??? Houzz censors our posts? Please give us several examples of this; I'd really like to know. Because I can't tell from what IS there, so I need to know what ISN'T there.

No no, Campanula! Don't leave us! Your posts are the most interesting and entertaining of them all. They were one of the factors in my decision to visit (too briefly) rose gardens in England a few years ago. You made it all sound un-stuffy.

But if you do decide to leave, establish your blog first, and tell us where to find it. Old rose gardens wouldn't be the same without your acerbic Brit-accented commentaries.

Carol 6 MA 7a RI

HI Campanula,

We are still working to restore clippings, so please don't despair. As far as your past posts, if you contact me directly, I can work on getting that resolved. I'm not sure what you mean about censoring posts, but moderating the forums here has been no different than before.

Your absence would leave a hole here, so please reconsider.

Please don't go, Camp! We would all miss your posts so much. I was nearly ready to give up too earlier on but things have changed some and improved. I think with some time we might all get more comfortable here. You just need to hang in there.

I'm not one of the regular rose people, but oddly enough I clicked on this forum just now and saw your thread. If it makes any difference, I'll add my comment that I wasn't sure about the changeover either, but I'm starting to get used to it. And who am I going to turn to when I have questions about this first ever Austin Heritage rose that I ordered this spring? :) Don't go just yet. Give it a little longer.

Hi camps, I want to stay in touch. Could you send me an email, so I'll have you email address without you having to post it here? Mine is pretty old--meaning just about every spammer in the world already has it. Just in case one has missed it, here it is partially disguised. Remove the two "s's" at the end of my user name. Add that nifty symbol that looks like an "a" with a circle around it. Add the word "supersonic" except remove the "super" part. Then comes a period. The last three letters are the last three in the word "Internet".

Suzy, I really hope you'll reconsider. You have a unique voice here, one that would be sorely missed. I don't believe posts are censored here, and I have not seen a single ad or anyone trying to sell me anything on either of the rose forums, so I'm a little puzzled about that. The format has dramatically improved and the only thing I really miss is the lack of garden-related pictures at the top, whether roses, scenery or whatever. It still looks all too sterile.

If you read some of the past posts related to how to finesse this site I think you'll be able to create something more pleasing to you. A computer nerd in the family helps; I'm an idiot when it comes to things like that.

Please give it more of a chance before you decamp. I know I was numb and terribly upset those first few days and couldn't believe I'd ever not hate this. I don't love it yet and will always prefer our old home, but there is too much I'd miss if I were to leave. I hate change, and it's rarely for the better, but after much gritting and gnashing of the teeth I'm still here. I hope you will be too.

Suzy, I don't love Howzah's either, but they are a platform, and I think we can use, if not be fond of, each other. I'd like you to stick around. I'm getting used to the change. That glitz, which I'm suspicious of, too, gives us a way to be our non-glitzy selves. I'm not sure of the morality of my acceptance of mutual exploitation, but look at the good we can do each other here.

Melissa

Camps, you can't go as all the other posters have said, try and work with Tamara. If you go I will find you when we come over to England in July and compel you to rejoin, I will miss your posts big time, how will we see how the new canvas(new house) is progressing.

Regards David in Australia.

Don`t go, please........ I would miss your words so terribly much.

I hope you don't stop posting here, but if you do, please get word back to us about your blog, once it gets set up.

Virginia

Come on, Camp. Hang in there. I'm just ignoring everything but the posts.

Well, crap, Camp. That is just the worst news. I totally appreciate your feelings, but oh how I wish you would not leave us. I've never read one post you've written that I didn't enjoy...and many that made me smile...or think hard. Thank you for not just disappearing into the night as some people seem to have done over the years...but know that this forum is only a tool and you will be greatly missed by US, the cyber community that IS the soul of Garden Web.
Anne

I'm a little puzzled about the mention of glitz and mutual exploitation. When I want to access this forum I just put "antique rose forum" in the search box and I'm led straight to this site. I never see a single thing having to do with houzz. How is everyone else doing it?

I bookmarked the forum list, then I can access which forum I want - trees, roses, whatever. Things seem to be transferring over - clippings, etc. I don't see any ads anywhere when I come here so I'm not sure what you are seeing?

Julie

kingcobbtx9b, it didn't go to Camp's comments when I tried to follow your link. Still, I think any kinks can be worked out. This site is changing all the time.

That's why I said copy the link. Or search for campanula_gw.

King, maybe you see it differently, but I see "no comments" when I copy your link. Searching for campanula_gw produces similar results. How about this link? Testing: Campanula UK Z8 Comments

Nope, didn't work. Despite the notation that there are 5593 comments, I only see a few. HOUZZton, we have a problem. I'm sure they can work it out.

I hope the missing content gets restored . I left a popular site when some legitimate comments got erased unfairly. I remember how Pete left GW over the same issues. I do miss Pete and wish he would return. Hopefully, things will improve. I remember I took some time off and came back again. I feel cautious about the new situation as well.

No comments, posts, clippings are listed for campanula, using kingcob's link when I tried it just now. Diane

...a useful way to look back on old posts, although they won't be all there and it's a little time consuming to say the least, is to check on web archive.org, where you can search for Garden Web....and it will bring up 814 archived pages for roses on the old site... this link should take you straight to it and you can read old posts dating back to Dec. 1996...I hope in some way this might be of use to you, or anyone...

Web.Archive.org - GardenWeb - Roses

..a page from Antique Rose Forum 2001
roseant2001

I have tried various links and attempts to get my stuff back but it seems to be locked away in cyberspace somewhere. I dunno, maybe take some time off but I feel really fed up with this. Had we been given some warning, we could have taken matters into our own hands, saving our posts, clippings, details etc. For all I know, e.mails were sent but to defunct e.mail addresses (and the problem of being unable to update my e.mail address was a continuing annoyance during the IVillage days. Since WE are the forum, rather than the platform we use to communicate, I still feel that we have been treated with something bordering on contempt, no matter how HOUZZ are promising to amend things. This may be the norm in media world but in my little garden circles, we generally treat each other with a little more respect.
I had been using my clippings as a handy journal so a lot of stuff related to the early days of buying woodland,
As an aside, I have enrolled on a botanical art course - I have always been a very good copyist but useless artist but intend to attempt to illustrate my blog myself. However, as I move at the same pace as growing boxwood (very slow), this might be a long wait. I feel I need to spend more time outside until I have simmered down enough to make a less inflamed judgement...but at prtesent, I am still seething, especially since HOUZZ represents a world with which I am woefully unfamiliar with.
I mostly regret the possibility of losing cobntact with the many, many good (if distant) friends I have made in 13 years of posting on the rose and perennial forums...and suspect that, ultimately, these will prove more durable and lasting than a few setbacks with the operating platform. I hope so, I truly do.

Grief - such ban manners on my part - I forgot to say a massive thank you for the kind comments. I guess it goes without say...but personally, visible thank yous are always nice to get.

Campanula, if I could suggest... I'm sure a lot of gardenweb friends you have made here want to keep in touch with you. If you would select "allow anyone to message me" from all in advanced settings, they could send you a message with their email and you can keep in touch. Here is a link: Allowing messaging

I look forward to reading your blog when it is set up. Sounds like a very good endeavor.

Ok, something has changed since I posted that yesterday either by Campy or by Houzz, I have no idea. However, yesterday when I posted that there was Campanula(UK Cambridge) on her old posts and there were some that were Campanula_GW. The Campanula_GW is the one that had all the posts and comments, and yes they were all there. Now, when you search on google through prior posts, they are all Campanula UK Z8 and the previous two profiles no longer exist. I don't know if they are moving them over or Campy tried to merge them or what, but the previous profiles no longer are showing up. You can still find your old posts under Campanula UK Z8, by googling that user name, but it isn't quite as effective.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Campanula+UK+Z8&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=Campanula+UK+Z8+site:forums2.gardenweb.com&start=80

Camps, I hope you will reconsider leaving and that your lost writings will be returned to you - and us too, for that matter. What will I do without an Anarchist in the Garden (you)? It's horrible to contemplate. On some trips you have taken us "outside the box", our horizons went places we never anticipated (lol!), while other trips that stayed on topic were most illuminating. Either way, I always learned something beyond what I may have thought I already "knew".

wouldn't be the same without you. not that it is the same now that it is different, but, you know...

Camp...Suzy...please don't give up on us. Because as you say, this community is *US*, not the platform, and it will be *US* that you're leaving behind. Emails are well and good, but that divides the community into parcels, with no interaction. And it's all too easy to just keep putting off sending that email, instead of being able to answer the instant you read a posting.

I agree whole-heartedly that Houzz disrepected us. That one email announcing that GW was going to be gobbled up did NOT address the multitude of issues involved. We should have been consulted with at least a chance to contribute to a "suggestion box", if nothing else! If you could read my emails to Houzz at the initial change, even you might think I'd gone beyond the pale. It wasn't pretty. Let's just say I'm surprised I didn't get banned, lol. But...they did fix my issues, which were pretty much one-of-a-kind. So at this point, I'm asking you to be patient just a while longer. Tamora says they ARE working to restore all the lost info. Most importantly, we need you.

If you doubt my sincerity, check with Jeri. I emailed her at the height of my tantrum with Houzz, to tell her I might not be able to be back on the forum, but hoping that certain people, including YOU, would be able to make the transition. It was a short list of people I felt make this forum what it is, and should be. Your insights, your knowledge, your experience, your style, your wit...irreplaceable. So, not to feed your ego, but to appeal to your sense of duty to your fellow gardeners and friends, please stay.

John

If I may be forgiven for a hyperbolic post, regarding hoovb's post above, "wouldn't be the same without you", Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones portrayed how we will all nod off without you, Camps, 'monst tangles of our old roses, here - http://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-briar-rose-edward-burne-jones.html - metaphorically speaking.

I don't know when I would ever find an excuse to post a painting like this again. Please stay.

Oh Primrose - I love it!! You see what you've done to us, Campanula; clearly you can't, in good conscience, leave us in this state.... (thought a bit of heavy guilt tripping might be the way to go, in case encouragement and pleading wasn't working...) :¬D :¬D ...

The botanical drawing class sounds a great idea, and of course we'll be wanting to monitor your progress.

Only being a latecomer to the forum, we haven't communicated much, but I do seem to remember some suggestion of a Norwich/Norfolk meet-up, which turned out not to be possible for me, but I'd certainly be up for afternoon tea (the Assembly House, maybe??) next time I make it back there. On me, if necessary...

Hang in there - Courage and Faith!

Comtesse :¬)

Well hey, I am humbled (yep, not a common event, I know). I have to say that the return of seedlings has begun to raise me from my usual winter torpor ( truly would thrive in Cali, even with the peculiar eating fads and New Agery stuff - I am a Libra). The sharp points of tulipa sprengeri have emerged and will, I hope, finally make it into the ground this year. A mistake in labelling led to an entire seasons seedlings being thrown on the compost - had to rush out and literally beg a single bulb in bloom which I surrounded with fleece until the seed pods released a bounty...and it is those seeds, from 3 years ago, which are poking above the pots in the filthy greenhouse. The panes are so grubby that I had no need of shade cloth last summer, but having bought a brush with a long handle and a built-in hose, I have promised myself to stop being such a horticultural slattern.

On a rosey front, I am fully enrolled in the deer club. My eldest installed a wildlife camera in one of the poplars and there to see, munching with casual nonchalance, a selection of horrid little tusked ungulates - chinese water deer and muntjacs. Since fencing is a laughable prospect (the roses are planted willy-nilly wherever there was a handy bit of sunlight) and sprays soaps and other deterrents are fails because we are unable to keep up the applications, I suspect this year is going to be a darwinian struggle between deer and shrub. I have laid many bundles of brash and prunings around the bases of the roses...and the evidence of canina and rubiginosas lead me to hope that once a certain size is reached, the roses can fend off total extermination.

The other, alarming issue concerns the nettles. The pup trampled all over the many, many nettle patches, ending up yelling and howling with sore pads and tummy. She attempted to batter her way out of the (moving) truck, biting at the windows in frenzy. Desperate applications of aloe-vera, witch-hazel and cider vinergar saved the day but her pads had better toughen up fast.

As usual, I am very behind with the pruning - the roses always come after the fruit trees so the worst are tangled briars (and therefore put out of mind) for a further year...but I am thinking that this is a look which will be ideal in the hurly-burly of woodland. I will, I think, be getting used to the sort of ruthless culling needed to have a beautiful, healthy and sustainable garden...and mostly performed by willing woodland creatures rather than my own haphazard secateurs and loppers. The nesting frenzy is beginning - another reason to put the tools down...and we finally have a John Deer ride-on of ancient vintage and cranky habits.

Ho Primrose - my allotment looks a lot like that - clearly, the tortured and anguished humans have finally faced up to the inevitable defeat by rampaging canes and thorns

If you look at our garden you will notice most everything is behind a barrier of garden wire so the plants have an opportunity to get established enough not to be killed off by chickens and skunks my guy has to do the same for his cherry trees I got lucky and got the last few rolls 75% off at a remodeling sale

Glad to see you braving the houzz

"An Anarchist in the Garden' (primrosetx3) - surely there's a name to consider for your blog?

I'm glad to see you still posting.

yep, this forum is worth more to me than lost posts and clippings - it is all about who we are. The depth of knowledge here is astounding and where else would we hear about gardeners and gardens which are in such different climates? So hey, time to swallow some outrage (I practically live on a diet of humble pie) and crack on with the really important stuff - plant chat and gossip.

Seriously considering 'An anarchist in the garden' - not least because impatience with our failing democracy, lack of ideological choices (the same neo-lib agenda from all parties) and a search for feasible alternatives has led me to dust off my Murray Bookchin, Albert Meitzner, Malatesta, Bakunin and other political writings untouched since my fiery student days.....and surprisingly, there is much to digest, especially touching on issues around collectivism and, co-operation - as opposed to a brutal Darwinian selectivity.

Anyone wishing I had stayed sulking in solitary retirement?

I think everyone is glad your back, myself included. I love reading your post or comments on someone else's post. You have a way with words that leave me slightly in awe. Welcome Back!!

So glad you are staying! We have deer too (see pic). Local CA mule deer are not very tall, luckily. Ours are also lazy.

My solution is to plant only climbers or roses which get really large. Cages around them while they are babies. Then, when they have achieved some height, cages taken off. The deer still prune the lower parts, but the roses don't seem to mind and carry on growing BIG/TALL.

I'm glad you're staying Campanula. Your acerbic posts make me smile.

I too have deer, despite being miles into suburbia. Muntjacs most often, with occasional visits from roe, they come up the nearby railway line, en route to and from somewhere. They don't generally seem inclined to linger, being in transit as it were, but that does not stop them snacking on the fruit bushes, and any veg that catches their fancy. We're hoping to adopt a rescue dog at some point this year, so fingers crossed that'll be a little bit of a deterrent. I can just about put up with them with a degree of equanimity, because they so far are not interested in my roses. I will be really torqued though if they snack on my new asparagus bed.

Primrose's Briar-rose art link evocative for me, too. Especially of those several days of the year when I must don armor and engage in blood-soaked struggle with "Madame-Alfred-of-the-trellis". By the end of the day, I'm like those guys lying flat on the ground. I now realize, too late, that no sane person trains, or expects to contain, MAC to a relatively modest arching trellis over a path, but that particular MAC is so darned beautiful every year I can't help but return to the battle (after enough lapse of time to replenish blood supply).

Not to be dismissive, but British deer do seem to be on the short side, so a cylinder of fencing around younger roses would seem totally feasible. On restoration sites here we use 4-foot tall cylinders of about 3 to 4-foot diameter for trees and shrubs until they outgrow the protection and can fend for themselves. As a side-note, I would guess that Jackie's deer are not actually lazy, just replete from living in the paradise of abundance that is Marin County -- a different and delightful dinner course in each and every yard.

Glad to have you here, Campanula, Bakunin and all.