Week 1- Mears Garden picture contest- December 5, 2010

Welcome to the Fifth Annual Mears Garden Picture contest.

Each Sunday evening for 12 weeks I will post 4 pictures from the Mears garden for 2010. You get to vote for the one you like best. Those 12 winners and the 4 highest finishing second place pictures will advance to a round of 16. By that point we should be well into February. Over the next 4 weeks you will pick the four finalists. There will then be that one last vote for the fan favorite for garden year 2010. By that time winter will be mostly done, at least in Iowa. (In theory)
Voting should be in the poll at the top of this page.

For new people you should also be able to go back on this page and look at the archive. You can find last year’s contest as well as pictures from previous years.

There is a place for Comments at the bottom of the weekly post on the blog. Those are much appreciated. If you comment on the blog we can all appreciate your comments.

Each week on the blog I will do several things. I will give you the four pictures for that week’s event. I will tell you how the voting went the previous week. And I will tell you something about the garden. Oh- there is also a bonus picture section each week on the blog.

I hope you enjoy the contest. Let’s begin.
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Week 1 December 5, 2010- winter is here.
This week the pictures are from the early spring, which in Iowa is before May.

Picture number 1- the cold snowdrop
This picture, taken on March 5, 2010, really started the pictures for 2010. Snowdrops really are about the first flower to show up. Believe it or not, we even had one come up several weeks ago. That really doesn’t count, that is for next year. Snowdrops have some kind of antifreeze in its equivalent of veins. Even when it is emerged out of the ground it can stand temperatures lower than about anything.

Picture number 2-the perfect anemone.
This picture, taken on April 9, is an anemone blanda. I will leave it to the word purists to decide how a blanda can be purple. This picture is about as perfect as a picture can be. It is so symmetrical. You could rotate the picture 47% either way and hardly tell the difference.

Picture number 3 is a little iris riticulata. Iris really come in all sizes and shapes. This iris grows from a little mostly round bulb. It is one of the early spring flowers and is an interesting color contrast to the snowdrops and aconite. (Wait until next week.) This picture was taken on March 23. Riticulata come in several colors, including yellow. They are inexpensive so you should be able to just buy 100. That will get your color started.

Picture 4 is the hosta, probably Montana Aureomarginata, with the bluebells. The picture was taken on April 15. It goes without saying that bluebells are wonderful. This past year, which had it less than memorable moments, (I try to stay positive in this blog) was a year where I rediscovered the wonders of hosta. Gardening really does go in cycles. One year it was daylilies. Another year was dominated by oriental lilies. I think this past year I really enjoyed hosta. I will sprinkle in a few stories throughout the winter.

So there you have the first week of pictures. Vote away. Get some friends to also participate. This is a way to get through the winter. If a friend would like to receive the emails, just send me the address.

Happy winter.


For your bonus pictures here are other pictures, similar to the contest pictures. Can you imagine about 200 blue and yellow reticilata planted close to each other. Mae West said something like "Too much of a good thing is just right."






Enjoy the week and drive carefully.
Philip