Going Daffy

The Jan 15 Washington Gardener Enews issue was sent out on Monday and is now archived online.

On Sunday, I took this photo for our "What's Blooming" column in the Enews. The next day about 10 of these February Gold daffodils popped into full bloom. Now we are having a wicked cold spell. I cut a bunch to enjoy indoors. We will see how the others survive the next week or so of freezing temps.

We have a new ad partner: Garden District, an urban garden center in the trendy 14th and U shopping district. They are looking to expand their staff - so if you have any desire to pursue a hort-related career (see our Nov/Dec 06 magazine cover story), this is your chance to apply. Their web address is: http://www.gardendistrict-dc.com/about/jobs.htm.

Jan/Feb Issue Out

The Jan/Feb 2007 issue of Washington Gardener magazine is now out. The issue has articles on growing Daphne, Orchids, Asparagus, Conifers, and much more. I think my favorite piece may be the BeforeAfter column on the NSO Decorator Show House. We got some gorgeous shots and the designer's drawings that really demonstrate how to take an overgrown, plain landscape to a welcoming showplace.

Subscribers should have got it last week or should get it shortly in their mail box. If you subscribe by February 20. we'll start you with this issue. Just $18 a year to subscribe! Go to http://www.washingtongardener.com/ today. Single issues are also on sale for $4.99 at DC- area stores including Politics & Prose, Alchemy, Borders, and Barnes & Noble.

What NOT to do in the Garden

Our latest Washington Examiner article is now out. It is entitled: "Garden Resolutions: What NOT to do in 2007" and is about common gardening mistakes. Read it online (Jan 12 edition - page 70) or grab the print version at the red street boxes around town today - the article is on R14 (Real Estate section - page 14). It is also in the Baltimore Examiner edition online (Jan 12 edition - page 87) or print version on R31 (Real Estate section - page 31).

We got a great bump for our Photo Contest today in the DC Master Gardener's blog site and a pick up from that at Wonkette. Word also went out to several area camera clubs so the submissions are really starting to roll in. Some really impressive work so far. I'm so glad I'm not judging it - wouldn't know where to begin. I'm keeping our expert judge anonymous for now as he/she has taught many area courses on garden photography and I'd like him/her to not be contacted by former students, photographer friends, etc. Having judging a web site design, landscape, and other contests myself, I know that people will do what they can to seek favor from judges and influence the outcome. I could tell tales, but I'll leave that for my memoirs...

Swapping Seeds - Reduce, Re-Use, Recycle

UPDATE: The location and pricing has changed - please check the blog posted dated 1/24/07 for all the updates.

The seed swap is a fundamental part of human history. Seeds were one of the first commodities valued and traded. Today, modern gardeners collect and exchange seeds for many reasons ranging from cultivating rare, heirloom varieties to basic thrift. The exchange of seeds perpetuates biodiversity. It is an act of giving and the ultimate form of recycling.

The second annual Washington Seed Exchange, co-hosted by Washington Gardener Magazine and the U.S. National Arboretum (USNA), takes place on January 27 at the Arboretum visitor center. Seed Exchange attendees trade seeds, exchange planting tips, hear expert speakers, and collect goody bags full of gardening treats.

New to this year’s event is the first annual Washington Gardener Photo Contest. This contest offers an opportunity for all levels of photographers to present their best shots of gardens in the greater Washington, DC area. More than $500 in prizes will be awarded!

The first annual Washington Seed Exchange (pictured here) was held on January 26, 2006. After that event’s success, seed swaps in other cities across the nation have joined in celebrating National Seed Swap Day on the last Saturday in January.

Subscribers to Washington Gardener Magazine receive a $5 discount off the admission to the Washington Seed Exchange. The event is limited to 125 attendees and is expected to sell out. Registrations are accepted only via mail and must arrive by January 26. A registration form can be printed out from the USNA web site: http://www.usna.usda.gov.

UPDATE: The location and pricing has changed - please check the blog posted dated 1/24/07 for all the updates.

Links to Linger Over

Got the rainy Monday blues? Today I thought I'd share a few links of interest with you.

First, is our staff photographer, Drena J. Galarza. (That is her at left.) She has just debuted her new web site offering her portrait photography services. You can browse it at: http://www.picturesbydrena.com/ .

Second, is the new web site of Donna Williamson, http://www.dwfinegardening.com/. Donna ran the Grandiflora magazine, a regional publication that preceded our own. She has some of the back issues on sale at her site as well as some interesting articles and bonus items.

Third, my friend Julie in Dallas, TX, sends word that today's Ask Amy column has an interesting letter from a homeowner in DC who is plagued by some neighbors who frown on her landscaping. Here is a link to the letter. Without actually seeing the yard in question, it is difficult to judge or take sides, but certainly anyone who sends anonymous notes is a coward. I'd love to know exactly where this person lives and who this psycho neighbor is -- if either party is reading this, please come forward with facts and photos!

Global Warming Not To Blame - This Time

Many of you probably read the story in yesterday's WashPost Metro section on the supposed early-blooming of plants in the DC area caused allegedly by global warming or an extremely mild winter. Within the story it is pointed out that the "early" Cherry blossoms may well be a variety that regularly bloom in winter.

I'd also like to point out the fact that all the "Forsythia" referred to in their article as being seen in bloom all over town is most likely Winter Jasmine instead. Even experienced gardeners seem to get the plants mixed up and it is a shame, as they both deserve a place in your landscape for no other reason but then to lengthen the flower season. What is the difference between the two other than the bloom time? The Winter Jasmine flower is a bit smaller and more of a buttery yellow, while Forsythia is a larger, more sunshine yellow bloom. The Winter Jasmine can be evergreen, while Forsythia blooms in early spring on bare branches, then leafs out. Finally, Winter Jasmine can be pruned into shrub form, but left naturally it is a weeper and looks striking spilling over the top of a stone wall or along a steep bank. It is not a fast grower and likes damp soil. Forythia has a weeping form, but most definitely grows upright in shrub form. It prefers well-drained soil and is a fast-grower (to say the least!). Pictured is a planter near the mall downtown filled with Winter Jasmine.

And all that bulb foliage that is thrusting out of the ground now? Relax. It happens every winter. You just notice it more without a layer of snow, mulch, or leaves.

UPDATE: Tune into WETA 90.9 The Intersection from 11:00am-12:00noon on Friday, January 5 for a lively discussion of this topic. Join the conversation.

PS Looking to get your photography skills up to par for our Garden Photo Contest? Visit this terrific page for some great basic photo tips. I especially like #5 Use Natural Lighting and #17 Move Closer.

Attention Shutterbugs!

You’ve seen those gorgeous garden photos published in magazines and newspapers. Enter this year’s competition and have a chance of getting your winning images published, too! Whether your take the photos in your own backyard, a nearby public garden, or while visiting friends and family in their local gardens, there are so many photographic opportunities to be found. Let’s show off the best in DC-area gardening!
This contest offers an opportunity for all photographers to present their best shots of gardens in the greater Washington, DC area. Contest entries will be judged on technical quality, composition, originality, and artistic merit. More than $500 in prizes will be awarded!
The first annual Washington Gardener Photo Contest will commence at midnight tonight and entries will be accepted until midnight on January 21.

For the full details, go to the Contests page on www.washingtongardener.com, send an email to editor@washingtongardener.com to have a PDF version emailed to you, or see page 13 in the Jan/Feb 07 issue of Washington Gardener Magazine.

Winter Soul-stirs

My most hated date of the year has just passed - Oh Happy Day! From here on out the daylight increases and we are headed for a new growing season.

We are in the middle of getting the Jan/Feb 2007 issue of the magazine out. With all the holidays and extra days-off-just-because, it will be about a week late coming out. It is just so hard to get a hold of folks for interview quotes, fact-checking, photo requests, and proofing in the month of December. It seems like the world just shuts down (as does our printer). Though it also felt that way back in August when I was prepping the September/October issue. Just going against the norm and bad timing, I suppose.

I absolutely hate missing deadlines, even if they are self-imposed ones. This week and last I've worked over 120 hours so far and plan on pulling an all-nighter tonight so I can give myself Christmas evening and morning off. Don't ask how I got all my cards out and gift shopping done, I'm thinking that is a minor miracle in itself. I'm chalking it up to buying things throughout the year at all the festivals and shows we've attended for the magazine. Next year I'll try to duplicate that successful strategy.

Don't feel too bad for me though I'm having a great time listening to 24-hour Christmas songs on the radio and writing about some of my favorite plants -- orchid basics, growing asparagus, and choosing winter daphne shrubs will be just a few of the article features in this next issue.

During my self-permitted lunch break today I caught one of the WETA Neighborhood segments on our local PBS station. This one was all about Glover Park's community garden which dates pack to WW2. Here is a link to the video footage posted online. Such a pleasure watching folks work in the warm sun and harvest fresh vegetables. What a nice gift on this dreary gray day.

Georgie Boy

Our current issue has a cover story on horticultural careers. This has gotten great reactions and apparently is widely read as we got contacted yesterday by the George Washington University landscape design program. They said they'd gotten some great referrals from it as they are very favorably mentioned and would like to reprint it in their student inquiry kits as well as put a link on their web site. So here is the link and here is another they did. I thought this was only appropriate as Washington Gardener, while not directly named after George himself, is indirectly named for him -- as it is named for the city which is named after him.

NOT after Washington state, I might add for the few blog readers out there who are West Coast oriented or just wishful thinkers. If you are in the Washington state area, there is a regional gardening publication for you - Northwest Garden News. It is based out of Seattle and a really nice resource for the Pacific Northwest.

Anyway, back to OUR Washington. We've done a daytrip column to River Farm and somewhat touched on his farming/agricultural interest. I'm saving a daytrip column to Mount Vernon until a later date as it is so well-known and something we can do at most any point while smaller, lesser known sites can get the attention while each is in season and timely. If I get the advertising income up, I can add pages and then add a column idea I've had for profiling long-gone gardeners significant to the local scene. Currently, we only profile live, active area gardeners. Washington, of course, would be a top candidate for this new 'influential gardeners in our past' series.

My Super Secret Double-Life

I've just been interviewed me on the blog: LTs Jazzy Radio Loft & Lounge. What am I doing on a jazzy radio blog? I know LT through LoveSexyDC, a local Prince fan group I founded over a decade ago. It's funny how people I've known for years have no idea about this part of my life whereas my "Prince family" may be completely unaware that I run a garden magazine -- just as my yoga friends that I spend on average three nights a week at the movies -- and so on. I think they call that "compartmentalizing." I just call it life.

In the interview we talk about the LoveSexyDC, how it started, my magazine business, gardening, and of course, Prince himself. I think he asked some very smart questions and the conversation flows well. Please check it out and leave comments -- I'll visit his blog page and answer any additional questions that may come up.

Pawn-set-ah

The latest issue (12/15/06) of the Washington Gardener Enews has been sent out and is now archived online for all to read. The feature story is on Poinsettias, which I must say make me crazy to write about in that I want to spell them every which way but the right way. It doesn't help either that I hear the name pronounced with innumerable variations so that there seems to be truly no consensus on the correct one. Whether it is pawn-set-ah or poween-set-tya, it is one plant that I personally never had any urge to purchase. I'm more the paperwhite and mini-cedar girl during the holidays. This year though I was sucked in by the 3 for $9 pricing and have them by my front door in an incongruously pricey planter (pictured at top left).

Will I attempt to nurture and bring the poinsettias back for next year? I think it will be determined by what shape they are in at the end of the season. (I just hate seeing all those leggy, leafless poinsettias on receptionist's desk when I visit offices around town!) Though knowing me, I wouldn't have the heart to throw the poor things in the compost pile in the dead of winter.

BTW the first winner of our Brookside Garden of Lights Subscription Contest is Kathleen Rapp of Gaithersburg, MD. YOU still have a chance to enter for the next contest drawing on December 31. See our Contests web page for details.