The ANLAClinic is a lot like High School

Last week I attended the ANLAClinic in Louisville, Kentucky, from Wednesday through Saturday.  The ANLAClinic is a yearly educational event for members of the American Nursery and Landscape Association. During the clinic attendees listened to speakers, participate in workshops and seminars designed to help them navigate all aspects of the business. It was my first time attending. I was a freshman, if you will and the ANLAClinic was a lot like high school, or attending a high school reunion.

Merchandising example at ANLAClinic created out of wood pallets and featured Flat Tire Decor pots, which I'm happy to boast were a garden bloggers discovery last year.

The Bad.
I was presenting on garden bloggers and had my two presentations memorized down to the exact second I had been allotted. I decided to do away with the Power Point presentations because I’ve always been bored by lectures in school. Like a freshman on his first day of school I walked into the wrong room for the first presentation. While running to the room I was suppose to be in I was stopped by an attendee who recognized me from the schedule and said, “Good luck today. Don’t be nervous because you’ll be presenting before all the important people in the business.” Well, gee, I wasn’t up until that moment. Then I got up for my part and it dawned on me that I was presenting in front of some of the most important people in the industry. You can imagine what happened next. I bombed, not just one of the presentations, but both. Ouch.

The Good.
Adding to the feeling of being in high school were the long hallways and people going from room to room at regular intervals. Everywhere you looked there were people greeting each other and introducing themselves to people who they hadn’t met yet. It was impossible to navigate the clinic without being greeted by a smile, shaking someone’s hand or being talked up. The breakfast and lunch breaks were always interesting because you could be joined by someone you hadn’t spoken with, or you could meet someone you’d already shared a meal with. I’d never encountered such a friendlier bunch of people in my life. It made me a little suspicious, to be honest.

The Parties.
In the evening there were sponsored hospitality suites and I soon learned what I had to be suspicious of. There was always someone sticking food and drink imploring you to have a good time. Not the best place to be if you’re already upset about the pounds you added during the holidays. The elevators rides and walking the hallways after people indulged in food and drink were hilarious.

The Talent Show.
The last evening of the clinic hosted “Garden Idol” where several plant breeders competed just like in American Idol to win what can best be described as plant of the year for 2012 using music, costumes and skits. Hort Couture Plants won “Garden Idol” and I’m really excited to grow their Under the Sea line of coleus this year. They are truly stars. But I couldn’t help feel a little sorry for the people from Monrovia that did a fantastic pirate themed skit. After “Garden Idol” ended the biggest party of the clinic took place where attendees opened up their wallets for money for charity.

Young Gardeners.
As the Baby Boomer generation continues to age, the industry is obsessed with reaching young gardeners. Everywhere you go nowadays the industry is talking about ways to reach out to young gardeners. There were a lot of talks and presentations about how to achieve this, but I found the best example from an ANLA member and attendee. Check out the Plants vs. Zombies: Real World Solutions video from Lancaster Farms in Virginia.


More like this, garden industry. If you're looking to reach young gardeners you need to think like a young gardener and make gardening fun.

The Heathers.
On the day the “ugly gardens” debate resurfaced on Twitter I made the choice to ignore it for the most part. I’m really tired of people and brands who, as garden communicators, have no qualms about crapping all over a gardener’s attempt to garden. I wasn't going to get into the debate and let it bring me down from my high. But I couldn't escape it.That same evening while walking into a hotel bar a man stopped me and said, “You’re the blogger! My wife has been talking about you all night.” The wife in question turns the corner and says, “It’s true. I’ve been telling him that we should support the bloggers because garden writers have gotten too full of themselves.” It was an apropos end to that particular day.

The Last Day.
The morning of the last day I had a presentation on blogging. I was surprised how many people showed up given how early it was and how hard people partied the night before at “Garden Idol” and Party With a Purpose. Those three days went by really fast and the final day I was full of ideas and inspiration after speaking to people who were genuinely friendly, eager to learn how they can be better garden communicators, sellers, and buyers of the garden lifestyle. I have to admit I got a little bit verklempt because I realized that just like in high school I’d made some friends at the ANLAClinic who I’ll know for life, and there were others I’ll wish I had gotten to know better.

I have no complaints about the event of my participation. Everything about it was a positive experience for me. From the suite I was put up in for free to the housekeepers and the catering staff at the Galt House Hotel, everyone I came into contact with was awesome. A big thanks to everyone involved and especially to Kellee and Stephanie for all the hand-holding they had to do with me. I appreciate the opportunity you all gave me to travel out of state and talk about what I do.

I want to thank the following people and brands for spending time asking about garden blogging and showing an interest in this thing we do. I misplaced a lot of business cards so if you're someone I came into contact with please leave your link below.

Chicago Tree MD. Randolph's Greenhouses.Sun Gro Horticulture. David Austin Roses.Garden Media Group.Perennial Gardens.Peace Tree Farm.Wallitsch Nursery and Garden Center.Organic Mechanics.Pines Lawn and Garden Inc.Midwest Trading.Great Garden Plants.Enchanted Landscapes.Fairfield Garden Center.Meister Media.Lancaster Farms.B Wise Gardening.

Garden Bloggers Get WWE on NWF

While I was attending the ANLAClinic in Kentucky this week my Twitter feed erupted with outrage over the announcement that the NWF had teamed up with Scotts. I monitored the conversation online and kept relatively quiet. My silence on the issue was construed as apathy by a few Twitter followers who messaged me to ask me why I wasn't blogging and tweeting about how I felt about the alliance.

When I was part of the organizing committee of Chicago Spring Fling and we prepared to host the second of what has now become annual gatherings of garden bloggers from across the country a PR firm representing ScottsMiracle-Gro contacted me. Our conversation ended with them offering to sponsor in part the event. I took the offer to the organizing committee and we decided to poll several of the attendees since we knew it would be a controversial connection. What we heard back was that since the GWA took sponsorship money from Scotts they would be OK with us doing it since many of the attendees were GWA members. The money we received was applied towards the rental of the bus and that allowed us to lower the cost of the bus per attendee.

This is why I've remained silent. I feel like I have no room to criticize the National Wildlife Federation for partnering with Scotts since I sold out to Scotts once even though I'd made a personal pledge not to use their products about a year or two prior. I could have ignored the sponsorship offer and the organizing committee would probably have never been the wiser. But at the time we were scrambling for a way to rent a bus for Chicago Spring Fling without making the trip more expensive for the attendees who were traveling from across the country. When we were organizing the event bloggers were NOT the darlings of marketers that they are now becoming. So offers of cash were few and far between.

Of all the things I've said and done as a garden blogger this is the only thing I'm ashamed of. I now feel like I can't blog on the issue because I talked the organizing committee into taking the money. Fortunately, there are a few garden bloggers who can cast stones at the National Wildlife Federation and lay the smackdown. I encourage you  to read and spread their posts.

Gayla Trail: What Were They Thinking?
Benjamin Vogt: NWF in Garden Bed with Scotts
Carole Brown: David Mizejewski Defends National Wildlife Federation Partnership.
Dave Townsend: 5 Ways to Help Wildlife In Your Garden Without the NWF.
Margaret Roach:  Can scotts really be a partner to the environment?
Kathy Green: Should the Sign Come Down?
Colleen Vanderlinden: ScottsMiracle-Gro's Partnership With NWF Was Timed with Tainted Bird Seed News

The answer to Gayla's hypothetical in the title of her blog post is "the money." When you need or want money you'll do all kinds of things to compromise your integrity. Although, I ask myself what the NWF was thinking in terms of the damage their connection is now going to cause their supporters.

Gardeners are taking down their "Certified Wildlife Habitat" certificates and garden bloggers are debating if they should take down the blog badges.

The gentleman in the costume pictured above was representing American Beauties Native Plants at a hospitality suite during the ANLAClinic. After a few free bourbons I forgot his name, but not our conversation. I noticed that his poster had a NWF logo and I asked him if he was worried about supporting the NWF given the outrage that was occurring online. He said that he believed that above everything else "the mission of the NWF was worth supporting." After meeting another representative of American Beauties Native Plants last summer at the Independent Garden Center Show I had decided that I would support their program and recommend American Beauties Native Plants. It is a responsible approach to native plant gardening by promoting locally grown and regional appropriate plants. Now I'm not so sure. The use of the NWF logo used to stand for something. I wonder if all of the gardeners who are expressing their outrage on the NWF's Facebook page will have a negative association when they see that logo on products by friends and supporters of the organization. The NWF is large enough to weather the storm but what about all the little guys that support them?

UPDATE: Scotts dumped by NWF Congrats to all of you who raised a fuss about it. The National Wildlife Foundation and ScottsMiracle-Gro are parting ways.
UPDATE 2: A tipster Emailed me this link with a LONG thread on the Facebook page of the NWF that features a discussion started by Anna Looper who is basically guaranteeing that all garden bloggers use Scotts products in their gardens. Um, no. Click the picture to enlarge to read it, then read the rest of the thread for a big laugh.

Persea non grata

A couple of years ago I wrote an article for Lawn & Garden Retailer Magazine explaining what garden bloggers were and how garden centers could connect with garden bloggers. After the article was published I was contacted by a garden center in Iowa thanking me for the article and saying that by following my suggestions they found a garden blogger relatively close. I was glad to hear it because Mr.Subjunctive is my favorite houseplant blogger. In the early stages of my garden blog I used to blog about houseplants, but after Mr.Subjunctive came on the scene I stopped because I thought he did such a good job with it that competing with him made little sense to me.

In 2010 when I heard that a New York Times writer was looking for an indoor gardening blogger, I suggested he contact Mr.Subjunctive, and he did! I found it hilarious that someone I read had their picture taken and was in the story. Anyway, I mention this to illustrate how good I think he is. A while back Mr.Subjunctive posted an open letter (read negative review) of a local garden center where he shopped for plants. Recently he went back and....well, I'll just let him tell it.

At least the business owner didn't set up a fake blog about him in retaliation of the reviews, eh?

* Thanks for the help with the pun, Mr.Subjunctive.

Garden Bloggers on the Road

After the drama surrounding being falsely accused of creating a boycott of the GWA by a group of writers and bloggers in Fern Richardson’s secret Facebook group I was contacted by the ANLA Clinic to see if I was interested in participating in their event. At first I wasn’t sure that I had anything worthwhile to contribute, but then the more I started thinking about it, the more sense it made. Plant rants and raves, squabbles, and full-on drama within the garden blogging niche is able to pull people into our orbit and read about things they normally wouldn’t care about.  I have e-friends who are not bloggers or gardeners who are fascinated by the inside baseball stuff we post about.

I’ll be participating in the event with two very short presentations that I‘ll be giving during what they call “speed rounds.” The first, “The Rising Influence of Garden Bloggers in Consumer Marketing,” in which I’ll draw from examples of gardeners and brands connecting, sometimes with disastrous results, and how garden bloggers are now a part of marketing to consumers.

The second, “Garden Bloggers: Rise of the New Garden Columnist” will be about how what started out as digital garden journaling is in many cases turning into citizen journalism. I’ll be using the term journalism very loosely just to get the point across. I don’t think many of us garden blogging have journalistic training, but you get the idea. Remember how back in the day when you opened up your Email account for the day you had Emails from real people, and now when you open up your Email account you have a lot of PR pitches and people asking you to help out by promoting a cause or event? Well, guess what? You’re now the local garden columnist. Nobody informed you of it but that’s what you are now. Unfortunately, you have to get your own coffee in the mornings as the position doesn’t come with interns.

In between those micro presentations I’m assigned to the Marketing & Outreach Solution Lab where attendees of the clinic can stop by and get advice on social media and garden blogging. I feel like Lucy van Pelt in the Peanuts comic strip, but it should be fun because I have a lot of opinions and I believe everyone is entitled to them.  

Since I’m the D-List presenter a workshop on how-to garden blog for business and professionals is scheduled for Saturday morning. I don’t know if anyone will show up for that but if anyone does I will make sure to send them home with more information about setting up and running a blog than they care to imagine.

If you’ll be at the ANLA Clinic this week stop by and see me. I can’t teach you how to Dougie but I can show you how to tweet and butter up some garden bloggers so they write about your product. You can follow long on Twitter where I'll probably be tweeting up a storm with the #ANLAClinic

Disclosure: The American Nursery & Landscape Association is footing the bill for travel expenses.

Welcome to the Internet, GrowWrite

Michael Nolan has launched GrowWrite, an online publication for garden writers. There are nuggets of good information like the article that explains the lingo of setting up your own website. Nothing groundbreaking, but useful when your audience may be on the Luddite end of the spectrum. Until you get to the last page and read his “The Last Word” column in which he talks about being bullied as a child and launched a thinly-veiled attack on a garden communicator over a recent article and series of tweets. And likens this person to the schoolyard bullies who beat up kids and take their lunch money. I suggest you go to the online magazine and read the final page then come here.

Want to know who Michael is talking about? He’s referring to @C_Vanderlinden, a garden communicator and friend of mine, and a series of tweets that happened recently.

Background.

In October of 2011 after having my  Twitter stream filled by @Cocoxochitl with tweets about the #OWS movement I made some joke about them. He replied that I should participate in the movement. I responded by saying that I was too busy planning #OccupyGardens That weekend I used the hashtag and parodied the #Occupy movement and posted a series of tweets and pictures as I cleaned up my garden for fall. In essence I was an #Occupy protester taking over the garden and cleaning it up, the way the #Occupy movement wants to clean up Wall Street. I was in part inspired by the book Radical Gardening.

Since then the meme has spread and there are now Facebook groups and websites all around the world carrying the name Occupy Gardens. So, how did the meme spread so far and wide? Was it solely because of my series of tweets, pictures, and graphics? No. Colleen picked it up and wrote about it on Tree Hugger and the meme of #OccupyGardens spread far and wide.

Today.

Click to Enlarge

Fast forward to January 2012 and @PunkRockGardens writes this article about how she sees the trend for gardening in 2012 to be people "occupying" their gardens. The original article made no mention of Colleen or our role of creating and spreading the idea of #OccupyGardens. After reading it Colleen releases a series of frustrated tweets pointing out that the meme was created by others who aren't mentioned. Read the screen grabbed tweets from the bottom up to see them in chronological order. After it was pointed out to her where she got the idea the article was edited to include mention of me and Colleen.

Michael Nolan, in his column, finds it “ironic” that Colleen would want to be credited with spreading the meme because the idea of the #Occupy movement is not to draw attention to the self. Although, there’s no mention of the irony of taking an idea incubated by the movement, created and promulgated by others, and presenting it as something you thought of yourself, or that grew out of a vacuum.

You can read his column, the tweets, and decide for yourself if Colleen’s crime was as egregious as he makes it seem by comparing it to bullying.  I don’t believe asking for attribution is a crime. Attribution is the currency of the Internet. There are websites devoted to cataloging and attributing where Internet memes are born. But apparently that’s too much to ask from professional writers. To expect or ask for attribution makes you a bully- your actions, tantamount to the actions of people who drive others to suicide.

I find it ironic that a column devoted to decrying bullying, negativity and communicators who “tear” others down does the very thing that it claims to hate, but in a roundabout way. Garden communicators on Twitter know who he’s referring to. Knowing how gossipy garden communicators are the article and subject are sure to be fodders for private conversations. I won’t point out the irony of including this column in a magazine where one of the people involved is rumored to have bullied a well-loved garden communicator off of the Internet.  Nor will I make mention of the negative comments made to me about a friend of Michael’s. I wouldn’t want to be seen as negative or bullying anyone.

Welcome to the Internet, GrowWrite. You should ask Colleen to write an article about attribution and giving credit where credit is due. It seems a lot of garden communicators would benefit from it.

Update #1: A tipster Emails to say that all of this may have happened as a result of a book proposal. According to the tipster, PRGs is writing a book on "rebel" gardeners which sounds similar to Radical Gardening by George McKay. The tipster speculates that the reason for the article, and why it was written with attribution for the meme is because you need to set yourself up as an expert in the area when pitching or promoting the book.

Update #2: Colleen addresses the issue here.

Update #3: To answer the passive-aggressive talk about being "angry" for myself I'll say (paraphrasing Melissa McEwan) I'm not angry; I'm contemptuous. #DoYouSeedWhatIDidThere

Update #4: I'm co-host of @SeedChat on Twitter. This Wednesday evening Colleen is our guest host to talk about sprouts. Join in and learn about growing some of your own food from the controversial gardener of the hour. 8pm Central 9pm Eastern. You can get more info about SeedChat at www.SeedChat.com

Blogger Now Supports Threaded Comments

Blogger's most requested feature is here. Today's post on Blogger Buzz unveiled the new feature and how to activate it on your blog. I've been waiting patiently for years for this and I'm excited that we can now reply directly to the comments. 

Blogger Buzz screenshot

Check it out for yourself! 

On a related note: This probably won't be the last update the Blogger team, who has been working their finger off bring new changes to the platform, will release to the commenting system. A few months ago the team did a Q&A on Reddit, the popular news aggregate site, and I asked about the comments. At the time one of the staff members said that they were working on a "two tier" commenting system. What that means, I'm not exactly sure, but I'm guessing it will allow people who are not Blogger members the ability to comment easier.  

Did GardenWeb Buy the Garden Rant Domain for $1.3 million?

There's a link making the rounds on Twitter which claims that the GardenRant domain sold for $1.3 million to GardenWeb ( the Internet's largest gardening forum ) which is part of iVillage, a division of NBC Universal. The article lists several popular sites and blogs and gives a dollar amount for which the sites sold. It ranks GardenRant as number #19 out of #20 for blogs and sites sold over a million. I won't link to the article itself because I don't find it to be very reputable. Instead, I'll link this tweet and you can follow the link yourself, if you're that curious.

I've tweeted the GardenRant(ers) for confirmation but I don't expect to get a response (ha!), so I'll go ahead and say that the rumor isn't true. Here's why.

1) The article, which is a year old, isn't published on a site that I'd give much credit to.
2) The listing says the domain sold back in 2007.
3) A whois look-up of the Garden Rant domain shows that the domain registrar is GoGaddy* and register is Amy Stewart.

Now, it's possible that the domain did sell to iVillage and that they for some reason allow them to remain autonomous and even let Amy Stewart continue as the registrar and keep control of a domain they plunked down $1.3 million for. Just like it's possible that I'll have my seed stash organized for spring, I will sow every seed, and every seed will germinate and grow into a beautiful plant that will be watered and fertilized diligently by my this coming growing season.

*Two years from now when the GardenRanters hear that the CEO of their chosen domain registrar uses sexist advertising, shoots elephants, and the company supported SOPA they are going to publish the most righteously indignant post about why you shouldn't register a garden blog domain with GoDaddy. Until then read about how SOPA would affect you and who are the legislators supporting this bill and tell them to stop this nonsense.