"clubby" is putting it mildly! I too wish they would just vanish.

'clubby' it was not! But it was intimidating to jump into a conversation that had been running for so long... I remember being uncomfortable making that first post, but they were a very welcoming group of avid gardeners, some of whom I've met in person over the years. I was sad when 'the Idylls' moved to Facebook. I still follow them there but FB is not a good format for that sort of conversation.

What do you expect on the 'conversations' side of this forum? - i.e. how do you want it to be different than the Idylls? In essence all the Idyll conversations were was a bunch of threads strung together under one title rather than a new thread for every topic.... I wasn't around at the begining of the Idylls but I think it just evolved naturally from a group of people who posted regularly.

The Idylls threads started in 2003 , Saucy posted the first one and Chelone changed the the name from Idle Chatter to "Idyll Chatter" . The threads were typically shut down after about 100 posts. Sometimes when we are visiting gardens we are asked if we are a 'garden club' . This is not what we are at all. We are friends from all over the country who share a passion for gardening. We meet once a year (this past "Idyllunion" was the 10th) for a long weekend of garden touring. We have visited gardens in New York,California, Illinois, Michigan, Maine, Oregon, Connecticut, and Washington. We have always welcomed new gardeners into our circle. The Idylls have moved on from Garden Web, though some of us still lurk and occasionally post here. I could not have predicted when I submitted my first Idyll post (2005 I think) what a profound influence it would have on my life. I hope new bonds will continued to be forged here , even though the Idylls are gone.

dodgerdudette I'm so happy you checked in on your old stomping grounds. As a *lurker* I often checked in on the conversation side, and enjoyed all your posts and the wonderful pictures you posted too. Thank you for posting!

Definitely not clubby! I was a late discoverer of the Idylls and was welcomed without hesitation. No one was ever mean or 'small', but always fun, supportive, comforting when that was needed, clever, and oh-so-knowledgeable about gardens and plants. I treasure everyone of them and hope to make it to an Idyllunion in the future. Missed #9 due to other travel and didn't get out of school in time for #10. Maybe 11 will be the one-fingers crossed!

I guess the connotation of *clubby* isn't the same as yours....and now that I am rereading my original post...yikes...I definitely did not mean the PEOPLE who used to post....I just meant the posts themselves and only because I think the perennial forum is one of the busiest on GW and for years the conversation side seemed to be the exclusive domain of a group (club?) ....and I DO realize that anyone who wanted to post there certainly could have.

Can we be friends? (grin)

I joined the Idylls group but I had a different user name at the time. A few of the folks were really friendly but I never seemed to fit in and usually my posts were pretty much ignored except by 2 or 3 posters. Once I posted a really long, chatty post and after 10 days, there was still no comment or any kind of acknowledgment that I had said anything. So I said the heck with it and moved on to better things!

I'm glad someone wants to rejuvenate the Conversations side.

Just a test, at the High Line IU10

How funny! It's been 15 days since I posted my comment above and no one has commented!

That looks like a pretty place, dodgerdudette.

Spice, there is no one really posting here with any regularity anymore. I wanted to test the photo posting, so I came here to my old stomping grounds for that purpose. I sure is easier to post images now than it was in the Idyll heyday !

I'm surprised about your experience with the Idyll posts. Typically we were very diligent about trying to make new posters feel welcome, since all of us were in that position at one time or another. I'm sorry to hear that you had a bad experience.

I took his photo on the HighLine in June ..very wonderful, brilliantly designed garden.

I remember you as being one of the really nice ones :)

Goodness, I had no idea people still posted here! I think possible reasons for people not responding are that people tend to drop from view on holidays or when work consumes them, when a new baby arrives or one passes away. There are millions of reasons ... because these are real people consumed by the events of real lives....and I'm sorry anyone would feel personally ignored.

To the Idyll posters, I've been a long time lurker on this conversation side and have wondered about Marie who posted from Arkansas. Do you hear from her? Her health was fragile and so was her husbands.

Marian is the name I believe you are looking for. She and her husband both have fragile health. Marian writes on FB these days.

I've wondered about Marian too, and Nolan I believe it was.

They appear to have good support.

That's good! Thanks for letting us know.