazines of different kinds :o

The paper copy arrived here on Vancouver Island today.

I have been marking it up with the extras that are available in the online version. 

For example, at the bottom of page 44 I have written:
online 44a/b  V cotyledon photo, V aizoon photo, V bangii & pygmaea
could be intermediate links.

I realize how much jiggling needs to be done to fit everything onto a printed
page, but would it be possible to fit in something similar so that readers of
the print version know what they are missing?

Will our member number be on the address sticker again? I hope so as I threw away the last one too quickly, before I remember I need it! DOH!!  :P

McGregor wrote:

Should be - but I've also sent you yours in an email.

Malcolm

thanks Malcolm....I got it!

McGregor wrote:

Do let me know whether you like the way the online Quarterly functions, whether the extras are worth the effort, and so on. I think it's pretty neat but would welcome views from members.

Malcolm, I'm surprised no one has chimed in yet.  I said it before, and I'll say it again, the online Quarterly experience and functionality is AWESOME. I'm an outspoken critic of poorly designed software, but I can say unequivocally that the NARGS/NXTBOOK.COM implementation of online books is superb, so easy, intuitive and highly functional; I have no complaints whatsoever. In fact, the online experience is preferred (by me) for a number of reasons; I can set full page view, then a single click to zoom in to see enlarged photos (larger & sharper than printed version) or much larger text (better for these aging eyes), pan and zoom at will, another click to return to normal full page view, easily jump to another article or page, peruse the NARGS Advertisers where the links to each advertisers are live! Many other online book reading, bookmarking, and searching features, make the experience superior to the physical publication, I would gladly opt for receiving the quarterly publication online-only, if such an option existed.

And, what's not to like about extra content; great to see the additional Photo Contest entries, memorable plant and scenery portraits that deserve viewing! The Chaetanthera spathulifolia photo-scene is spectacular, would've been my first choice pick; but then contrasted with a vastly different location, the austere setting of coastal New Foundland capturing Rhodiola rosea, the impression is equally compelling.  I could rattle on about all the runner-up photos, but you all will just have to view these online yourselves.

And then there's the Rock Garden Quarterly itself; quarterly after quarterly the quality and interest of artcles and photos continues to impress.  As a huge fan of rosulate violets (who doesn't marvel at these extreme and remarkable manefestations derived from common pedestrian violets known to all gardeners), this edition offered up a double-header, a fascinating account of finding the connection between rosulate violets and regular violets (the rosulate-transitional species rarely if ever depicted), and an account of new species Viola beckeriana, allied to V. dasyphylla, two outstanding beauties.  The balance between many other topics is quite welcome and refreshing.  I read with some interest on Penstemon haydeni, the very rare "blowout penstemon", a species that I actually received seed of back in the 1980s (when I lived in Seattle, WA area for 4 years) as part of an effort to get this rare species in the hands of growers.  I found the species very easy to grow and flower in sand beds, and that it rooted easily too.  Too bad efforts to re-establish the plant in the wild have not met with success; ironic too, that seed of the species is not allowed to be distributed in a seed exchange even if garden grown.  Wish I still had the plant, but most all plant possessions at the time were given up to nurseries when I moved residence a couple times (moving back to New England). But I digress, it is this type of diverse NARGS Quarterly information that resonates with its readers, it certainly does for me.

Well done Malcolm, and everyone connected with producing the NARGS Rock Garden Quarterly! :o :o :o

... And hearty congratulations to Mark for putting many of my thoughts and opinions onto paper (and without me having to twitch a solitary muscle).  Both the physical Quarterly and the online version are way ahead of their time and everyone involved should be congratulated and thanked in equal measures.  Excellent in every way.

As it turns out, the utility of having online versions of Rock Garden Quarterlies (RGQ) available, was recently emphasized.  I was in hospital for two days after prostate surgery (attention rock gardeners: I'm talking about prostate, not prostrate ;)).  When my wife visited, she brought me the newly arrived Spring 2013 RGQ, how thoughtful!  However, my real focus was on having adequate morphine and sleeping, so I barely looked at the journal ;).  Packing up to go home, using a large plastic bag to hold one's clothing and belongings, my wife put the Quarterly inside, as well as a nifty water/drinking jug and other sundries.  The jug was not empty and leaked, the quarterly is now badly warped and crinkled.  

But that's ok, I actually prefer reading the journal online better.  It has been interesting having both physical copies and access to online versions, with which to compare. I've seen enough of both, and convinced I don't need to receive physical copies any more.

Some (many?) NARGS Members might fall into the category of being Luddites (one who fears technology), thus probably not making good use of this superb technological advance and benefit of NARGS membership.  And it probably wont improve unless the situation is incentivised (Peter, are you reading this, I know you've probably already kicked around the following idea).  Why not develop two levels of NARGS Membership, offering a discount to those who agree NOT to receive physical RGQ.  Heck, I would opt out of physical copies even without a discount, but we hear so often that the small annual dues (dirt cheap in my opinion) is too high and unaffordable, then for those folks, maybe pealing back the membership cost by several dollars will be enough.

I don't know about you, but I well imagine most of you reading this have overflowing bookcases and wall to ceiling shelves with decades of plant society publications.  I'm at a point in my life, where I want to reduce the clutter, and as well, gain easier access to the information contained in these small publications.  The trajectory that NARGS is on to make scanned digital versions of journals, both past and present, searchable content, complete indices of articles, authors and keywords, etc., is the way to go.  A number of times I've tried going back to old journals, whether they be ARGS/NARGS, AGS, SRGC, ARS, and a litany of others, and it is truly difficult finding the odd bits of information one searches for, embracing technology is the way to go.

In the SRGC we are about to introduce an "online" membership subscription, just as Mark suggests, where members will be able to opt for a reduced cost electronic sub. where the Journal is only available online, no postal implication to this subscription at all.

IMYoung wrote:

In the SRGC we are about to introduce an "online" membership subscription, just as Mark suggests, where members will be able to opt for a reduced cost electronic sub. where the Journal is only available online, no postal implication to this subscription at all.

Excellent.  What % savings is realized by opting for digital-only subscription?

Electronic sub. will be introduced at a £10 flat rate, Mark.
E-members will  eligible for the seed ex. but will  only pay for that at the time.

Thanks Maggi, I envision the £10 flat rate as being very popular.  My goodness joining these fine plant organizations is a bargain!

Trying to get a handle on percentage reduction in sub cost, I see from SRGC.NET current Subscription Rates for single member £16 UK / £22 Overseas.  I'm assuming since electronic subscription "levels the playing field, so to speak", eliminating associated printing/mailing costs, the organization has come up with a the flat rate whether UK or Overseas, is my assumption correct?  Also if I may ask, do the original £16 / £22 subs include seed ex., or do those subs also charge separately for that benefit?

McDonough wrote:

Thanks Maggi, I envision the £10 flat rate as being very popular.  My goodness joining these fine plant organizations is a bargain!

Trying to get a handle on percentage reduction in sub cost, I see from SRGC.NET current Subscription Rates for single member £16 UK / £22 Overseas.  I'm assuming since electronic subscription "levels the playing field, so to speak", eliminating associated printing/mailing costs, the organization has come up with a the flat rate whether UK or Overseas, is my assumption correct?  Also if I may ask, do the original £16 / £22 subs include seed ex., or do those subs also charge separately for that benefit?

Meantime the UK payment is excluding the cost of the the seed ex and the overseas rate includes the seed ex.

Tim wrote:

To what extent does an online publication encourage members to write for it? Perhaps more would do so, but also more and more people have their own blogs and websites and so don't contribute to plant societies as they might have done previously.

Some folk may be less inclined to write for ANY journal if they are "blogging" but I am not aware that people are intrinsically less inclined  or need more persuasion to write for an online publication.

We in the SRGC, as with NARGS, have no wish to cease the paper publication of our quality journal.
I would hope that the chance to have one's work read by a possible audience of many tens of thousands rather than the restricted number of a paper journal, would be enticement enough.
(edit to clarify:  initially the most recent online journals will be restricted to subscribers but  n turn they will be posted to the open section of the website, where there are already Nos 1 to 125 of the SRGC journal available to download. A full index is there too. This is all part of the SRGC commitment to share information, as per our stated charitable aims)  

What is the print run of the AGS bulletin, for instance? The claim is for the largest alpine society and the number is probably around 5000, given the subscription income listed -  these are numbers that pale into insignificance for  open access online publications.  The "traffic" generated by the Bulb Log and the IRG  on the SRGC site is tremendous - this achieves our aim of communicating with as  many people as possible about these fascinating plants- and we hope with an electronic subscription that we can provide an option to support the club and access the "paper" journals to a much wider audience.

MY

Maggi here, actually, Malcolm.....

Yes, we began some time ago by publishing issues 1 to 113 online and have continued to add more.

As printing and postal costs are rising all the time, it may well happen that the case for paper publishing becomes unsustainable without major changes, if at all. That is a bridge that will have to be crossed but such changes as we are working on now will, we hope, at least mean that there is a way to provide the membership with the services they wish for and expect and also aid in the provision of the wider dissemination of knowledge and information that our constitution calls for.

Tim wrote:

I think you are right Maggi, I am being a Luddite. That incredible resource of having all the Journals online and available for research, and particularly your comment about Charitable aims, certainly ties in with everything I think such specialised plant Societies should be, and I would be really interested to know the readership of the AGS Website/Forum, especially given the great energy put in by a relatively few who contribute to them. I would also agree very much that ongoing practical information and aspects of growing is important, which presumably is why good blogs generate such committed followings. But I do love the Alpine Journals coming through the door and you can leaf through old copies in a way that isn't quite the same on a computer screen.(And having spent a great deal on both the AGS Encyclopaedia and a back run of the AGS Bulletin, I do use them both a lot).

I spent money on the AGS encyclopaedia as well- though I seldom use it. The very first thing I looked up when I got it had only the plant name with the instruction "see xxxxx" - so I turned to "xxxxx"  only to find the instruction reversed,sending me back to my original  query. It wasn't a good star and I find it full of gaps.
We have a full paper run of both SRGC and AGS journals and they have their uses, of course.
But my eyes have really been opened by seeing  journals,  the IRG and Bulb Log displayed on an i-pad  - the capacity to enlarge text, photos etc is a real boon and what's more,  I have been shown by Ian's example that it is possible to have not one journal, but the whole run of journals, on that reader to take wherever one wishes. Now THAT is something that you'd never manage with the paper versions!  ;)

McGregor wrote:

... and that's why we digitized them!!!

Good innit

Good? It's flippin' fantastic! ;) ;D

Tim wrote:

I shall ask my daughter to buy me an ipad for my birthday - I'm pretty much converted!

:D  Good luck Tim - such requests are usually made the other way round are they not?

Tim wrote:

Whew, change is in the air! I agree very much about being able to view the Quarterly online and those extra photos are really nice to see. But I wouldn't be without my paper copies of the Quarterly, the AGS Journal or SRGC, even though my bookshelves are groaning.

Understandable to be sure, didn't mean to imply I'm for the wholesale digitization of my prized botanical reference collection, but I would gladly move lots of it into a digital format if given the chance.  I too have all kinds of old out-of-print publications that I cherish.  And I do have a fairly extensive run of ARGS/NARGS journals, RHS, AGS, SRGC and a couple dozen others. Even if NARGS goes totally digital on all the past journals, I would probably keep my quarterly publications, as I've gone through the decades with them, they have considerable nostalgic value, including having provided the cover drawings for a couple of them and some articles inside.  I always like getting an extra "author's copy" of the journals, so that I can give one to my Mom (so she can brag about me to her friends) :-[, she's 83 but still does that ;)  But I foresee reducing my burden on my groaning shelves by 25% or more.

The hardest thing to give up would be stacks of old garden catalogs.  My wife tried throwing them out a couple times, in fact, there's still a shopping bag full of them sitting in my basement from her last spring-cleaning as she reclaimed family ownership of one of the household bookshelves ;)  I value the catalogs, as it is often the only place where plant varieties and cultivars are described, and maybe a bit of anecdotal reference information can be gleaned, many of these catalogs predating the digital era.  So I understand first hand just how hard it is to let go, but I'm in a stage in my life where I want to reduce clutter and simplify, so NARGS going digital totally works for me.

By the way, been enjoying the rest of the discussion, thought I'd just jump in on the sentiments expressed above. By the way two, the new Garden Vision Epimediums 2013 catalog arrived today, I still have every GVE catalog since I became hooked on these plants, in fact I keep them on my night table; NOT to be thrown out!

Ditto! Our copy  has also arrived today here  in N. E. Scotland  8)

... And here in Ye Olde Whitworth-by-the-Sea!!!

Booker wrote:

... And here in Ye Olde Whitworth-by-the-Sea!!!

  Crikey - the flooding after the snow must be worse than I thought........  :o ;)