A little winter lull here in St. Louis got me thinking. This seems to be the largest/most active maple forum out there. How did that end up being the case? Who "got things going"? -just curious
I have no idea cause I am new here. But I sure like to make guesses. UBC Botanical Garden is located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the leaf is on our flag and indigenous to the area.
aahh, but I guess the next natural question is how did this become the forum of the Maple society? Are some of the ubc botanical garden staff also very active in the society (or vice versa)?
Just from a home gardener and designer viewpoint, it seems that there is just so much available for maples, that it can come to mind quicker, or be the more likely tree of choice. Two of my favorites are Japanese maple and vine maple. And many times I'd take the vine maple over the Japanese type, because the J. maples are very frail brittle trees. Whereas the vine maples are bouncy, spring and resilient. And many still have great autumn color. Maples are fairly durable, and seem to occupy the biggest portion of nurseries when I drive in for trees. The prices are good too. Many grow quick and that brings cost down, making them more affordable. It's also been a popular wood for furniture.
I joined in 2004, and before that I used to hang around the 'other' Maple Forum in Garden Web. This Forum is well managed by UBC, loading high quality pictures is straightforward and one can expect those pictures to be taken care of well with long time availability. Participants generally stay away from frivolous posting (although this seems to be breaking down a bit lately) and personal attacks are very rare. Forum members are knowledgeable but, unfortunately, many stop posting after a few years of activity. For a busy person who likes sharing his passion for Maples, one Forum is plenty enough and this one seems to have all for it. Gomero
Douglas Justice, the Curator of Collections here at the garden, is involved with the Maple Society. His graduate work was on maples. I'm sure he'd love to have more time to be on here.