Hate mail

“Ben. Its time someone let you know something important mate. All your stuff on twitter and your site makes you look like a real prick. Great you know all your clever plant names but you need to know that real gardeners don't care. I am sure your a nice guy but you won't make friends here if your not in touch with what real gardeners want. Maybe a bit less of the fancy plant stuff and more real gardening mate.”

Well that's quite an email (via my website) to wake up to! This person seems to misunderstand my remit here online, so let me make myself completely clear;

1. I love plants, rare and unusual as well as most common plants- in fact I can't think of any plant I actually hate! I feature the rare and unusual plants because a) they interest me, b) writing about them helps me to learn about them (by researching them), and c) so many other people write great stuff about more common plants that I would just be repeating what they say.
2. I do use the properly recognised botanical names. Live with it. Google Analytics shows me that my website gets visits from all over the world, even from non-English speaking countries. By using the botanical names I make sure that everyone, from my friend down the road to someone I've never met in South America, Asia or mainland Europe, knows the name of the plant they're looking at.
3. Real gardeners are mostly the ones who want to know about their subject, whether it's finding the label of a plant they like in a garden or finding inspiration from a book, magazine or the internet. Learning is a key part of gardening, whether it's learning tips from your neighbour or taking a horticultural course. Very few gardeners like to grow the same things, year in year out, the same way forever! As I learn new things I share them, and I love to find out new things from other gardeners.
4. I was brought up to regard name-calling as a bad thing, especially with people you don't know. In the last month I've been called a lot of things; arrogant, out of touch, several rude things that I can't repeat... This is the internet; you're not locked into anything, you are free to follow and unfollow anyone who you don't agree with, and to go and find people who see the world the same way you do. There are lots of people who don't share my views on gardening and I'm happy to discuss and debate things, but there's never any need to get abusive!

I do 'Ben's Botanics' for fun; I don't get paid for it, I don't have sponsorship. I set up the website,(then Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest) because I like sharing information and like to show off pictures of plants that I grow of have seen. I also spend a lot of time reading other people's stuff, as well as sharing ideas and inspiration. I'm not selling you anything, I'm just here to meet other like-minded people, and I will continue to run Ben's Botanics to the best standards I can.

I'm going to stay with proper plant names because I find them more inclusive for my non-UK followers, and I will continue to feature plants that interest and excite me.

Sorry if anyone if offended by this.