Vote Now for Your Favorite Flower

Voting is now open for this year's North American flower-popularity contest! Six beauties will vie for this year's title of Favorite Flower!

Here's how it works. You can either vote in person at one of the twenty-eight participating public gardens throughout the Unites States or you can vote online at www.americangardenaward.com. 

If you're voting in person, you have the option of either texting in your vote as instructed on the signs posted in the gardens or you use a postage-paid postcard provided by these gardens.

Pictured here is one of the entrants, Gazania 'Big Kiss™ White Flame', which is quite a stunner in my opinion!

Voting will remain open until August 31st and the top three vote-getters will be announced this fall. In the meantime, any or all of these flowers are available from preferred retailers.

The award is a unique opportunity for the gardening public to vote on a specific flower that they think has the most appealing garden characteristics.

So, be sure to cast your vote in person or online before the August 31st deadline!

-Stacey

Garden Media Group

Stacy's Paper Trees

I'm lifting this right from Ellen Well's Green Profit Weekly Buzz. thought it was too cute not to post. Here it is . . .


Speaking of the holidays and crafting, our Euro trendspotter Stacy Sirk is spot on this week. This time around, she’s not just spotting the trends—she’s creating them herself!


Try your hand at “potted” paper trees for the holidays or any day, depending on what paper is used. “So easy to create,” says Stacy, “any size, any color. Use recycled paper, or do it in brown craft, white paper, green, or a complete mix. Can be made full size or smaller. Brilliant!”

Here’s the how-to:
• Secure a stick/dowel/broom handle in an appropriate pot (or decorative gift bag) with cement or plaster of Paris. For small trees up to 3 ft. fill the pot with aggregate to secure the stake for easier disassembly

• Fold the edges in on a length of paper, then fold in half, giving it a puffy look of a bough

• Tie or wire the paper along the “trunk” starting from the bottom
• When you get to the top, form a pointy or lilting tree top and attach, bending to shape.

Stacy, who’s creating a 6-ft. paper tree, suggests using old stocks of branded paper, craft paper or holiday wrapping—even cellophane or bubble wrap!

Garden centers can make them for display or for sale. You can make them just for fun! Send us pictures if you do.

Suzi, Garden Media Group

Vote Now For Your Favorite Flower

Have you voted yet for your favorite flower? Well, there's still time! Thanks to the American Garden Award competition, you have this unique opportunity to help choose the most popular flower in the nation.

Here's how it works. Some of the world's most prestigious flower breeders choose their best varieties to enter in this competition. Then, in cooperation with over 24 highly respected public gardens throughout the United States, the American Garden Award presents the entries so consumers can view the plants in person, then vote on their favorite.

Here are the 2011 entries:

Dahlia ‘Dahlinova Hypnotica® Lavender’
Dianthus ‘Kahori®’ (pictured above)
Ornamental Pepper ‘Uchu™’
Petunia ‘Easy Wave™ Neon Rose’
Petunia milliflora ‘Picobella™ Rose Star’
Scaevola ‘Surdiva® Light Blue’

‘SunPatiens® Variegated Spreading White’

For those of you who are unable to make it to view these flowers in person, you can also vote online at www.americangardenaward.com.

Voting doesn't end until August 31st, so go ahead and cast your vote today! Winners will be announced in September. Let me know which one is your favorite!

-Stacey

GMG

The American Garden Award program is administered by the All-America Selections Display Garden program. AGA entries have not been trialed nor awarded a winner status by the AAS Trial Judges.