Announcing the 5th annual DG Photo Contest!

Beat you, did I? Mine are in. ;-)
Ann

Erynne,

LOL,,,so I did,,,not tired just so busy with Elaine's thing that I am going in circles and typing too fast. LOL And I'm only doing the investigating it part. Poor darius.

Kelly

Wish I could remember what I entered.......

you can view your entries if you go to the category where you add a photo........it says something like 'view you entries'.....

The downside is that you have to do that for EACH category in which you entered. Don't know whether it is possible, but maybe next year, it might be possible somehow to see what you entered in ALL categories at one time. Even better would be if it told you what category something had been entered in. But then I guess we get spoiled. This site is SO good.

Ann

got the same feeling..but let's not knock it, suggestions are favourably taken on board.

one thing i would like to see next year is a simple one step return to the category page

janet

When does voting start?

-Zem

zem,
Midnight tonight.

Kelly

How do we vote? I am not sure of how to even get started with that.

There will be a link to the voting page. When you get there, ,you click on whatever category that you want to vote in..(this will take several days)

Each picture in the category will have the options next to it...you simply check off the ones that you feel win....you can vote for as many as you wish...but you can only vote for each picture once.

What I have done in years past, is go through and check all that I like...then, go back and by process of elimination, uncheck boxes till I have a winner, or a couple of winners in each category. Sometimes, there's a couple that are equally good in my opinion, so I let the checks remain.

Dave will give us a good amount of time to go through and select our favorites...the votes only count when the voting period is ended...so if you are deciding between a couple and need to sleep on it...no problem...then you can make your selection with fresh eyes.

Hope this helps.

That's a great explanation and tips, melody, thanks a million!

Sandy

Now that was fun....talk about waiting to the last minute LOL Good luck everyone :)) God bless, Margo

Shoot - I never did get around to reposting my pics in the flower category. They are still in miscellaneous along with upteen hundreds of other pics. Oh well - I've had more important things on my mind. It's 5 minutes to midnight on the 30th, Eastern time, and I don't have the time or energy to start re-doing them now. This computer is way too slow.

I never got around to posting any! This fall's been insane, and I completely forgot until today. Can't wait to see everyones' entries, anyhoo! :)

WHERE is the link to the voting? I've looked everyplace and waited up late to do this!!

When can we start voting?

It's been so much fun! I agree with Wallaby about an easier way of returning to the category page.

The other part that was fun was just in reviewing one's own photos. So many good memories.

Just go to the link at the top of this page. It is now set up to view all pictures, and to vote.

We can't click the photo on the contest page to make it larger??

So sorry: a very blonde moment. I had my pop up blocker on. What great photos!!!

How can anyone choose ONE as the best???!!!??? These are awesome!!!!

I found the irises the hardest to select. There really should be more awards for this category. Maybe a place for #2, #3, most colorful, most iridescent, anything but more awards. Too many are too wonderful and I hate hurting feelings by choosing one over the other.

I didn't feel that way with a lot of the other categories but the irises got to me. Maybe Siberians could have their own, and Japanese, and TB's could be by themselves or with the DBI and IBI.

EXCELLENT PHOTOGRAPHY!

On another thread, Dave mentioned that you can vote for as many photos as you want in each category. Unless I misunderstood him, I don't think you have to confine yourself to just voting for one.

I found the cactus and succulent pictures to be riveting. I had no idea they could be so stunning.

That's where I'm heading now!

I'll go back and revote on the irises - they were so stunning. Thanks so much for setting me straight.

So hard to choose. Maybe we should have more than one round of voting - decide on semifinalists and fo for another round.

Ann

Sounds good to me but then it's easy for us to suggest as someone else may be pulling their remaining hairs out.

Definitely, Dave, please - next year - one category for public gardens. To put us home gardeners up against professional landscapers is a bit much and leaves 98% of us unable to compete.

I have spent almost an hour just on the Iris Class, and it is impossible just yet to choose. I did not see even one photo that should'nt be the best. I am very jealous because I have no Irises to take pics of.

I thought I entered one but it wouldn't have mattered - they all deserve awards!

I guess I am just plain brugsmania impaired. They don't grow here, so I haven't a clue... what is the difference between a brug and a datura... I thought brugs were datura. What is 'blush', what is 'whisker'? You can see why I'm hesitant to judge them.

I had the same problem with some categories, Weezingreens. I know what a bearded iris looks like, so can only assume that the other ones are beardless. In categories I'm less sure I've, I mainly vote for best overall and best combos.

Daturas are the smaller bushy form with upward facing flowers, usually purple or yellow or white. Brugs are the taller bush/trees with pendulous flowers. Brugs seem to be much more popular and present here. 'blush' has to do with color, 'whisker' is the tendril at the end of each point of the flower.

Thanks, ecobioangie! That helps. Perhaps brief explanations would be helpful on the judging pages for each category next year.

Yes, lilystorm. I think it's hard for a gardener who loves their specialty plant to imagine that there is anyone out there as ignorant as I am about them. I waded my way through the irises, too, using my Hortis to determine the differences. It would surely help if the photo contributors would identify the subject by genus and species, wouldn't it.

I'm ashamed to say, I faked my way through the hostas and trees, so now I'm going to check out morning glories to see if I have more questions before I vote.

Thanks eco - I thought I should be looking for a long stamen or anther or something like that. Now I can go back and correct my vote.

Weezin: many were problems for me, too. Maybe a link for each page describing AND SHOWING what the terminology means.

Maybe one more category since many of us trade here for Best photo of a plant received in a trade?????????

Well, got through the brugs OK, once I knew what I was looking at. No wonder people grow them! Just not here in Alaska! The morning glories were fairly easy, too, except every one was beautiful... hard to choose! Well, I can see Roses are going to give me a fit, too. Any crash courses on Roses? How do we know which is which?

Best Climber
Best Mixed Planting
Best OGR (Old Garden Rose)
Best Overall
Best Shrub Rose
Best Tea Rose

Good idea, pirl. Best plant or plant from seed received in trade! How about a category for seeds and seedpods. They may not be the most beautiful subjects, but the photos are so useful and would challenge our photographic skills.

It's really hard to separate the subject from the photographic skills, isn't it. I found this very true when viewing the pet and livestock photos.

Agreed Weezins! About it being hard to separate the subject from the skills.

Also very confusing to tell what plant is grown in a container, i.e., roses, brugs.

How do we know an OGR from a shrub and maybe one can be the other. I grow roses but would never have thought to say "grown in container" - it sounds too much like a plug for oneself.

I must confess that when I submitted my pics I felt confident I had winners.
Now that I see them all, I'm humbled.
So many winners, how can I choose.
It's going to take a lot of time.
Andy P

Now I'm laughing, embarrassedly, about my DG t-shirt entry. I had misunderstood when entering, thinking that you were looking for designs for new t-shirts...not photos of the current shirts! LOL!!

:-T

Tiffany - you really entered a wonderful photo and Dave should consider it so we'd have a choice. Excellent job.

In the daylily category what does UF mean? In the best spider/best UF category. I know what a spider form is, but not UF. A lot of the photos are really stunning...

Boy, whoever wins in each contest has really done a fantastic job! In a lot of the categories I voted for loads of photos, they were all so good.