The Big News of the Week

May 20, 2013 11:01 AM

The Royal Horticultural Society has temporarily lifted a ban on garden gnomes - normally deemed too "tacky" - at the Chelsea Flower Show. Garden historian Twigs Way charts the public's long love-hate relationship with these figurines.
posted by marienbad (26 comments total)

I am pleased to learn that there is somebody named Twigs Way.
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 11:07 AM on May 20, 2013 [5 favorites]

You can't stop my zwerg rush.
posted by jquinby at 11:08 AM on May 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

Gnome rights are finally moving forward.
posted by Liquidwolf at 11:11 AM on May 20, 2013 [2 favorites]

No more gnomes alone!
posted by The Whelk at 11:13 AM on May 20, 2013

The timing of this is blowing my mind because I just last night went out for drinks with a childhood friend and she brought her old copy of Wil Huygen's classic Gnomes book which she had just found in a box someplace. We spent quite a bit of time leafing through it and concluded that it was so awesome I needed to immediately get the newer hardcover edition for my kids.

(pro-Gnome)
posted by freecellwizard at 11:20 AM on May 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

Other day I say these horrifying gnomes. They were all rasta and gansta and hip hop and I was trying to figure out who would put them in their garden and all I knew for sure was the answer was "No self-respecting black person, that's for damn sure." I was pretty sure they were pretty much a moden lawn jockey, but I could be wrong. I'm really not that hip, nor am I a gardener.
posted by cjorgensen at 11:28 AM on May 20, 2013

Reminds me of this early Bowie classic
posted by Conductor71 at 11:30 AM on May 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

He pulls a flamingo, you pull a gnome. He sends one of yours to the tree surgeon, you send one of his to the mulch pile.

That's the Twigs Way.
posted by Bromius at 11:36 AM on May 20, 2013 [11 favorites]

"Garden historian Twigs Way" -- you gotta be kidding me.

Stranger than fiction and all that -- we're all living in a Pynchon novel.
posted by AwkwardPause at 11:39 AM on May 20, 2013

Rasta gnomes?

I have just learned that I will be receiving one of these things (minus the functional arm). It is large and heavy and bears a horrifying amateur paint job.

I'd just as soon sell the thing but I'm told it is an important family relic. I personally would rather have a rasta gnome--at least I could hide it easily.
posted by kinnakeet at 11:41 AM on May 20, 2013

I hear that they can be very useful.
posted by Splunge at 11:42 AM on May 20, 2013 [2 favorites]

Gartenzwergmanufacturs

And

The reputation of the Germanic gnome plummeted after World War I

Once more, MetaFilter has brought joy into my bleak life!
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:45 AM on May 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

kinnakeet, I think they make orange caution traffic cones that big. They're hollow, if you know what I mean. *holds finger aside of his nose*
posted by wenestvedt at 11:56 AM on May 20, 2013

Twigs Way? And let us not forget his brothers Kurdsen and Rytoff...
posted by jim in austin at 11:57 AM on May 20, 2013

Not to be missed: Britain's own Gnome Reserve. Somehow the tag line isn't "There's no place like gnome..."
posted by jetlagaddict at 12:35 PM on May 20, 2013 [2 favorites]

They're really not that tacky once you get to gnome.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 1:04 PM on May 20, 2013 [5 favorites]

The roots of gnomenclature are apparently Teutonic.
posted by Renoroc at 1:16 PM on May 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

Tastes like chicken.

*gnome gnome gnome
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 1:37 PM on May 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

I'd just as soon sell the thing but I'm told it is an important family relic.

You have the opportunity to make a valuable contribution to your family history by being the one who melts the horrible thing to slag, where it belongs
posted by ook at 2:09 PM on May 20, 2013 [2 favorites]

I'm told it is an important family relic

In addition to being gnomed, you are also being trolled.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:11 PM on May 20, 2013 [2 favorites]

I don't like them but when we moved to this house there was one left behind. I was going to throw it away but it had a sad little face and all its paint had weathered off. After a couple of years, I brought it in and repainted it! Awwwww. Wee gnome!
posted by mandarin fish at 2:43 PM on May 20, 2013

Best garden gnome ever. Someday I will own this.
Bonus: "sometimes in the summer I weld in a short sleeved shirt," says the creator. "Each time a little spark touches your skin it reminds you that you're still alive."
posted by evilmomlady at 3:35 PM on May 20, 2013

That important family relic might belong in a museum.
posted by steinwald at 7:55 PM on May 20, 2013 [1 favorite]

Ah, more info on Lampy, the gnome.

I gave my son and daughter-in-law the ugliest gnome I've ever seen for Christmas. They could never thank me enough, I'm sure.
posted by BlueHorse at 8:15 PM on May 21, 2013

Florida Woman Accused of Assault with Garden Gnome
posted by Splunge at 7:56 AM on May 24, 2013

Assault with a deadly Wessen.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 8:46 AM on May 24, 2013 [1 favorite]