@dave and I don't know how may others to add here. Maybe @luvsgrtdanes and @DavidLMO
I think we have a problem. Last year or earlier this year (memory fail) there was a discussion of creating a forum for milkweed. And we did create one. I'm not sure who the moderator is or if anyone was 'elected'. So here's where we have a problem.

We created 'Gardening for Butterflies, Birds and Bees forum: Growing Milkweed'. And then Susan Littlefield (member?) wrote an article on 3/17/2015 titled 'Plant Milkweed to Help Monarch Butterflies'. (not criticizing.)

A few days or so ago I noticed that there was a question about Milkweed and Monarchs posted by a member with comments by 2 (now 3) members other than myself. I tried to answer, first with one of my chatterbox posts and then with a couple brief posts (really) attempting to answer the concerns of those members. But I'm on my own out there and I'm probably the least qualified person to address all of their questions. In fact, I went to the 'real' forum/thread and posed a question which @luvsgrtdanes was kind enough to answer. Then I went back to pass that answer on this latest 'forum'.

Is there anyway that any of this can be combined or redirected? The newest question I would only be able to partially answer and someone else needs to jump in. So I kinda don't think that's the best way to handle milkweed Q & A. Besides, I'm going to get dizzy going back & forth.

Thanks.

Maybe off topic, but when I posted just now I didn't get the message that @dave etc. had been notified. Is this a new 'feature' or did I just misspell peoples pseudonyms?

@tx_flower_child I don't think a forum was ever created, just the thread in the BBB forum

@luvsgrtdanes - Oh. Maybe that's why I'm confused. But I do predict that NGA may be deluged with Q's and hopefully A's about milkweed in the near future.

Maybe we need a specific forum for "Pollination"???

plantladylin said:Maybe we need a specific forum for "Pollination"???

I like that but if I wanted info specifically on Monarchs and Milkweed, I'm not sure that would be my 1st choice. But I do like that idea in general.

I'd love to see a specific forum for Asclepias (Milkweed). I think I remember a request for one awhile back but maybe there wasn't enough interest at the time or it was decided to just chat about it in the Birds, B'fly, Bee Forum?

@plantladylin - Agree with everything you just said. And without naming names or trusting my memory, I think it was someone who commented here that initially created a little of the confusion.

Let's lobby for a specific forum. However, unless the moderator has the ability to redirect anything that gets posted in the thread started after reading the article that I mentioned, we might still have a little confusion. OR there could be a disclaimer after said article that unless one wants to comment on the article itself (and note the date), that the place where the cool kids go is the Milkweed (or whatever we call it) Forum.

My two cents for now.

The milkweed thread is in the BBB forum. Since January it has had only 160 posts. Not active enough for a separate forum but a good place to keep the conversation going.
The thread "Growing Milkweeds" in Gardening for Butterflies, Birds and Bees forum

I agree with Greene's post -- and would just add that there will always be posts/questions that could well belong somewhere else but are in a separate thread or a different forum. I don't believe there is any possible way to prevent that, although if it's something really glaring you can use the "suggest a change" feature.

Also, if the article in question was written in 2015, that was well before the request for a forum about Monarchs and milkweed -- and before All Things Plants and National Gardening Association merged; and, at any rate, it really has nothing to do with having a separate forum or thread as far as I can see. Maybe I'm just not understanding what the real issue is here

@Weedwhacker - It's merely my opinion that there will be an onslaught (well, maybe not an onslaught but at least an increase) in queries, etc, regarding 'milkweed' and monarchs. It's becoming the latest 'thing'. I'm seeing a lot of talk about it in other social media platforms. (Just b/c I'm a geezer doesn't mean I don't try to keep up.)

Now if questions just started at the Ask a Question forum, they'd be easier to spot. But to new members and maybe existing members, the BBB forum is not going to pop out at them. Ok. They could try harder.

I also think that the slow down in the BBB forum has more to do with the participants. For the most part it was just us, the usual suspects. And we were doing some wheeling and dealing with a few questions thrown in. (Maybe I need to go back and re-read that BBB thread.)

So anyway, that's where I'm coming from and I acknowledge that I could be totally wrong. Hard-headed maybe, but wrong.

Milkweed forum! Yes!

There may not be enough traffic to justify a separate forum. But even if there are some people that would still post in the Bees, Birds and Butterfly Forum, while others would post in the Milkweed Forum, deluting the conversation in both forums. And since one of the primary reasons people grow milkweed in for butterflies the conversation should probably stay in that forum. One option would be to start an informational thread and put it as a sticky or a link in the sidebar, where it would always be visible.

So sorry if I ticked anyone off. I'm doing laundry and it's made me grumpier than usual. I respect y'all way too much and want y'all to know that.

Anyway, a 'sticky' might be good. Not sure how it would work but it's true that we don't want to start diluting the conversation.

Oops. The clothes dryer summons. Wouldn't I just love to have a clothesline! But then again, if I had a clothesline, I might have to give up feeding the birds.

TFC -- I can't imagine that anyone here is "ticked off" by what you're asking for; more just trying to explain that, since there are already 101 discussion forums on the site, and one is dedicated to butterflies and bees, it's probably more appropriate that a discussion specifically about Monarchs and milkweed belongs as a thread within that forum. If it turns out to be wildly popular, then I'm sure it will get it's own forum in due time.

tx_flower_child said:...Wouldn't I just love to have a clothesline!

Here you go. You can use my clothesline. I don't feed the birds; I plant things for them - things without purple berries.


One thing I would like to see here on NGA, and it would help both new and not-so-new members, would be a more effective search result. I can type a word such as 'milkweed' into the search box but, oh, the many results are staggering.

I've been on some other sites where we are able to include tags on our posts. I don't really know how to explain or describe tagging, but here is one example of a description (not from a plant site).
http://www.fitday.com/fitness/...

Gotta go hang the wet wash on the clothesline now...see ya later.

I awoke with the realization that I was wrong.

@greene - tags can be helpful. I'm seeing more and more of them and am getting more comfortable with them.

So anyway, given a little time, I'll probably come up with another harebrained idea.