Of the dozen or so botanical gardens I’ve visited, San Diego’s singularly lacks conservatories. It doesn’t need them. Its coastal location has an ideal temperature range for plants as well as people, seldom going below 40 or above 90 F. Continue Reading →
I didn’t go into this contest expecting my job to be easy. But when I’m sorting through quantities of photos, focused on choosing the perfect shot to complement accompanying text or to illustrate a certain design point, I’m used to having just one image jump out at me as the perfect choice. So then it would just be a matter of choosing a runner-up or two, right?
Well, as soon as I started reviewing this month’s entries, I knew I was in trouble. How could just one photo illustrate all of the features that make ornamental grasses such special plants to me? Fortunately, Fran and I had decided earlier that I could award multiple gold and silver medals this month, so I decided to separate the entries into several categories for separate judging – grasses in gardens and landscapes, lighting, closeups, and “artistic” — with a gold and silver winner for each. So, here we go: Continue Reading →
This month’s Picture This Photo Contest is quickly coming to a close. Our judge this month is Nan Ondra and the subject is ornamental grasses. The deadline for entries is this coming Tuesday, August 22nd at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time. Continue Reading →
With September’s Picture This Photo Contest, we continue selecting the best of the best of our colleagues to judge what has quickly become a great place for budding and experienced photographers alike to share photos and in some cases, to be singled out as winners for the month. And so it should come as no suprise to any of you that Nan Ondra, our judge this month, has chosen ornamental grasses as the subject. Nan has written a widely read and highly respected book, Grasses: Versatile Partners for Uncommon Garden Design. She is the ideal person to come up with the criteria upon which the photos will be judged, offer observations and select the winning photos. Nan is also the author of the recently published book, The Perennial Care Manual: A Plant by Plant Guide: What To Do And When To Do It, (as well as over a dozen other books), the co-creator and manager of GGW, a horticulturist, renowned gardener and can also be found writing on her own blog, Hayefield.
And the prize for this month? Our dear friend, David Salman at High Country Gardens, has selected a collection of ornamental grasses that will have your fall garden swaying in the breeze with texture, color and movement (photo and description to be posted soon).
