GoatDriver said:She really gets into her work...

Just saw this girl gathering pollen from the Gaillardia on the porch

WOW! That is one pollen-covered busy bee! Thank you for sharing this--it's wonderful to see from the colder climates where things are beginning to freeze and we don't see many flying critters until spring. Happy Thanksgiving!

LOL that bee is working overtime!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you Mika & Cheryl for the

That bee is to pollen like I am to pecan pie! Happy Thanksgiving!

happy day after!
been trying to catch up here and there, but it's hopeless

here is a bee face


hope you all are well and happy!
'see' ya later

This week it's congrats to @wildflowers for being a "noteworthy acorn tip" for the following post: http://garden.org/thread/view_...

Thanks, Melanie. It still makes me laugh the whole thing reminded me of a cartoon, especially the way the poor thing landed with his legs all sprawled out!

I've just finished making my choices for the photo contest - quite a long task! I don't know about you guys, but for me by far the most difficult were the last two categories, wildlife and misc. There were lots and lots of really great photos; I think it might have been better to sub-divide a bit more. I didn't enter any pics, but am really looking forward to seeing the category winners.

I agree, Mika, the last two categories were really really hard to chose because there were just so many wonderful photos!

I've been making my way through the photo contest entries too, saving the largest categories for last. I totally forgot about it and didn't get to submit any entries.

I wish it was setup to make the picture load by default no bigger than the screen, I'm having to zoom in and out to see the larger pictures all at once. I'm trying to look through them all in slideshow view since many of them are not well represented by the square cropped thumbnails. Is there a way to star them in the slideshow view? I keep closing the slideshow to find it in the photo grid and star it and then go back to the slideshow again.

It would be really nice to see a caption with the photos with more information about the photo, especially location. In casting my vote I'm trying to take into account the appropriateness to the category, overall photographic quality, and uniqueness. It would be interesting to see if plants pictured were something the photographer grew themselves, saw at a botanical garden, or found in the wild.

Some of the categories are so general that it is hard to know what is appropriate. For instance the "landscapes and gardens" category. I see some that are large natural landscapes, some that look like botanical gardens, pictures of small garden beds, landscaped yards, and even a few of just individual plants. Talk about comparing apples to oranges! At the other extreme you have the individual categories that are just for roses, irises, lilies, and daylilies.

I am most likely over thinking this all though. It's been known to happen.

The way the contest is set up is a little confusing, and the average garden cannot be compared to a public garden or park.

Morgan, I just use the left/right arrows on my keyboard when judging, I go through them full size quickly at first to see whats entered, then I go back to the thumbnails? and use the mouse to star the favorites, I use Esc to reduced a photo that I have enlarged. Then the hard job of selecting the top 3.

I agree too. I know Dave was trying to keep it down to a reasonable number of categories but I would have rather seen nature scapes separate from garden scapes. The lilies and day lilies are bulbs so why not put them all together, and irises for that matter but maybe they are just too popular and need to be separated. Roses, I know are popular and special, so I can see that being its own category. Would really have loved to have seen an insect or at least a pollinator category.

RE: a description, there's a place to add a description when submitting photos but will only show after the contest. Must be some reason.

wildflowers said:I agree too. I know Dave was trying to keep it down to a reasonable number of categories but I would have rather seen nature scapes separate from garden scapes. The lilies and day lilies are bulbs so why not put them all together, and irises for that matter but maybe they are just too popular and need to be separated. Roses, I know are popular and special, so I can see that being its own category. Would really have loved to have seen an insect or at least a pollinator category.

RE: a description, there's a place to add a description when submitting photos but will only show after the contest. Must be some reason.

Maybe a description may give away the identity of the photo owner. And I was also wondering if they had 4 moderators how come the photos with the persons names on them weren't removed????

Day lilies are not bulbs.
bulb (buhlb) n. 1. The resting phase of plants such as the onion and tulip, which have membranous or fleshy leaves forming a rounded underground mass, and which can develop into new plants. Some types of underground stems, such as the crocus and gladiolus, are commonly called bulbs but are more properly called corms. Others are more accurately called rhizomes, tubers, or tuberous roots. 2. A plant that has or develops from bulbs.
That is the problem with the categorys. The individuals that post should double check to be sure they are in the proper category. The same applies to annuals/perennials...many perennials are grown as annuals in colder regions and vise versa, but that doesn't make them annuals.

ctcarol said:Day lilies are not bulbs.
bulb (buhlb) n. 1. The resting phase of plants such as the onion and tulip, which have membranous or fleshy leaves forming a rounded underground mass, and which can develop into new plants. Some types of underground stems, such as the crocus and gladiolus, are commonly called bulbs but are more properly called corms. Others are more accurately called rhizomes, tubers, or tuberous roots. 2. A plant that has or develops from bulbs.
That is the problem with the categorys. The individuals that post should double check to be sure they are in the proper category. The same applies to annuals/perennials...many perennials are grown as annuals in colder regions and vise versa, but that doesn't make them annuals.

And then there's that problem that sometimes plagues newbies, the problem of names. Where a day lily is not a lily, but is called one. I'm guessing there are other examples, but this is the one I fell on (and was corrected) a short time ago. Thankfully, not in the photo contest though.

I think the captions might give away the identity of the person, too. Although, I can tell some of the submissions because I've seen them in this forum! I'm still impartial, though. I can't help it if you guys post the most awesome photos!

FYI, one of my pics got moved from the bulb category to perennial. I wasn't sure so I went with what was in the plant database about it.

I'm having major problems trying to decide which photos to vote for in the landscape & garden category. My goodness, so many beautiful photos! And I loved seeing many from this forum in the wildlife category!

Joanna, I hear you! The further I went down the list, the harder to make decisions. How to narrow it down to three when you have a dozen stared. Wildlife and flowers was a tough one too...just too many choices.

ctcarol said:Joanna, I hear you! The further I went down the list, the harder to make decisions. How to narrow it down to three when you have a dozen stared. Wildlife and flowers was a tough one too...just too many choices.

So true Carol. But I finally did it after narrowing it down to my 5 favorites and then languishing over them for a while. I can't wait to see the finalists. They ought to be stunning.

mcash70 said:
Morgan, I just use the left/right arrows on my keyboard when judging, I go through them full size quickly at first to see whats entered, then I go back to the thumbnails? and use the mouse to star the favorites, I use Esc to reduced a photo that I have enlarged. Then the hard job of selecting the top 3.

That's pretty much how I've been doing it too. I just thought maybe there was a keyboard shortcut to star them in the slideshow view or something else that I overlooked. I'm down to my last two categories to go through now!

I would think it would be hard to come up with categories that would please everyone. I know there are diehard rose, daylily, and iris people here and maybe that is why they got their own category. Personally I think the bulb, annual, perennial, wildflower and native categories are kind of arbitrary too though. A good share of people wouldn't know if their picture really belongs there or not, and many might not even have an id on the plant to look that information up. It might be simpler to have categories that are more inclusive yet easier for people of all botanical knowledge levels to instantly see what is appropriate. Maybe even change up the categories a bit every year to rotate some more obscure ones in and keep the overall number of categories low. Since there's not a restriction on when the picture was taken for this contest I don't think not having every category every year would matter as much.

Some category ideas:
-single show stopper bloom
-interesting foliage
-harmonious color combos
-bold color combos
-single species -- big impact (like those fields of poppies, daffodils, or that flowering vine that ate your house)
-natural landscapes maybe divided by general biomes (desert, prairie, woodland, tropical, etc.)
-seasonal categories like winter's harshness, fall colors, etc.
-grand public garden displays
-small space gardens (apartment balcony, small allotment gardens, indoor houseplant jungle, etc)
-fruit and veggie gardens
-gardeners in action (a place for pictures of people and maybe even our "helpful" pets in action in the garden)

Maybe that last one would have to not be eligible for prizes though since there are concerns of fairness and knowing who the picture belongs to.

I'm sorry that I've taken this thread so off topic! I should probably be posting this on the site talk forum instead. I guess I don't have anything appropriate to add to this thread this time of year! Not many insects out and about any more. It's supposed to get up into the upper 50s today and I have to do some raking, so maybe I'll come across some bugs.

I like your ideas, Morgan.

Well I just happen to have a bug related picture to show... although I don't know what it is, I'm wondering if anyone else has a clue.

Some kind of eggs, maybe?