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Useful links


Gardening societies, particularly for alpine plants

alpinegardensociety.gif The Alpine Garden Society is a club based in England, for those interested in alpine and rock garden plants, small bulbs etc. There are many local groups with lectures, outings, etc., and alpine flower shows. There is also a large seed exchange, and all members receive the quarterly bulletin.



scottishrockgardenclub.gif The Scottish Rock Garden Club is a club for those interested in alpine and rock garden plants, small bulbs etc. It is based in Scotland, but has members world-wide. It runs a large seed exchange, and publishes a twice-yearly journal.
See also the link to the forum, below.


The North American Rock Garden Society is the society for alpine plant lovers in the United States and Canada. It has a seed exchange and a Bulletin, published four times a year, as well as an active forum with masses of archive material.

dutchrgs.jpg The Dutch Rock Garden Society is a club based in the Netherlands for those interested in alpine and rock garden plants. The website is mainly written in Dutch.



rhs.jpg The Royal Horticultural Society is the main UK society for all kinds of horticulture. Its Horticultural Database is particularly useful. The Plant Finder and Plant Selector are now a single resource, which may help you to find those plants that are not in our catalogue. There are a few! It may also give more information about a particular plant, and it can be used to find plants with various characteristics.


The Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society is a long-established (founded in 1809) and very active society, based in Edinburgh.


Groups and websites specialising in particular groups of plants

purpurea.gif Androsace World is a splendid compilation of photographs of Androsace species.



aris_logo.gif Many arisaemas are shown on Roy Herold's Arisaema pages.



pacific_bulb_soc.jpg The Pacific Bulb Society is interested in bulbs and companion plants, specifically those that can be grown in gardens round the Pacific rim, but that covers just about everywhere. Their web site has masses of useful information, and many excellent photographs.



cycsoc.jpg The Cyclamen Society specialises in Cyclamen, and its website has an extensive collection of photographs.



daphne.gif This Daphne website is a mine of information about daphnes and has many excellent pictures.



frit_logo.gif The Fritillaria Group of the Alpine Garden Society is for those interested in these bulbs. The web site includes a picture gallery.


mecgroup_logo.gif The Meconopsis Group is dedicated to the study of Meconopsis, particularly the big blue poppies, and has been instrumental in sorting out the naming of these beautiful plants.



mwlogo.png
Meconopsis World is a collection of photographs and information about Meconopsis species, mainly in the wild, intended to help with their identification. It is now part of James Cobb's blog, which covers more than just Meconopsis.

Evelyn Stevens also has a personal website with many pictures of the big blue-flowered Meconopsis.



Penstemons are featured on this privately-run web site, which has many photographs.

pw_logo.jpg Primula World is a superb compilation of photographs of Primula species, mainly in the wild, which now also has links to scans of type specimens and the original descriptions and maps showing where these specimens came from.



Rhododendrons, large and small, are invaluable gardens plants, providing both colour and structure. Useful web sites include those of the Scottish Rhododendron Society, which is also a chapter of the American Rhododendron Society, and of the Rhododendron Species Foundation, which has a large garden in Federal Way, near Seattle.

saxsoc.jpg The Saxifrage Society is dedicated to Saxifrages and their relatives, which they say are the best plants in the world. Well, they would, wouldn't they?



The Rock Garden Plants Database contains a huge amount of information about alpine plants, and includes a substantial gallery of photographs.

Publishers of books and magazines about plants

Timber Press publishes many books on plants and horticulture. They include John Richard's excellent book on Primulas, Chris Grey-Wilson's book on Meconopsis, and Robin White's splendid account of Daphnes.

The definitive account of The Genus Sorbus (rowans) is published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, as is the account of The Genus Betula (birches).

Garden photography

Ray Cox Photography. Ray is a full-time, professional photographer specialising in the gardens and plants of Scotland. He has an impeccable pedigree, as a member of the Cox family of Rhododendron fame.

Floras - the main botanical guides

guilin.gif The Flora of China is the definitive work on Chinese plants - masses of useful information.



The Flora of Nepal is an on-going project, freely available on-line, with a companion volume on the natural history, ecology and human environment of Nepal - which is a book that you have to buy!

Flora Europea is a searchable database of European plants.

The Flora of North America is an on-going project producing a definitive flora of North American plants.

The Flora of New Zealand is an electronic version, but the Flora is also available in paper form.

Discussion forums

The Scottish Rock Garden Club has an extremely lively and active forum, which has accumulated more than one hundred thousand posts, with hundreds of people on-line each day - and an unbelievable maximum of nearly 800 at once! Click here if you have a few hours to spare. You have been warned! It is addictive.

The North American Rock Garden Society also has a very active forum. Click here to discover more.

If you have questions for the alpine plant experts, or just want to see their accumulated wisdom in answers to questions asked by other people, then the Alpine-L discussion forum is the place to go.

More links...

Rock Gardeners' Last Resort says that when your search engines fail, start here. It provides links to an array of botanical and horticultural websites.

Hawthorn Alpine Troughs make troughs for alpines that look like hypertufa, and therefore, with a bit of imagination, like stone.

The Turf Shop is a Scottish supplier of lawn turf (and if you really must, artificial turf) - and we use them for our design jobs.

Logie Steading is a visitor centre in the Findhorn Valley.

Elmer Aagesen's garden at Hinnerup in Denmark, with lots of high-resolution photos that are slow to load. And it helps if you can read Swedish.

There are also lots of links at Garden Web.