I know and I’m so sorry about that. I hate to blame my publisher, but it’s true (which is why I am not posting this). I was mortified when I noticed that they never made any of my corrections, and then seemed to make even more mistakes. They even spelled my name wrong on the inside cover! I’ll never publish with them again. I hope that you can look beyond the errors and typos. At least they made some of the changes to a few of the captions that were wrong on every draft (mimulus instead of cosmos) yet others remained un-corrected (Primula japonica, and a list too long for me to include here). I really don’t know what to do, but it’s one reason why I am not promoting the book that intensely right now.

Well actually, I had to put your book Mastering the Art of Flower Gardening down since it is also riddled with mistakes. Did no one edit this book? There is a mistake in the introduction. Wow.

Don't make me pull out my dictionary, Jonathan! You are correct of course when it comes to the many specialized plant societies. I wonder if this current interest in gardening will evolve in some people who will graduate and move on to search for a deeper experience from gardening and plant life. I hope so! Thanks.

Thanks, Erin. I was just thinking ( as, once I rant, I start to back pedal!), that it might be interesting to write a post asking everyone to look back in their life, and share what first inspired them to garden, and then what did they actually grow? I first grew either sunflower seeds in one of my mothers impatiens that she brought in for the winter, or a grapefruit tree from a seed which I kept until I was in college – things we might poo poo now, but from the perspective of a child, or a young adult who is just learning how to garden – not so. I wonder then if we are on the cusp of an enormous growth in gardening – as even some of my friends who are in their 30's – first-time gardeners 5 years ago, have quickly moved on to more interesting plants, because they are now hooked. Maybe – Pinterest and DIY posts are not so silly after all? What is the first thing one does when faced with a plant they do not know? They search for more information about it – on-line. In a very real way, it may not be the same thing as tramping through the woods looking to discover, but it is still an exploration. Maybe kids today and adults who are new to gardening are just starting this journey?

It is frustrating but at the same time I have difficulty poo-pooing anything that might pique a potential gardener's interest. If you can plant the seed (to use an overly obvious metaphor), perhaps they'll grow as gardeners and as they do they'll find expert gardening blogs. Just the other day I wrote a post about how, as a new homeowner and novice gardener, I ignored advice to pull Campanula rapunculoides from my garden. "It's pretty," I said. More than a decade later, I continue to pay the price for ignoring that advice. But since then I've become a master gardener, spend more on gardening-related pursuits than any other discretionary spending item, get my soil tested and research plants before I buy them and learned that the plant with the pretty purple flowers is called Campanula rapunculoides and it's a labeled invasive in our area.

Should we teach kids the right way from the beginning? You bet. But if someone happens upon gardening because they found out on Pinterest that loofahs are really gourds, I'll just hope that someday they also learn that Epsom salt only works if you have a magnesium deficiency.

Rochelle – What an interesting point – I never thought about looking at this from the other perspective? Ranting is such an odd thing anyway, since what I vent and write one day, I often wince at reading on the third! But it is what it is, and as we have mashed over pizza and Afgahni food more than once – all part of this social media transparent blogging thing anyway! Especially with us creative types. Hell, even a bad color combination can sometime tip me over the edge, but only until I consider it from a different perspective. Thanks for sharing and smacking me in the head about this one! One note though ( or two) about what some may consider impractical – I think sometimes 'impractical' could be raising something which requires great knowledge or experience, or assembling an important collection which even I sometimes receive comments about as being excessive or un-realistic – I think we have to factor in talent and skill, along with the more subjective views like 'taste' and 'class'. Of course, nothing is truly 'right' or 'wrong' when it comes to managing Mother Nature – we can only offer our opinions. In the end, what makes ones skin 'crawl' may give someone goosebumps. Opinion is a lovely, horrible thing.