Wow! What a mess!! When you look at things from this perspective, it seems a bit silly to worry about the renaming of some orchids, or the latest intros from daylily hybridisers!
Thanks for your input, Ross! I think it is important that people share this kind of information - since it seems that its not being shared elsewhere!
I think it is true that membership in garden societies/gardening clubs is down in general. Here they keep telling us that people just don't want to garden any more - or at least that is the excuse developers use here to be able to put 5 houses with gardens smaller than bedrooms on a plot that used to have one house in a nice sized garden!!
No one talks very much about rust that I can see... I think you're right in that no one wants to be bothered and would rather just keep their heads in the sand in the vain hope that if they ignore it, it will go away. Weird, eh? I import daylilies from the US, but I've only done so from northern growers and fortunately have never had to experience rust. I do know that it is something that is checked for specifically by the inspectors here in any shipments that come in.
But IBM stock is doing pretty well at the moment! My husband is ultra conservative financially, so the only thing we have invested in the stock market is my pension - which he figures we cannot count on at all! Absolutely everything that I have read about preparing for economic disasters - or even just hard times - is
do not be in debt. In any way, in any form. This is probably the single best bit of advice anyone can ever follow.
The differences between here and the US are very odd. Our petrol (gas) is taxed to the hilt, which means we're now paying £1.06 per litre (4.5 litres to the gallon * the current exchange rate of $1.98 to the pound = $9.44 per gallon), the costs of housing is way higher, yet even with the recent rise in utility prices, we still pay less in gas and electric than we did in the US. We also don't have to buy health insurance - which would be a big expense if we moved back to the US. But the clincher is education. My daughter will be able to go to any College/University that she gets accepted to and we'll pay just slightly over £3000 per year for her to go.
Paul, just saw your post as well! I didn't realise that people were actually thinking like this... But it is another piece of the puzzle to fit in. Now I'm wondering too if this is a common thought among the younger generation?
Hybrid Mode
