I may not state my thoughts perfectly, and I certainly do not intend to offend anyone, but here goes.
Dave, I very much appreciate the thought and effort you put forth to submit this proposal. Gardening is indeed worthy of celebrating or none of us would be here. But I feel some distress regarding all this inclusion/exclusion discussion. Your willingness to listen and reevaluate shows what a great leader you really are. However, I believe that no matter how you slice and dice the setup, some will be dissatisfied. I have to wonder if the contest element is the real issue. It seems to me that we would all like to submit our very best photos, and naturally some gardens will be more photo-ready than others at the designated time. While we all love a good competition, and it usually boosts the fun and participation, maybe that competive element is just getting in the way of really celebrating our favorite plants?

Absolutely Jeanie!
Although I do comprehend the fact that "former years' photos are acceptable as entrants," I do not want to be limited to the piles of crappy photos that I've already taken as entrants. Plus, and, I have new stuff this year that I have yet to photograph.
For these reasons, I am utterly relieved to learn that when my Amaryllis bloom in March, the snow melts off of my semps in April, my daffs and tulips bloom in May, and my irises, peonies, and roses bloom in June, (you get the idea) that I will still have the opportunity to try to take better pictures for said contest and huge prizes

Dave,
I realize that if I propose dates to coordinate with the whole idea of "peaking" and interactive weeks as proposed it would compress the schedule beyond reason and there would be overlap (as there is in gardens)...and that doesn't work either and I get that so I won't propose it.
I really do understand your dilemma of trying to fit everything in and having off weeks, and I can totally see how lilies and daylilies in July and "going from there" dictated the spread out.
My gut tells me that even after you re-examine the data and crunch some numbers and make a few minor adjustments that it will look pretty much the same...maybe move Mail Order up into January &/or maybe add houseplants to one side of 'winter' or the other ?, nudge spring a week or two and maybe have one or two back-to-back parties and that's about the best that can be done.

I think both northern gardeners and upside-down gardeners are used to being 'left-out' and we will all be okay, and--
as has been said, but still worth echoing loudly THANK YOU for considering the issue anyway

I'm glad you appreciate my attempt to consider the issue. I always seem to try, but it's impossible to please everyone and you have no idea how many times I've shot myself in the foot trying to make sure that not a single person gets left. Add this to the list of times.

It's worth noting that many of the narcissus are blooming RIGHT NOW in East Texas and by the time the actual daffodil week comes, our blooms are long gone. So add my name to the list of people who will be out of that party. So as you see, this works in both directions.

dirtdorphins said:My gut tells me that even after you re-examine the data and crunch some numbers and make a few minor adjustments that it will look pretty much the same...

I do feel like it's true that what we have is a pretty solid schedule. Trish and I spent many hours going through the information we have. Is it perfect? No. But it's probably pretty close.

This has caused some angst among the parties involved and I regret that. I should have just said that these are the dates and if they are too early or too late, then just do your best using what you have.

dirtdorphins said:I would prefer that it not be 'sold' to me as the bankrupt idea that it is i.e. to celebrate my plants as they are peaking when they are not.

This complaint, despite its unfortunate wording, is a good example of the reason why products have a multi-paragraph disclaimer, trying to cover every possible scenario.

Really, at this point I'm pretty tired of the conversation. I feel like we're close enough on the dates, and I'm not inclined to do any more back and forth on it. I'm sorry that we weren't able to get everyone the dates they wanted.

It's not possible to make the bloom season a 'current event' for a plant. Even celebrating a week will not cover most plants bloom period in real time. That's why there are designations of E, EM, EML, M, ML and L - and why there are forums for widely grown blooming plants. Even in my own disagreeable garden spot (a tiny, tiny speck in relation to the world) in a bad year, the span of bearded iris bloom extends beyond a week. I haven't understood this thread, I think. Any week would do as well. It's a given that much of it will be 'that's how it was'. Anything that manages 'that's how it is' is luck and a bonus.

@dave, I still don't see why you can't please everyone on this particular situation. Choose the week for the plant, and let everyone post pictures of those plants from the entire 12 months previous to that week. Loosen up the rules!

It's not like the County Fair where you must have a plant in the peak of perfection to take to the fair to win a ribbon. We are all over the world, meeting on the internet and we all have grundles of beautiful pictures of our flowers when they were at their best.

I don't need to loosen any rules. There are no rules!

Well .... all I can say ....

BRING ON THE CELEBRATING! I am ready to party hearty!

Egads! I had no idea that 'spring bulb week' occurred in E. TX in January or that I would read like such a complete, whiny [insert-noun-of-your-choice-here].
I am sincerely sorry.
It is clearly not possible to achieve the goal of interactive plant weeks while everyone's specifically designated plant of the week is peaking.
I'm sorry, but that is the idea that I find to be --again, sorry for the choice of word-- bankrupt.
I'd like to think that I could have accepted the whole idea better if you had painted the picture more realistically without the impossible illusion, i.e. we realize this isn't actually possible, here is the best schedule we could make, if the dates are too early/late for you--make do with what you've got.
As painful as this has been for everyone, I really appreciate that information now. Thank you.

I don't mean to be rude. I can re-read the idea a million times and see that the way in which it is framed and expressed is designed to create an atmosphere of fun and excitement. I acknowledge that I should not have taken the thing so literally and that I should have suspended my disbelief --like I must do when I watch television-- in order not to ruin everyone's fun and cause angst. I regret that I was unable to do that. Again, I am sorry.
Not that it is a sufficient excuse, but I confess that I complained because I thought that the photo contest would not include late bloomers AND my 'favorite plant' week, of all those scheduled, will occur too early for my favorite plant to participate (and sadly, I do not have grundles ?wait--grundles? of beautiful pictures of it looking it's best--oh well. I'll try to fix that in about four and 1/2 months). If the week was too late--yeah, no problem--I could at least get pics.

I'm tired of the conversation, too--ready for fun and celebration on my schedule and yours--let's see your daffs

Trish suggested to me last night that we take out the photo contests and instead do the photo contest all at once at the end of the year and we're considering that. I'll post an update after I've had a chance to sit down with her and discuss the whole thing.

Good to hear about the contests Dave and Trish...I should have summarized my previous comment to say more clearly that I was suggesting the contests should be the element that was re-tooled rather than timing of the various plant weeks.
It might be safe to say that we all understand what politicians and public figures go through getting every word they say or write parsed out in unintended ways!
ON WITH THE PAR-TEE

I like looking at the photos in the contest, but too many categories all at the same time made it hard. It'd be nice if the categories were spread out throughout the year - maybe with a set start and end date for each one. Petunias for the week of July 4th, dandelions for Labor Day. Like holidays and then people could have the categories and dates in mind when they are out taking fabulous photos for us to see. Sort of a thought, anyway.

Yeah--I know what you mean--it was...overwhelming.
I suppose there are many possible ways to spread it out.
One possibility is photo of the month--no categories--like, pick your 3 best plant-related (of course) photos of whatever you've got going on that month &/or wherever you visit--be it related to the plant weeks or not (a month behind or three months ahead ), be it a wildflower or a tropical or a container or a landscape or a macro or a tree or a frog in a blossom--no categories covers all categories and late bloomers! Quick vote at the end of the month and start over, then best of show at the end. Could go well with celebrate gardening--all of it--as it's happening &/or happened-- and all about fun.
No need for big year end catch up and agony...
but of course, people may really prefer categories, in which case, this is an idea for the scrap pile...