Hello, my name is Tim Ingram from Faversham, Kent, UK. I have been a member, with a couple of hiccups, from 1987. Gardening in the dry south-east of England, I have become fascinated by dryland alpines and was inspired by the beautiful book published to follow the Alpines '86 Interim Conference. I joined the NARGS primarily for the Seedlist (I was running a Specialist Plant Nursery at the time) but have become more and more attracted by the articles in the Quarterly Journal, especially since my main interest has always been gardening with and propagating plants, rather than displaying them (which is such a strong feature of the AGS in the UK). More recently I have become fascinated by the Umbellifers of North America (especially species of Lomatium), which puts me in a select camp of the few! Some strong plants of L. columbianum flower on a winter covered raised bed in our garden and are setting seed well this year for the first time. How many gardeners can I convince to grow this species?! There are are few other nurserymen who specialise in dryland plants in the south of England, notably Graham Nicholls, who is a wonderful grower, and Parham Bungalow Plants in Devizes. I think there are huge opportunities for people to grow more of them, especially in sand beds and the like, which can appeal to keen gardeners of any age and are really successful and easy to make.
My interests in plants are broad and our garden quite large and mature with a good collection of woodland species as well as alpines and bulbs but I have only recently become more won over by the web after being ambivalent about the mass of (often fairly useless) information that is posted on it. I find the srgc and nargs sites particularly stimulating and am very grateful for the hard work of those who plan and run them.
One of the most magnificent plants in the garden at the moment is Yucca whipplei (grown from seed), along with several Dasylirion species imported with a friend from Yucca Do Nursery. I wonder how long they will take to flower?!
Love the website by the way - it feels very welcoming and has obviously had a lot of thought put into it. I wish the Rockies weren't quite so far away!