The message
from Paul Corfield contains these words:

can someone tell me what a real gardener is?

I'm still developing my interest in gardening so don't understand the
distinction that seems so apparent to the group regulars.

Okay. Imho. on TV, examples of real gardeners are Geoff Hamilton
(deceased) and Percy Thrower (?); people who are connected on the
deepest personal level to the earth and life-force. They garden because
it's the breath of life to them. They are easily distinguished from
those poseurs whose focus is furthering their own wordly "success", and
constructing a meeja career out of physical attributes, "being a meeja
personality", or other superficial triviality.

On urg, examples of real gardeners are rife. People with dirt under
their fingernails who frequently disagree but are intrinsically bonded
by their connectedness to the life-force, love of plants, of growing
things, of their gardens or plantpots, and of communicating their
genuine enthusiasm to others. Those qualities transcend age, experience,
and just about every social marker you care to imagine.

I strongly recommend that you get hold of "The Yellow Book" of gardens
open for charity..available in most garden centres and bookshops. It's
published annually for about a fiver. Wherever you live, it will list
large and tiny private gardens near you to visit; a great source of
pleasure, inspiration, cheap plants, wonderful teas, and meeting real
gardeners :-)

Janet.