What a great showing for our first Photo Contest. Bet it will be even bigger by voting time.

1672 entries so far........hope we reach 2000. I need to add a few more and hope others do so also.

Category question?
Begonia the houseplant type ? not cane not tubers
Can wait till next year if we have houseplants?

When I moved from the northeast to the south I found the definition of 'houseplant' changed. Many of the plants we grew up north as houseplants can sometimes live out of doors here in the south. Perhaps your 'houseplants' can easily fit into the category of annual or perennial?

I agree with greene ... Begonias can be a Perennial or an Annual depending on the climate. All plants originate outdoors in the soil (somewhere in the world) but if we don't live in that particular area, to keep them alive we have to duplicate conditions that fit ... so, I'd say your Begonia photos could go in either the Perennial or Annual category.

A perennial to me, they don't die in the winter unless you live in a cold enough zone to kill them.

Thanks all , maybe I will research where my begonia came from and figure annual or perennial.
Love learning new stuff

Perhaps a new category is needed. One for container grown plants where the emphasis is on the plant and how it's grown rather than the container itself. I do that a lot. I don't consider very many growing in containers as houseplants except as a requirement to keep them alive through the winter until I can get them back outside in the spring. I only have one plant that is inside year 'round. I also grow a lot of plants in containers that can survive the cold better than the clay containers they're in and which are being grown in a container by choice but could also be grown in the ground. Growing in containers is a style of growing, just as making a garden bed directly in the ground. IMO, of course .

I grew up in Utah and remember going to a greenhouse with my Dad each spring to buy geraniums...pelargonium....to plant in his garden beds. I was surprised when I went to Fort Ord for basic training to see huge geraniums that must have been several years old.

That's how they grew in my zone 9b garden Paul, here in 9a we get just enough night chill to wither the growth but they come back. I have several scented and fancy leafed ones in pots that I have had for years.

Why are pelergonias referred to as geraniums? I love geraniums, not so fond of the other.

Pelargoniums were once thought to be part of the Geranium genus, Deb, and geranium is still one of their common names.

Do they have another, less confusing, common name?

I think most people just add ''Hardy'' to the real geraniums to distinguish the two

Storksbill is supposed to be a common name for them, but I've never heard anyone use that name. As Cinda said, people refer to them as geraniums and they refer to the real geraniums as hardy geraniums.

Back to the subject of this thread - I think we all just enter photos where we think they best fit. I have the same quandry re native plant v. tree/bush. Hopefully the take-away will be more categories in the future. Although I really like the idea of more frequent contests to coordinate with the plant weeks. We could then split the smaller focus contests into different categories and really immerse ourselves in a targeted group of plant photos.

I certainly found that my cache of photos were taken mainly for identification purposes and thus are mostly rather blah closeups of the bloom, the whole plant, emerging, and at season end (not much composition in any of these). I have most of my plants well documented this way, and will now strive for some more artistic shots. All in good time...the new Photography forum is certainly helpful in that regard.

I do believe we will reach the 2000 mark on the photo contest! 1887 is what I just counted. How exciting

plantladylin said:I agree with greene ... Begonias can be a Perennial or an Annual depending on the climate.

For what it's worth, climate has no impact on the definition of an annual, or perennial, plant. Annuals are monocarpic plants (they die after producing seed) that are capable of completing their life cycle in a single year or less.

Perennial plants that can't survive in certain areas are still perennials. A redwood tree can't survive the winter in Fargo, ND, but that doesn't make it an annual.

Many perennials are treated by gardeners as if they were annuals (that's why there is a checkbox in the database for "Suitable as Annual"). But, the plants are still perennials no matter how we choose to use them.

I think I read somewhere in the comments that "all" ATP Members can vote on the photos, is that correct? And also, that we only have 2 days to do that? Will you be sending an email to all members to alert them when to start judging? At 1000 photos a day---that's a lot!

Perhaps, because of the wonderful response and number of photos you could extend the voting a couple more days?

Just a thought. Thanks!

Oh, another thing. The UTC time is 4 hours ahead of us on the East coast.

Thanks!