PlantFiles Challenge - announcing the winners!!

Today, I am pleased to announce that we have 3 winners in the 2005 PlantFiles Checkboxes Challenge!! During the period of January 1st until the close of the contest, we had a total of 180,406 checkboxes checked off. Our first place winner single-handedly checked off over 43,856 (more than 25%) of them!

I would like to express my gratitude to all the members who have contributed to PlantFiles during this contest. We are all winners, having all been a part of building the largest database of plants in the world!! Thank you all!

Here are the winners, along with what prizes they won:

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1) raven_locks with 43,856 checkboxes.
From American Meadows: 2 pounds of wildflower seed mixture, A video on how to create a ildflower meadow, plus $36.15 worth of other flower seeds (collections and packets). Basically one packet of every kind of seed that American Meadows offers!!

From Buried Treasures nursery: $75.00 Gift certificate

From Nature Hills Nursery: $100 gift certificate

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2) kayaker (random drawing)
From American Meadows: 2nd place: 1 pound bad of wildflower seeds.

From Buried Treasures nursery: $50.00 Gift certificate

From Nature Hills Nursery: $50 gift certificate

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3) TuttiFrutti (random drawing)
From American Meadows: 3rd place: 1 pound bad of wildflower seeds.
From Buried Treasures nursery: $25.00 Gift certificate
From Nature Hills Nursery: $20 gift certificate

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I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to American Meadows, Buried Treasures, and Nature Hills. These three nurseries are top notch companies who I am priviliged to have been able to present their goods in this contest. I've had many conversations with all three of these companies and they are all great folks! Thanks, guys!







best,
dave

Congrats to all the prize winners and everyone else who contributed. I learn so much from PF :)

WOW!!!
I am impressed- and humbled! You guys are to be congratulated. A LOT of folks will benefit from your hard work.

Wow! That's an impressive number for the total, and for raven_locks! Hey, Raven, did you get any sleep time at all?

Congradulations raven_locks, that's just fantastic. When did you find time to sleep? lol
How lucky for kayaker and Tutti-Frutti, congrats.
Dave, I know Smilin 32 and Mystic and others have really also been working really hard. Could we have a list of "Honerable Mentions", like the top ten, or all who entered over 100, if it's easy. BTW my name wont be there.
Thanks for making the PF better folks.
sidney

Certainly! There were a LOT of high-number members. Here is top of the list:

180400 entries were handled by 266 users:
43856: raven_locks
30232: smiln32
23178: mystic
16837: TuttiFrutti
8574: Farmerdill
8134: Terry
7425: melody
7021: Todd_Boland
5411: htop
4816: jody
3513: vic
3129: Xenomorf
2169: Floridian
2075: kayaker
1768: Happenstance
1285: lmelling
779: Big_Red
757: JodyC
620: Margiempv
611: Baa
503: palmbob
436: Galanthophile
431: kennedyh
336: NativePlantFan9
317: salvia_lover
317: ladyrowan
308: Ursula
285: bootandall
281: kivariver
238: mgarr
236: Badseed
225: WillowWasp
187: MaryEv
153: arielsadmirer
144: ruby42
136: oceangirl
134: LilyLover_UT
126: Melissa_Ohio
126: rh3708
121: garygardener
121: Weezingreens
119: NatureWalker
112: mrporl
112: RikerBear
107: Love2Troll
103: sugarweed
100: cacti_lover

Wowee, congrats to the winners and all those who added so much. I tried, I really did but my knowledge and pic are so limited.

You guys did a fantastic job!

Congratulations to the winners, and it was my sincere pleasure to provide some of the prizes. Everyone did an exceptional job.

Chris

Congratulations, raven_locks!!!!!! Woo-hoo!!!! Well-deserved.

Thanks for posting the over 100s, Dave. And thanks to everyone, for your help in making the PF better. It's just another reason why DG is such a good resource! I'm so impressed with everyone.

Shannon

Wow! I'm really impressed by the tremendous efforts and expertise that will benefit us all. The list above is amazing!!!

Thank you!

Congratulations, raven_locks!!! Outstanding effort. I know your fingers must be tired.

Congratulations to all the winners! Raven-locks, you are AWESOME! WAY TO GO!!!!!! I sure wish there was something we could do to reward Smiln and Mystic though! They worked their fingers to the bone too! I think anyone who did more than a thousand entries really is pretty darned amazing! So many of you really worked hard on this. It certainly makes me more dedicated to keeping my resolution of filling in at least one detail every day (how can you really just fill in one? ;-).

Congratulations again to all the winners and a big WELL DONE! to everyone who worked so hard on the challenge! :-)

-Julie

A huge thank you and big kudos to every person who participated - your efforts are what make PlantFiles the ever-growing and improving resource it is ;o)

I have to say that this was a very fun and informative contest! I didn't really work too hard, I basically found one group of plants that I knew about and worked on those. There are still so many plants that need filled in I definitely won;t stop filling in yet!

Smilin, I felt so bad knowing that you wanted to win too and I would defintely love to share with you!

I am working with my church to fix up their yard, we are just a tiny church, maybe 10 to 15 families that attend regulary so there isn;t very much money that can go for plants and what not so when I heard about the contest I knew that this would be the perfect answer! THank you so much to the companies that so generously donated, the prizes are definitely going to a good cause!!

And thank you to all who worked at filling in, let's keep going!!!

Raven

I discovered the PlantFiles around this time last year while doing research for my first veggie and flower gardens. It has been a pleasure to contribute to the same resource that I use on a daily basis, and a delightful surprise to win one of the AWESOME random prizes. :)

Donna

P.S. My family also thanks you for setting up this challenge so I didn't try to start all my seedlings in January! ;)

I think it's particularly generous of you, Raven, to contribute your winnings to a good cause. I'm sure it will be very appreciated. :-)

Just think how much more you know now TF. You sure did a great deal of details for one who only started last year.
Bet your seeds will do just great.
So you deserve that random even more.
Sidney

Raven - You deserve it. No bad feelings here at all. I'm rejoicing for you. I wasn't going to keep any of the "winnings" anyway. I'd already contacted Terry to find out who might be "in need" of plants. She politely, and correctly, reminded me that I might not win. Ha! How true that ended up being. :)

Actually, if you are in need of additional plants for your church, perhaps I can send a box of goodies along. I am always digging up plants at various places that are going to be demolished (just got permission to dig at another place two days ago). There are irises to share if you're interested. Plus, I also have gladiolus and daffodils. In another few weeks, I'll also have cannas coming up all over, too. Just let me know if there is a place at your church for them.

What a great way to use your winnings Raven!

Carla, you've got a super attitude! Kudos to you! :-)

Tuttifrutti, LOL about your family being happy. Very cute. :-)

Now I'm off to do some check boxes for the week :-).

-Julie

Oh, almost forgot. Terry or Dave or whoever is in charge of that part of the site....I'd love to see all the UBERs details updated on the UBER page http://davesgarden.com/pf/hof.php . That would definitely be a nice way to reward all the hard work of a dozen or so people on that list above :-)

Also, would it be possible to put a link on the main PF page to the list of plants needing details filled in? It would make it a lot easier to keep up with adding to the PF if we had easy access to that link instead of having to search through the threads to find it. :-)

-Julie

This message was edited Mar 4, 2005 6:25 PM

Thank you, Sidney. :)

I searched for an area with details that were easy to verify (daylilies) 'cause I certainly didn't want to put in wrong information, and then I just started plugging them in. Goodness knows there are still tons more out there that need attention! I also kept the help desk kinda busy with problem reports along the way... right, Mystic? ;)

I was watching Smilins, and she did a great job. I was real surprised to see someone do as many as she did, But raven was really busy too. I was actually surprised I got 100 in, my contributions were coleus. I could probably stay busy there for months.
Just glad to see this more complete.
I have a new challenge in mind.
Concerning seedlings.

WOW, congratulations to the winners :)

Wow I am impressed everybody did great. Ever detail we mark helps all of us. We all benefit from PF.

I have to say raven_locks you did outstanding. What group of plants did you work on?

I sure appreciate you all mentioning me.I don't think I could even be included in the contest.

Carla you did great as did everybody else that contributed. I know for lots of these folks this was really their first time working in PFs and that really impresses me. Just one detail can make a big difference.

TuttiFrutti you did keep us a tad busy, but that's fine we want correct information in PF. I sure hope you will continue to work with the hems. For each one of your reports I corrected I added the intro by and year so I am that much ahead when I get to that letter.

Everybody did an awesome job!!!

I would also like to thank American Meadows, Buried Treasures, and Nature Hills for the contribution of the great prizes.

Congrats to all the winners and to all of us we benefit the most.

My chest is just burstin' with pride. All 266 of you .. .. .. consider another jewel has been placed in your crown.. you are highly respected here at DG! You have accomplished something that many would have liked but were unable to do. We all benefit from the efforts of wonderful people like you.

Thank you

and also thank-you to the sponsors who were so generous.

Congratulations Raven!
Oregon Brings Home the Prize!

What a Great Effort (More than Great) by Everyone.
And it Comes to Mind that Some of the Top Posters...
Must Have Very........High Speed Internet!...(lol).

Congrats to the winners...I know first-hand how hard it was to accomplish the amount of work that you did.

Sincere thanks to the companies who donated prizes. Wonderful array of goodies to deserving folks.

I'm with Tutti....this challenge kept me from starting too many seeds way too early (I've got some going, but always have waaaaay too many waaaay too early.

Congratulations to ALL the winners and to everything who tried their best to fill in information, download pictures, and contribute their 2 cents worth!!! I'm SO HAPPY for you!!

Well, I'm off to the Plant Files, to keep the "ball rollin'!"

Congrats to the winners!
This was a really fun learning experience for me.
Yes, Shirley, lets keep the ball rollin'!
Sidney I really noticed a big difference in the coleus section! You are doing a great job, I love your pictures!

Thank you oceangirl, I sure hope some come back this year. There are a thousand coleus, if you have them, add in the details.
I want to see more seedling pictures, http://aoeu.davesgarden.com/forums/t/489218/
Thanks again. Sidney

Thanks to all the contestants and winners (you're all winners in my eyes) I can't begin to imagine how y'all did so many! And to everyone who contributes anything to our PlantFiles, please keep on making us grow. This is such a badly needed resource, googling just takes forever (especially on dial-up)!

I am so proud to belong to Dave's Garden, what a wonderful group of folks we have here. Thanks for giving us this wonderful world Dave :)

WOW what a great effort by all! We all benefit so greatly. You guys are the greatest and can't ever thank you enough.

I'm thankful for each member who entered something for the very first time. It can seem intimidating at first. Many people took the leap to offer information which will assist other gardeners for years to come. I appreciate each and every detail that was checked off as I'm sure many others do also.

Thanks to the companies that donated goodies, too. That was quite nice.

Many thanks to all the participants, and congratulations to the winners. My mind is spinning just thinking of all the entries made!

Unbelievable job you all did. Congrats to the winners. Nice prizes from the vendors as well.

Wow! That's an impressive number Congrats to the winners.
And to all that tried to fill in what info they had.
It was fun and I learned a few things as well.
It was the first time for me, so i stuck to plants i know and still i learned something new.
Lets continue the effort .
RH

My name is missing in the list!! I made so many mental guesses!! ;}

CONGRATULATIONS to all the winners.

Dinu