Week 13- February 21, 2010- Picture contest- the first week of the finals

So we have the contest and there is also the beginning of the garden picture fundraiser for Haiti. That begins with the post right before/below this one. For your navigation ease click here and you will go right to it. (I think)
Mears Garden Fundraiser

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As baseball spring training is just around the corner it is appropriate to announce the pairings for this next round of the picture contest.

First of all there are the results from Week 12.
The run a way winner was the pansy. It not only advances to the next round, but as I will say later, it is one the seeded pictures in the next round.
The full voting in Week 12 was
Pansy 33
Hosta and bluebells 10
Elise the lily 10
White crocus 11
Total 64

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So here is what I do now. The 12 winners, actually 13 since there was a tie in Week 10, all advance.

The 3 second place finishers with the highest percentage finishes, also advance to form a group of 16. Those 3 were the Bloodroot from week 1, the daffodil from week 4 and the daylily close-up from week 8.

I then seeded the four winners with the highest percentages for their week. The four seeded pictures in no particular order were
Siberian Iris from week 6
Snowdrop from week 9
Pansy from week 12
Pink Poppy from week 1

After that I just took the 16 pictures and put one seeded picture and one runner-up in each group. I then tried to balance the rest so that there would be somewhat of a balance between colors and types of plants.

So here is the great field for week 1 of the finals.
The first picture is the pink Oriental poppy.

The second picture is the bright orange crown imperial fritillaria.

Then there is Shirley, the tulip.

Finally there is the bloodroot.

There are 3 pictures from May and one from April. Do you know which is the April picture? Yes, it is the bloodroot. May is just such a great month for flowers. You have the end of the bulbs and the beginning of everything else.

Vote away. One picture will advance to the final finals in a month.

Katie update- Katie is still in Port au Prince. She is no longer in a tent. At the end of the week she came in out of the rain to an old hotel, now populated by NGO relief persons. There is a roof over her head, electricity and running water, even if it isn’t hot.
She is planning on coming back to the states for a short rest next weekend. The persons who will do the long term coordinating for ERD in Haiti have been identified, so her time in Haiti is almost over.
ERD’s commitment to Haiti will continue. The organization does not only emergency work but also rebuilding.

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Have a quiet week. Here in Iowa it remains much the same. Springtime seems a long way away.
Philip