Is your collection open to public?

I was wondering is your collection open to public for anyone with interest to see it?

I myself have had some bad experiences with visitors.

My collection ? Naturally.
I have the award of the International Crassulaceae Network for the years 2009-2010 and my collection may be controlled by judges.

If you come in Belgium, you are welcome in my garden !

Why have you a bad experience ?

Award?!

Well, most people here think they can come when they want, bring whoever they want (uncluding dogs!!!), take what they want ...



After all, this is a collection I built for my own fun & me to enjoy and right now I see no point in showing it to the public.

Unfortunately, here in my country, stealing plants from someones garden is very common so I am prety suspicious when someone writes me to visit my garden and does not understand the meaning of word NO. After all, it is a private not a public collection.

That's difficult to answer because I have at the moment only a few plants in my garden. My experience with both animal keepers and plant growers is that most like to show what thy have and certainly can't stop talking about their hobby. But i fully understand your reservations. The animal keepers which I met, which were not very open on what they keep, are generally owners of expensive and theft sensitive species like parrots and some rare turtles and the like.

Sorry, got interrupted when writing ...

In the relatively short time that I have semps, I had two "visits" worth describing. The first was harmless, but a bit wrongly timed. Some women from a local club knocked on the door because they saw something sticking above a wall and wanted to see and photograph the plants for some article on remarcable gardens in the region (at that moment I had about 25 lost-label varieties, of which several were flowering). Of course my dog started barking, which woke up the baby so it was a bit chaotic, but, as I said, rather harmless.

The other was when the local nurse, who was visiting us after the birth of my son, saw the plants and remarked that there were some varieties which she did not have yet and that she could get probably some one next visit. I don't think that she has any intention of stealing plants, but the way she said it felt totally worng to me. If she would have expressed interest and kindly asked if I would maybe give her some, that would have been totally different. This way, I will likely say no if she asks a next time ...

Oh, dear, so you are learning about Slovene people the hard way ... We play "harmonika" and do stupid things, haha!

Renata wrote:Oh, dear, so you are learning about Slovene people the hard way ... We play "harmonika" and do stupid things, haha!

Hahhahaha not just for Slovene people.
I'm stealing this!

Yes, my place is open to the public. As far as I can tell, I've never had a problem. When I sell semps, I dig them right then and there - I don't have the bench space to pot them up and row them out. People know that if I'm not here and they want semps, they will have to come back when I am there.

My little every growing collection will be seen by the public, i sell alot of diffrent plants and will be selling the offsets/babies from my semp moms, folks like touring my GHs and looking at all the stock parent plants i have and how i grow them, i teach them how to care for each plant, how to properly mix the soil needed buy that plant and give general care sheet along with there new plant.. Alot of folks like talking and just watching me as i go about working with some plants at my work table, next yr i hope to have my landscaped area done infront of and around the cacti & succulent GH and the tropicals GH, the area will include a pond and patio along with coverd bench for bonsia trees, patio stone path from one GH to the other.. Im also gona be adding lots semps and sedums to my upper level of my winter hardy cacti garden. As far as having any probs with the public none so far im normaly right there with them at all times or hubby keeps a close eye on folks to make sure theres no pinching of plants or anything else. We are open certain hrs on certain days and only from end of May till 1st October. No one comes up our driveway on off hrs or closed days. We also sell Morel mushrooms durring mushroom season.