Many good suggestions in the comments. I don't remember when the categories were decided for this year, but perhaps for next year they could be announced sooner rather than later? That would give folks time to focus on photos during the year that might fit the categories. I'd like to see ferns, seedpods, and foliage plants as categories. Shrubs and trees could easily be separate, although I suppose there is a fine line between tall shrubs v. short trees. And perhaps give dahlias their own to prevent the confusion. Maybe pick a random flower each year to showcase along with the ever popular iris-lily-rose-daylily categories. Poppies or salvias both have lots of variety. Just random thoughts... Sure was fun looking at all the beautiful photos, and looking forward to the voting results.

Seeds/Seedpods

I would like Hostas . They are very popular now in the plant community but there isn't much interest in them here on ATP

Wish they would divide the succulents into tender and hardy... too hard this way ... they are so different.

I would like to see a separate category for public gardens and landscapes, it is impossible for the average home gardener to compete with them, they have people to plant, keep everything trimmed, weeded and pristine.

Two of my votes were for private gardens, because the photos were great and I want my garden to look like that

CDsSister said:Wish they would divide the succulents into tender and hardy... too hard this way ... they are so different.

Depends on where you live....so many, so little time....

I agree with Paul - a separate hosta category would be wonderful (or even a foliage category? we could then include heucheras and all sorts of other goodies...)

I think a foliage category sounds good. Limiting a category to a single plant leaves alot of beautiful plants out.

Seems like there should be more categories. Some of those categories are way too crowded!

I really like the idea of a foliage category that could certainly encompass much better variety than a specific plant category.

My favorite thing about the photo contest is actually seeing such a great variety of eye candy all in one spot!

The biggest downside to the specific plant categories, for me, is wading thru 200 mug shots of essentially the same thing.
No offense intended here to daylilies or lovers of daylilies, but that was by far the worst category for me as far as the boredom aspect of clicking thru the photos knowing that the next would most likely be yet another mug shot of a daylily.
Granted, there were some very nice mug shots to select, but my point is just that the variety categories are so much more fun to view because of the surprise element. (And probably, for that very reason, I really loved the good humor shots like Greg's rose plate in the roses!)

Anyway, all that said; I do think that, as long as we are having specific plant categories, Dahlias would probably be a good one add so that the fine Dahlia photos in the bulb category (which is kinda disconcerting to me because they are not bulbs) can compete directly with all the fine Dahlia photos scattered elsewhere.

The "wrong category" thing, including Daliahs in the bulbs and perennials in the annuals, etc., I find rather humorous. It really doesn't bother me in terms of enjoying the pictures in the contest or voting for them if I like them, although I can see it as a potential credibility issue for the site as a whole having archived photo contests with defined, yet defied categories.
Maybe the easiest approach would be to relax the more apparently confusing definitions somehow. Flowers/flowering plants? could be divided by single, multiple, or mixed groupings or combos? or maybe by bloom season--spring, summer, fall, winter? or even randomly--group 1, 2, and 3 with a 100 or so per group?

//just throwing it out there for some additional things to ponder

dirtdorphins said:
Flowers/flowering plants? could be divided by single, multiple, or mixed groupings or combos?

//just throwing it out there for some additional things to ponder

I really like this idea. I vote for it.

I also think foliage deserves it's own category.

"...defined yet defied categories..." great phrase!

I like the idea of broader categories, and agree with Dirt that the specific flower categories were a tad tiresome (no offense to anyone, all the photos were beautiful). Seasonal flowers would be difficult given we are in so many different zones. But perhaps shape of bloom - trumpets, daisies, bells - could be a consideration, although that also lends to a bit of the boredom factor (too much of the same thing over and over).

I like the idea of vines as a category, wide range there.

I loved the fox in the fruit/vegetables and would encourage a wildlife category (to eliminate everyone's dogs/cats) as long as they are in a garden setting. And perhaps reptiles.

I didn't notice if we had the same categories last year and/or if we had fewer or more this year.

I've got a bundle of mathmateically defensible/supportable ideas about how the voting should be tinkered with. I can make a remarkably strong case for a low-impact, better system. And I'd be flogging that if I were going to advocate anything.

BUTBUTBUTBUTBUT here's the deal:

Running a contest like this is a LOT of hard work. Every little bit of tuning means more coding and probably more overhead. And at some point, I'd have to think that it would be more trouble than it's worth.

And here's the other bighairyBUT:

No matter how the thing is tuned. No matter how elegantly and perfectly it's honed, there will still be both room for improvement as well as criticism of the thing from the periphery.

So at some point we, as individuals, have to decide if the thing (in whatever form or shape it takes) has enough value to us that we participate...knowing full well the size and shape of the thing.

Last BUT (does this thread make my BUTS look big?):

I think we should all be grateful that the contest party has been thrown for the last couple of years (and quasi-incrementally through the year with the plant weeks).

None of this is to say that there aren't some easy, obvious tunings that might be done. More at trying to look at it from an admin's point of view...and realize the inevitable.

Well said