Get a free issue of Fine Gardening

:o(

I didn't get mine either. Ah, well... My bedside table is already piled too high with things I need to read.

Maybe we will all get the Spring issue?

Ursula, not sure how thrilled you'd be anyway. It's great for US gardeners, as every issue has a large section with plants for different "areas" of the US (like Midwest, East Coast, etc), but don't know how much of that would translate to Chile.

Strange that their free issue has taken so long to arrive. Last year I signed up, when they made the same offer, and I don't remember it taking months to arrive. It is a lovely magazine. . .great photography and very practical, accessible articles. I kept all of my back issues!

Apparently the delay had something to do with hiccups between the magazine's and DG's computer system. Read Jessica's (From Fine Gardening Magazine) post from earlier in this thread:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=5857997

Maybe our free issue should be looked at as a nice Spring Surprise! I look forward to receiving mine whenever it arrives.

... oh, and Spring is coming folks! We've been blessed down this way with great weather - high 70's lately. My Hickory trees finally went totally bare in early December and I noticed today they are budding out already ... of course we don't have much in the way of winter and spring arrives a lot earlier here than in some area's.

Sending warm, sunny skies your way! ^_^

Bookerc1, maybe you are right. Our climate is a Mediterranean type climate (similar to mid/northern California).

Ages ago, befor DG and the internet, I was subscribed to British gardening magazines and just loved them. I still treasure each one of them. What I love about them is that they have helpful articles with step to step explanations and very little ads (only at the end of the mag.). Also, they do not fill pages with pictures that have no relation with the articles, like some Spanish mags. available here (with many mistakes on the botanical names).

As far as I know, there is just one on-line Chilean mag (Chloris Chile - great!) and another mag. issued by Jardín Botánico Chagual, a Chilean sp. Botanical Garden under construction, that issues a mag. only every 3 months - gorgeous! but expensive).

Not much to choose from here ......

Since Jessica posted in December about the problems they'd been having, I would expect people would be getting the Jan/Feb issue--if they had just resolved their problems in early December when she posted that would mean everyone had already missed the Nov/Dec issue.

Well, I got my invoice today, announcing that the "first issue" would arrive shortly, so I await developments. ;-)

Kyla

I received my free magazine yesteday, and no invoice yet. It's the Feb. issue.

I'll trade you, my invoice for your magazine.

lol!

I'm out here in the back o' beyond, so I expect my issue is in the pipeline somewhere.... and if not, no loss.

Ursula, not sure why I'd assumed you'd be in a far warmer zone than anywhere in the US. If your temps are similar to parts of California, there may very well be some useful articles and details for you.

I just got a confirmation from them thanking me for my order. . .and I'd decided not to renew, unless someone gave me a gift subscription for Christmas, as it is kind of pricey. I wonder if someone did, and didn't mention it?

Angie

Was the thank you for your order thing attached to an invoice? I think someone mentioned earlier that was the wording on the invoices they were sending out. Usually if someone gives you a gift subscription to a magazine you'll get a notice saying that someone purchased you a gift subscription (at least that's what has happened with gift subscriptions that I've gotten)

Am I the only one who received their free issue so far? And without an invoice yet either - I must be the luckiest person in DG!

Midwest~ that may very well be..I received the invoice yesterday...but no free issue...LOL!

Hi everyone, I'm sorry I didn't respond to everyone's posts sooner. Between the holidays and being sick it's been a crazy month.

I hope that the free issues have started arriving. The current issue is the February issue with the winter scene on the front.

We definitely had quite a few hiccups in getting the names uploaded but to my knowledge that problem has been resolved. Due to the holidays and many people being out we have been a bit delayed in uploading the names. (My sincere apologies.)

I'm not very happy to hear about receiving invoices prior to issues and will look in to this a bit further.

To clarify, you are under NO obligation to pay the invoice. Our system automatically spits out the invoices several times and if no payment is received after these cycles we'll stop sending them. It's how our system works and we weren't able to change it for this offer. Of course we hope you love the issue and want to pay. :)

If you have any other specific issues feel free to send me a message privately.

Thanks again for all the support of our magazine and I'm truly sorry about the confusion.
Jessica

I received my invoice too, but no issue yet.

I didn't fret about it, as nearly every time I've ever checked out a magazine by signing up for a free issue, the invoice always came first.

Looking forward to the magazine!

Yayy, I got the invoice, too! :-) That gives me hope. Thanks for popping in and reassuring us, Jessica. I hope you're feeling better. Being sick over the holidays (or "holidaze" as a friend put it so aptly LOL) is no fun at all.

Hello again.

I just spoke with someone in my fulfillment department. Her theory regarding the invoices arriving ahead of the issues has to do with them shipping directly from our printer. We'll need to look in to this a bit further to know for sure though.

If a couple of people who have not yet received the issue could provide me with their last name and zip code we'll investigate further.

Being somewhat new to the Dave's forums I'm guessing there's a way to email me privately. If not let me know and I'll post my email address (although I'm not sure if that's permitted).

One other point I wanted to mention was that of the US/International comment that someone made. We (Dave's and FG) had agreed to offer this only in the US due to shipping limitations. However, when the offer initially went live this fact wasn't stated. Therefore we are honoring any international requests that came in at the beginning but did change the form later in the process.

I hope this helps!
Jessica

This message was edited Jan 8, 2009 1:50 PM

Jessica, you have D-mail!

Thanks for looking into this.

Mary

Just want to say I received the Feb. '09 issue last week and the invoice a few days later. Must now decide if I can bear the cost. Have always loved the magazine.

Joy

Received mine Saturday...it was the December 08 issue.
Wonder why they're not the same issues?

Yes, a very nice magazine....high cost, though.

Hi everyone!
Thank you to all of you who emailed me your name and zip code. As opposed to writing individual emails saying the same thing I'm going to post my response here.
We spoke with our head of distribution who informed us that the bulk of the issues mailed out on January 8th (last Thursday). Unfortunately we had some on hand inventory issues and had to wait to receive more copies from the printer.
I want to assure you that this is not standard procedure and apologize thoroughly.
Hopefully most of you will now receive your risk-free issue within the week. Please keep me posted on the progress.
Thank you again for being upfront and honest. I hope my answers have been helpful.
Jessica

Jessica, thanks for keeping us posted! DGers are a pretty flexible bunch, but we sure appreciate good communication. :-)

Mine came today! Yaaay!

I got mine today also. I haven't had a chance to look through it thoroughly yet, but I'll do that over this long weekend. :)

WOOOHOOOOOO! I received mine today as well! :0)

Got mine yesterday. :-))) invoice,however, came first. Very nice magazine!

Nothing here yet, but the famous invoice, LOL! Keep hopin'.....

Kyla

Kyla, I will wait with you. Invoice came weeks ago. The suspense is actually adding to my interest of the magazine. lol

chris

Hi, guys! My Feb09 issue arrived today. WOW, there is much information inside I can use. And even the advertisements are informative, including website urls to peruse. I thumbed through it and am anxious to spend some time inside.

Linda

Chris, it's a deal.

Linda, whetting our appetites, eh? ;-)

Kyla

I'm getting time to read mine and I'm thoroughly enjoying every page so far. :) Thanks for the offer.

For those that got the Feb 09 issue, turn to page 14 and tell me if you recognize what species that awesome Agave is! I'm in love! ;) It's a huge one at the Quail Botanical Gardens in Encinitas, CA.

YES! Joan . . . what an awesome photo, eh? I saw it with my first thumb-through as well. And the girl in the photo was devoured by that plant, as if she was a fly and it was that fly trap plant . . . cute! An amazing plant!

And on the same page, a column entitled "Invasive alert," which is also interesting. I mean . . . a Japanese Maple can be invasive? Hmmmmm! I'm sure grateful for such a notification and respect the mag for providing it.

*sigh*

Still waiting here too, you're not alone :(

rubbing salt into the wound aren't they Kyla? lol
Even though I don't have any pretty pictures to look at I'm going to guess Agave Americana since it is a huge Agave
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/55351/

Sorry, I don't mean to do that. I'm just very excited to find out what species it is, and it may very well be a hybrid. It's variegated, and I looked on the Quail Botanical Gardens website, but it doesn't appear that they have a database of the plants they have :(

I'm sure your issue will be arriving soon and you can help us figure it out. :)

Oh, I was just teasing there...... and hey, it's my own fault, I don't have to watch this thread that close, now do I?

I heard something about the Dec/Jan issue that also whetted my appetite.

Well, this is probably the good garden fairies protecting me from any over-enthusiasm, LOL! I have way enough to do and organize garden-wise already, for this next season, and I know durn well this magazine is going to make me drool.

Timing is everything. ;-)

Kyla

How far are you from Quail Botanical Gardens? Road Trip!! You may be in the position to see this awesome plant in person and can report back to us. :)

Don't be sorry Joan, I'm grinning ear-to-ear. Sounds like a beautiful magazine. I love it when gardens list their plants online. Very helpful.