Where do people disappear too?

[Pushrestart]

I think for most people “life happens” priorities shift, a new baby, or career, responsibilities, moving, etc. I’ve spent time on both this forum and the bcss, and there’s a wealth of knowledge in both spaces. I think most of the migration for interested minds has been towards “fast” platforms like reddit, IG,FB, etc.

[DaveW]

Apparently a lot have gone to Social Media, but as at the moment cacti are a fad many came from there anyway and have simply returned. From the point of junior members in our club you usually lost them when they went to University, then it was hit and miss if they ever returned afterwards. Also girlfriends or boyfriends often intervened. I remember one youth who was ultra keen and won many shows with his prize winning plants who within a week or two of finding a girlfriend sold his whole collection and was never heard of again in cactus circles.

[Pushrestart]

Apparently a lot have gone to Social Media, but as at the moment cacti are a fad many came from there anyway and have simply returned. From the point of junior members in our club you usually lost them when they went to University, then it was hit and miss if they ever returned afterwards. Also girlfriends or boyfriends often intervened. I remember one youth who was ultra keen and won many shows with his prize winning plants who within a week or two of finding a girlfriend sold his whole collection and was never heard of again in cactus circles.

What miserable significant others!! (Or at least their influence if it wasn’t intentional). Some people flip flop to whatever their SO likes to be more appealing, but that never ends well. Instability in a move or new environment can make growing very tough (poor lighting, no windows, or space etc). To grow well you need the right resources and to be present. This newly kindled interest in plants within the “younger” crowd started around 2013ish, and I wonder how long it’ll be before the crowd move onto the next thing as it inevitably will. These websites can be fun to browse, but they’ve got abysmal privacy policies and serve more as galleries than a learning environment.

[C And D]

I would post more, but I have a peculiar problem with posting, which is we get too many plant orders after posting.
So I only post when things get slow and I have a full gallery of new photos to post, which is a couple times a year.

I check in a couple times a week to see the goings on, and I am happy that there are so may great people here contributing.

Our business is only at the hobbyist level, I have a real job as a Air Pollution Engineer, so we can only handle so many orders, a slow trickle is best.

And being in the business makes it hard to take the time for photos and posting, you become a little jaded on the hundreds of flowers, not in a sense of not loving them, but it's just too much trouble to photograph when you see so many.

You can't get bored of the plants when you have more than you can handle, luckily Denise takes care of some of them.

[keith]

Hi Craig,

last I remember you moved and are making a new greenhouse bigger and better . Did you finish ? Bigger and better .

How many plant orders did you get like hundreds ?? That would be be a chore for sure. Once you start a full time business I wonder if a online shopping cart would help so you don't sell more plants than you have ? Otherwise you have to go through all emails and make sure everything is in stock, etc. Mesa gardens has that its pretty nice maybe costly though ?

[promethean_spark]

I got divorced... Still have an impressive collection though. Cacti weren't the issue, she had mental health problems. I peek in from time to time to see if there was a cool new discovery, but mainly I'm just keeping things alive as I rebuild.

[madkactus]

I was active on this forum in 2012-15. Then I just moved on to other things. I still maintained and grew my collection. Now that I'm retired I have more time to participate. Fountains of information available from our group here.

[Pereskiopsisdotcom]

I think for most people “life happens” priorities shift, a new baby, or career, responsibilities, moving, etc. I’ve spent time on both this forum and the bcss, and there’s a wealth of knowledge in both spaces. I think most of the migration for interested minds has been towards “fast” platforms like reddit, IG,FB, etc.

I came here to say this. I am by no means a longtime contributor but I was on here almost daily for more than a year and at some point last year just took nearly an entire calendar year to login again. Kids and career are my priorities and I had to put my collection on hold. Now that things have changed again for me, I'm getting back into the hobby.

Reddit and Instagram have very active collectors with brilliant photography. You just have to spend a little time looking.

[DaveW]

It's the same with cactus clubs and societies. Some join when a fad is at its height then move on to other hobbies; Some drop out for personal reasons or changes in their lives. Some drop out of the hobby for a time due to other circumstances but return later.