Gardening Magazines

Which ones do you subscribe to? Do you get any gardening email newsletters? Member of any Botanical Garden, etc.??

For magazines I get The American Gardener (American Horticultural Society), Gardening How-To (National Home Gardening Club), Horticulture, Fine Gardening and Garden Gate. I get email newsletters from HGTV, Better Homes & Gardens, P. Allen Smith and from some of the magazines I subscribe to.

I am a member of the NY Botanical Garden, AHS (above) and the NHGC (above). Used to be a member of Planting Fields Arboretum when I was in still in Queens.

P. Allen Smith calls me instead ;) I get Birds & Blooms and Horticulture. I would love to join a dahlia society but both are 90 miles away.

I got Birds & Blooms for years but recently stopped it. Too many birds, not enough blooms!

I get: The American Gardener ; Horticulture ; and Garden Gate. I used to get email newletters from everywhere - but there was too much clutter, so now I just get the Garden Gate one.

Birds and Blooms (my Dad gives me a subscription) and Country Gardens. I just restarted Mother Earth News and I won't renew This Old House (too many ideas - too little skill and money).

Better Homes and Gardens, Backyard Living, Birds and Blooms I just subscribed to Nat'l home gardening. I think my hubby's going to shoot me. Add that to all the catalogs I get...hee hee

My wife is partial to Fine Gardening. I don't read any others since they would just remind me of things I should be doing but don't have time for.

Hey Cat - the one thing that strikes me about This Old House (mag and show) is that anyone who has that much money to do a frame-up restoration, could afford to just build a new house.

Our Old House is lovely being restored using our wits. . . don't have enough money, tools, or talent to do the This Old House version!

DH just finished the dining room - it's magnificent. A few "experts" could probably tell the difference between our version and This Old House version - but most mere mortals would not be able to tell the difference. DH just takes his time, and really pays attention to details.

I'm surprised that those of you in the Northeast didn't mention People, Places & Plants. Is there a reason? I've found it to be a pretty interesting magazine. For those in the Midwest, Chicagoland Gardening Magazine is a very popular magazine.

Never heard of it. (People, Places & Plants) Is it centred on Boston?

No, actually it's based in Maine, but discusses gardening topics throughout New England and New York. The website is www.ppplants.com.

Thanks for the link. I will check it out :-)

Have never heard of it either. Thanks.

For magazines: I like Fine Gardening and The English Garden (such pretty pictures).

I belong to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

I will check out the other mag's. My favorite has been Garden Gate. I'm a Life Time Member of National Home & Garden, I was new to informational gardening. I would never do it again the mag is mostly advertising. Garden Gate is great for simple information & very reasonable.

I agree about Garden Gate. Just started it about a year ago and like it a lot. I'm a life member of NHG also.

Dlefferts' comment about the glut of advertising in NHG magazine leads to a question. What type of advertising works for you, what type of ad or message are you most likely to respond to? Blogs like this seem to be growing rapidly, but what else grabs your attention? Is it print ads in gardening mags, radio, point of purchase material (POP) at the garden center or something else?

To begin in reverse, my usual style, no ads with flashing anything online! On paper too much print is a turn off and so is the tiny print on many containers giving directions for use. Humor always gets my attention in ads.

Thanks for the PPP link. I'll check it out.

Emails from Doug Green (a Canadian site), Fine Gardening, About.com, and others.
Subscription only to Garden Gate. In the past we had far too many coming in and no time to read them all.

Oh yes - finding time to read them, except in the cold months, is always a problem.

What helps me the most is when you love gardening is answers to problems you have. I also like to see old & new plants. I'm new to gardening (15 years). I like to learn. I have learned the hard way by losing plants. That's why I love this site. I'm learning every day. Everyone is right when you garden, when do you have time to read. I will tell you for years I cut down bulbs after they bloomed - how wrong. Now I know better. It a process of learning that is why this site is great.

dlefferts, we all get to learn from each other's mistakes and get the chance to help others by relating our mistakes. No need for all of us to reinvent the gardening wheel!

Remember the three kill rule!

Good thing that there's no 'three strikes and you're out!' in gardening.

Never heard of People Places Plants either. Too much advertising drives me CRAZY, that's why I really like Backyard Living and Birds and Blooms No Ads! I hate having to try and find the article in the middle of all the ads.

Horticulture, Garden Gate (love it!!!!)... no membership yet... I am thinking of joining the MA rose society...

flowerjen: I agree 100%. When stories are "continued on page __" and that goes on several times I lose interest - too much aggravation. I feel the same way with food magazines.

oops, I forgot Gardening How To and Garden Easy (that I buy it every time I see !) None on roses.... what's wrong with me!!!!???

I get Garden Gate, The American Gardener, Horticulture, The American Rose (magazine of the American Rose Society/ARS) and The Herb Companion. I got Birds and Blooms for my mom for years...she just loved it. I should subscribe for myself.

Membership in ARS includes reciprocal admission to many botanical gardens/aboretums.

you wouldn't believe the # of e-mail newsletters I get.

Looks like Garden Gate is the favorite one of the Forum.

I even gave garden gate to a friend.... so much I like it....

I get a magazine called Garden & Greenhouse. It's free, and it has a lot of stuff for folks with small greenhouses. You can find it at www.gardenandgreenhouse.net.

I get PPP and I have met Paul Tukey and Roger Swain at the flower show here in Boston. I belong to The Mass Hort society and get Horticulture, the AHS and get the Hosta Journal, Garden Gate keeps sending me free magazines to get me to subscribe, but I haven't had to yet!, & Organic Gardening. I pick up Yankee, Fine gardening and the BHG gardening magazines as I am amused by them in the supermarket and Costco who has a mag rack now. I like the special supplements for Fine Gardening like the container issue and the special plant issues. I belong to the Arnold Arboretum and get their magazine Arnoldia, The New England Wildflower society and get their magazine, the Garden Club federation and get the Mayflower magazine {I know some of the people that write for this}, The Audubon Society and get their magazine, The Fairchild Tropical Garden in Coral Gables FL and get their magazine, and last but not least the BBC Gardening magazine from England. I love their pictures. This is my annual birthday present from my husband. He used to make business trips to england and would bring home copies from the airport magazine stand. He hasn't worked for the old company for 5 years so he subscribed for my birthday when he got his new job back then. I used to have a Fine gardening subscription which I got through either my daughter or a niece or nephew's school magazine drive and is the one I go for for this purpose, but they are all nearly out of middle school so I will have to see what happens. Lest you think I am one track minded here, I also get Opera News. These are just my magazines. The family list is even longer. The San Diego Zoo member magazine ZooNews has a section on plants in every issue as they are a certified botanic garden as well.
Well, I guess it's time to go read a magazine!
Martha

I think you win hands-down Martha!! I'm dropping all my subscriptions and will just check with you each month.

LOL no prob Victor! I used to keep everything, but now I leave the old issues at my cancer center waiting rooms. I got tired of reading very old issues of Golf and Sports Illustrated {hubby gets this one} so I bring them in. People really like them because there are never any left when I get back three weeks later.
Martha

I bring in the old Food and Wine magazines. I was sick of all the sports ones at Physical Therapy and the ones I liked best were Highlights for Children. Love those hidden pictures! Soon enough my kids will be giving me those subscriptions for my birthday!

I am embarrassed to say I don't subscribe to any gardening mag. I read them every chance I get when I am at the dr's office or what have you...does that count?

Pirl, I always loved those hidden pics in the Highlights mags.

I remember listening to Mr. Rogers as Jack's father (91 then) used to watch it. That show was so soothing.

We still watch the old ones with the kids. My father always liked him a lot. I always watched it as a kid. There was a report the other day that some child expert is blaming Mr. Rogers for today's young people being so narcissistic because he drilled into them how special they are!!

I saw his message as how we can all help each other in addition to the specialness of each person. Many kids never got that feeling at home.

Did you watch Miss Louise, too? Bend and stretch, reach for the stars.....