Predecessors Update

I posted a few weeks ago about searching for previous publishers of DC-area gardening magazines and books. Well, thanks to some blog readers and sleuths I've located one: M. Elaine Evans. She co-authored a Gardener's Directory soft-cover book for the DC metro area. We chatted by phone and it turns out that her co-author, Suzanne Judy, has retired and moved out of the area. Elaine says the directory had only one printing of 3,500 copies and all are sold. No plans on updating it or doing a reprint. She says the undertaking was quite a bear and definitely was a two-person job. After doing the directory, Elaine ran a garden travel service for about seven years -- organizing trips for professionals and serious gardeners. She now runs Delightful Gardens, a garden design firm. She can be reached at 703.812.4628.

The former publisher of Grandiflora magazine, Donna Williams, has generously sent me a couple back issues of that former area gardening magazine. It is intriguing and took in in-depth approach to each issue's cover topic. I'll try tracking down the rest of the back issues at the local garden libraries - Smithsonian, Brookside, Green Springs, etc. There was a total of 10 issues from 2001-03 of Grandiflora MidAtlantic Gardening magazine.

This search has also led me to another publication I need to track down - Dig. This one was supposedly more recent and was published out of Columbia, MD, for the DC area. I know of a Dig magazine in the pacific NorthWest, but never had encountered this one. Will have to keep "digging."