Tree Tales

Our latest Washington Examiner article is now out. It is entitled: "Tall Tree Tales" and is about tree pruning basics plus caring for your shade plus ornamental trees. We also have a side-bar on DC's largest trees. Read it online (Dec 15 edition - page 74) or grab the print version at street boxes around town today - the article is on R10 (Real Estate section - page 10).
BTW I'll be at my brother's booth at the Downtown Holiday Market at F and 7th Streets NW today for a few hours to give him a break. Stop by if you are in the DC area. He is space #4 and is selling Antique Prints including many botanicals. He also has a rack of the current issue of Washington Gardener magazine for sale so you can buy a copy or sign up for a subscription in person if you desire. The market runs everyday from 12-7 through December 22.

Side Show

We've been very busy lately getting several side projects going. They include a trip to the Philly Flower Show on 3/7, a garden author talk at the DC library on 2/7, our Seed Exchange on 1/27, our new Photo Contest (open for entry from 12/15-1/15), and much more.

Just a quick reminder that the last date to order a GIFT subscription to arrive for Christmas is 12/20.

Spinning Networking Webs

I'm a panelist at an upcoming DC Web Woman program on magazines. DC Web Woman is one of the best kept secrets for networking in our area. Free to join and be on their email lists. The only costs involved are fees for attending workshops and social events. You can attend as many as you like or none at all -- a totally low-key, no-pressure organization. Most all of the members are involved in web site building in some way or other -- some are freelance web hosting service providers, some work for big corporations in their IT department, some are like me and have one we maintain for our businesses, and still others are just interested in getting into the web business in some aspect. If you are in publishing today, I don't think it is possible that your job is not somehow web-related. What I like best about this group is their complete openness and willingness to share. I attribute that to the great women who make up the membership and keep it running smoothly.

Here are the details of the talk:
Monday, January 22
Moving to Online: Print to WebWorking with Print and Digital Magazines
DC Web Woman
American Public Power Association
2301 M Street NWWashington, DC 20037

Tonight I'll be at the annual DCWW Holiday Party. We are donating a gift subscription to Washington Gardener as one of the door prizes and I'm really looking forward to meeting many of the woman whose emails I read on a daily basis.

Gathering The Seeds

The Second Annual Washington Gardener Seed Exchange is coming up quickly. I'm in the middle of finalizing all the various details of it for publication in the Jan/Feb 07 issue of Washington Gardener Magazine. We are already getting many wonderful door prizes and goody bag items from various sponsors. Today I received a called from Organica who is giving a generous donation of 125 samples of sample bottles of plant nutrition tablets for a goody bag item. If you are a garden-related company and would like to donate a door prize for the event or give a goody bag insert (125 of any one item), just contact me by December 15.

We expect a sell out as we have already gotten in a good number of registrants and we are limited by space constraints to just 125 attendees. Sign up soon using the registration form you can print out at the USNA web site. Remember that current Washington Gardener magazine subscribers get $5 off the registration fee. Just note that on your registration form and we'll confirm against our subscriber list.

BTW, FONA members also get $5 off the Seed Exchange attendee fee. (No, if you are both a subscriber and a FONA member you can NOT add these discounts together! Nice try. ;-) What is FONA? The Friends of the National Arboretum. I have a front-page article all about the Seed Exchange in their current Arbor Friends newsletter. You cannot view it currently online - but I imagine it will get posted soon. FONA is a great group of supporters of the Arboretum. If you enjoy visiting this great DC resource, I highly recommend you join this nonprofit and get involved in their many programs.

Losing My 'Patiens

No, what you see pictured at left is NOT a bunch of boiled down old asparagus tips that I threw into my window boxes for an oh-so-attractive holiday display. This is what happened to the last of my Impatiens in last night's freeze. They were blooming cheerily away in a nice red hue and looking very seasonal, I might add. Evil Jack Frost got to them and now I have "rip out window box plantings" added to my To-Do list.

Coincidentally, on Martha Stewart a day or so back she scolded her warm-up-act Joey, a budding gardener, for trying to hold on to his annuals and prolong their bloom. She practically hissed, "Yank them out NOW." Then tutted him for his laziness and cheapness. He looked wounded. As was I. Martha, I love ya, but damn if I'm going to take my few precious blooming plants out even one minute before they give up the ghost. I milk my babies to the last second of their lives and last year that was well past Christmas.

It is not my being cheap or lazy in this case (though in other instances I'll readily admit those two flaws in my garden care-taking). Rather, it is a complete unwillingness to admit that my beloved summer days are long gone and winter has set in. Those annuals are my last vestige of hope until the snowdrops pop open in early spring. I'll be counting the days...

The Christmas Spirit

It was tough getting into the Christmas spirit this year. Like my friend, Julie, I was not really feeling it. I had started my cards and received a few. Been to the Brookside Garden of Lights with my nieces and sang some carols with them and still not a tingle. I had made an evergreen door swag project with the Takoma Horticultural Club (pictured at left). I had put out a few seasonal decor items. Last night I went to mass (first Sunday of advent), followed by a some shopping for presents and a yummy hot chocolate. After all that, I was still not feeling it.

Then I did the Channel 9 "Gifts for Gardeners" segment (read text or watch video) this morning and by the time I got home, it hit. Was it the Santa's elf hat I wore? Was it the talk of getting great gifts? Or the cold, crisp day? Was it finally giving in and buying paperwhites at full retail price at Johnson's on my way home from the TV studio? Maybe reading the religious magazine article on St. Katharina of Siena while waiting for the bus? Who knows?! All I know is it worked and between checking emails and getting caught up on paperwork I've been listening to the all-Christmas radio station, baking cookies, and finishing up those cards with a renewed energy and spirit. Happy Holidays!

How to Get Your Garden Product Listed

Our latest Washington Examiner article is now out. It is our "Top 10 Gifts for Gardeners." We did a short piece on this on Channel 4 at 4 news yesterday and will do another this Sunday on Channel 9 at the 8:00 news. Our segment will be coming on around 8:46. Read it online (Dec 1 edition - page 66) or grab the print version at street boxes around town today - the article is on R10 (Real Estate section - page 10). The same piece is also in the Baltimore Examiner, which is posted here (see Dec 1 edition - page 94). You can of course get the print version in Balitmore and its surrounding counties also. The article is on R30 (Real Estate section - page 30).

Of course we are promoting gift subscriptions to our magazine as a great idea. But I'm also giving exposure to some great products and samples we've been sent over the past year. I get at least 3-5 press release for new products (and some not so new) per day. We run a "ProductPreview" column in the magazine that we can usually squeeze around 6 of these into. We do not run this column in an each issue. So you do the math -- 365 x 5 -- products being pitched vs. space for me to highlight a maximum of 30 of them. This column and TV appearances let me spotlight a few more of them. However, that is still a tiny fraction.

How do I decide which products make the cut? It is very subjective, though I try to be as fair as possible. First, if I talked to the company's reps in person at an event like the GWA Annual Symposium, they get a leg up right there. Nothing like face-to-face to make the connection. Second, I listen to referrals -- what are other gardeners gushing about? Third, I try out samples and give them to readers/fellow gardeners to try out as well. Fourth, when it comes to deadline time and I don't have a product's info and high-res CMYK images on a CD/DVD or easily downloadable for the company's web site that second, guess what? I don't use it. If you make me dig and cause me precious time to get those items, I move on to the next product on my list.
One manufacturer who did everything right is West Country Gardener gloves. Not only did they come to GWA prepared with a great product, but they also sent follow-up samples and information. Further, their product photos are one step above the rest. See the one pictured here (converted to low-res for web by me). Good quality action shot -- full of color and life. Something I'd use any day in both product listings and in editorial shots.
So the take-home message for garden product marketers trying to get press placement? Meet the press in person, send product samples, and then follow-up with those CDs of product images and fact sheets.

Online Garden Clubs

We have a feature article "Enjoy Your Garden" posted now at Growing Pleasures A Garden Club web site. They also put a nice link back to us. Growing Pleasures is an online garden club with membership fee. A bit unusual in that they charge for access, but I wish them much luck! They are fairly new as is the concept so I'm eager to see it be a success and something others (like our publication) might be able to piggy-back on.

Post-ed

I placed a (very) small ad in the Washington Post Book World this Sunday. It will run for the next 5 weeks up to the day before Christmas. Let me know if you notice it and what you think. I'll need 15 new subscribers from it to make back my investment -- obviously hoping for many more! I seem to be where I'm doing better marketing the magazine in places that attract readers over places that gardeners per se. Will see how this one goes versus the ads I placed last December in the Home (and garden) section of that paper.

#1 on my Christmas List

Leave it up to my peeps in Germany to come up with the ultimate toy for gardeners.

One nursery professional pub, The Weekly Dirt, reports: "The Garden Center features plants, garden accessories and potted flowers that can be watered. The product line also includes a greenhouse, plant beds with shed, gardener with tractor, a flower shop and flower delivery van."

I think the best part about playing garden center has to be that the pots contain "growing and wilting flowers" - somebody knows their stuff! From the linked TV spot it appears you can grow seeds - or at least pretend to - which is just as fun.

Clearly this was made for adults and not kids. This certainly is for the OCD among us who want to not only control our own gardens at the micro level, but dream about controlling our local garden centers as well! What this needs to come with are Excel spreadsheets and wholesale ordering catalogs so we can design our custom inventory mix. Mine will be heavy on purple and black plants this year. What about yours?

Buy Local Day

Yesterday was Buy Local Day. As a local gardening magazine, I'm thinking this is a great new annual tradition. It will at least bring attention and some education to that aspect of our global lives. Washington Gardener magazine uses a local printer, local writers and photographers, local office supply sources, etc. The only thing I haven't been able to find locally is a good garden cartoonist. Anyone know one in the DC area?

Putting a "local business" sign at our booth during the recent GreenFest was a great idea that had a good reaction from all attendees and one we'll continue to do. Trying to brainstorm now how else to convey our local-ness. I think it is obvious -- inherent in our publication name and mission -- but many, many people come up to me and ask if we are independent or a local-company. This is usually asked in a tone with a bit of edge or attitude to it. Then they follow up with the same questions -- where are you from? what is your gardening background? your journalism background? It is really pretty tiresome to continually repeat these same answers - though once I'm through the questioners seem fully satisfied.

I'm not sure where these questions come from, except maybe they've been duped before - if so, then by whom? Do they think I'm a front for Home Depot? Or shilling for some big garden catalog like Burpees? Or just pretending to be from here? Next time I'm asked, I'll start grilling them back and investigate more on this misguided perception and its origin.