Hi Michael
(I don't know if Georgina realises her message was blank)
Thanks for explaining your interest. We have members on here ranging from mint collectors to traders to people like you, and as it happens me, who collect for the fun of it with the intention of using it with care.
I have a few boxed mint examples to show people, but mainly odds and ends picked up to give a good home to this unreplacable product. You will see that I too have a show layout (if you can call it that) which have nevertheless been to France on display. See file area (for "Lyndsey's Floral Garden"). I belong to Basildon Model Rail club and having exhibited it there too. When doing`so, I find it amazing just how many people see it and say they used to have it. I wish I had a pound for everyone who said that they have probably still got some in the loft!
I recently built a spring garden just for fun and posted it on here a month or so ago. The attachment will only be visible to those who collect messages by email and you won't see it attached to the web-based message. However that was a challenge to someone else to post one too.
One of the reasons for starting this group was to get into a state where we can collectively create a database of just what this stuff was. Nothing like that exists on the web as far as anyone can see. It needs doing, and won't happen on its own. I hope you can contribute or maybe be the one to finally pull it all together.
Currently my own "mission" is to get to grips with the box sets and find out exactly what was in them. I intend to build and photograph a representative display using the contents of each box. I am hampered by lack of time, and also that the catalogues (e.g. britains catalogue 1967) are so hideously expensive on eBay and I can never seem to time it right to get one for a sensible price, so that I can see properly what was in each set.
You will note that we managed to contact the current holders of the Britains name (now in the USA) and established that the moulds no longer exist. Their contact in the UK was kind enough to send me some catalogues and other literature photocopied from his own collection which was useful, but I still lack good quality first gen catalogue images, good enough to work from to replicate the box sets.
Thanks for the introduction and I hope you stick around.
Peter
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, March 27, 2009 3:15 PM
Subject: [britains_floral_garden] Re: Hello
--- In britains_floral_garden@yahoogroups.co.uk, "gardenergnome"
<gardenergnome@...> wrote:
>
> I'm a newcomer to this group so I think it only polite to introduce
myself; my name is Michael and I've been a Floral Garden fan since 1968
when I first discovered it in a local toyshop. I bought a few sets in
that year but the series has never been big in this country and I
quickly had everything that was available - though hardly a complete
collection. It wasn't until after 2000 and the discovery of eBay that I
again started to collect in earnest and I now have a substantial set to
which I'm still adding. I don't look for mint and boxed garden items
because I believe they were made for display and use, most of my
purchases have been of collections of pre-loved parts.
>
> As a member of a scale modelling club I've displayed the garden at a
few model shows partly to try and meet other enthusiasts but to date to
no avail. I too have long considered developing a web-site devoted
purely to the BFG and I'm collecting information for that purpose.
>
> I've added a photo of my last display, it's not great quality but all
that is to hand until I set up a new display for a show later this year.
>
> Cheers; Michael
>
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