Not only the Before & After forums get ugly comments, but other places bring out the "best" in people too. There was a photo that was published in a Caracole catalog. I really liked the fabric and was working with a client at the time who wanted a few Caracole pieces. I contacted the designer of the room and simply asked if the fabrics in the photo were custom or was it something Caracole offered (because I couldn't find that hot pink velvet in their selections). They told me it was custom. That was all I needed. So, I saw someone else post a question about where could they order the curtains in the picture (it was posted on Houzz). And no one answered the person, so I took it upon myself to let them know I found out that they were custom, and to check with an interior designer to help them out find something similar. Someone (not the original person with the question) left this comment: lizzybee17 I think that's a pretty ugly remark when you post photos on this site so you can advertise your work but won't answer someone's question . What a jerk! IM a designer and the only designers I know who won't give up sources ( especially for fabric ) are the ones who are not doing well. IM shocked at your arrogance. If you are that creepy about it you should have just said we DONT know! I sincerely hoped that they weren't directing that at me. I did a little looking and it was at the time the only post that this "lizzybee17" had ever made, and had not other photos or ideabooks linked to their profile. But it really reminded me of how someone can feel perfectly comfortable sitting anonymously behind a computer and just lashing out. I'm not sure where this person got the idea that anyone who posts a picture actually owes anyone anything. It's a photo. It's an inspiration. Someone paid that designer a lot of money for that design.

Thanks, everybody :-) My cat's name is Muesli. We got her as a rescue kitten from a local rescue shelter and she's a very spoilt princess! She's 7yrs old now. (She's also the feline star in my cozy mystery series - well, the fictional version of her anyway!) Lisa - I must tell you, Lady of Shalott can be a bit "strident" when the blooms first open, which clashes a bit in my garden (which is mostly pink, purple & white - probably like yours! ;-) ) - so I like her better once she fades a bit. The blooms do fade to a very beautiful colour - a soft pinky-orange (more orange than Abraham Darby, who is quite pink for me so far) - and the flowers do have a perfect shape, I think. In every other respect, she seems a fantastic rose - constantly blooming (top to bottom) with upright blooms and bushy, even growth (except for the few octopus arms), no disease and doesn't mind heat and blooms don't fry. If it wasn't for that very lurid orange colour when her blooms first open... I'm planning to move her come winter (at the moment she's planted next to Princess Alexandra of Kent in a very narrow bed and aside from the colour clash, they're both growing bigger than I expected!) She keeps throwing out these LOOOOOOONG octopus arms but unlike the ones on Pat Austin which are stiff & angular and look really odd, hers are very graceful & really flexible. I'm sure I could have cut them down and forced laterals but I like leaving the roses to their natural state a bit - I think it gives them "personality" ;-). Plus, I think she'd make a great climber with those long, bendy arms so I'm going to move her to the opposite side of the garden in winter and train her on the wall there next year. ~ HY

Thx again Richard, a few hours ago I followed your most recent advice and deleted all cookies on the list which were under both "Gardenweb" and "Houzz". All toll it was about 15 cookies listed for both. I shutdown the pc for a while and just returned to find the speed a tiny bit better (10secs v 15) so it helped a bit. Still odd that it's just this site that is slow, no others. I may need to re-register under a new name and see if that works, had the same handle here since the Spike days back in 1998 so reluctant to do that.

Very timely post. My very first venture into GW was the Landscape forum. I havent visited there in quite a while. Back then (mid-late 90’s iirc) there was a very talented landscape designer who contributed a lot there. She eventually became very busy (I imagine more well-known and sought-after) and wrote she needed a pause from the forum. Once upon a time there were very active garden forums on another, much smaller website. It was great since the forums divided up into regions, ours being Mid-South Gardening. Of course there were specific topic forums also. I’ve met several people who participated, and we had a few plant exchanges for a while. A core group of us still communicate via texts. I don’t use FB very much but a couple of years ago I discovered there was a page for gardening in our general area. I read occasionally, especially during the growing season. New gardeners especially are always looking for advice on how to do or grow something or for plant ID or diseases. Many are just showing their gardens or harvests or whatever. It’s how I found people who wanted iris rhizomes I was about to divide. We had a church parking lot meetup (it was central and not busy duringnthe week) and I received a bag of beautiful peppers and a jar of apple butter from 2 ladies in exchange. I called that a win-win. I’ll use this method again when I divide some other things.