Hello my fabulous fellow NGA members!

Beginning immediately, and ending December 31st, we are showcasing the "Winter Interest" section of our Database. Images that you upload to that section of the database will be featured on the homepage and will receive a bonus acorn when the event is over.

We are very excited to host another event and see all of the wonderful photos of your plants showing off their winter beauty!

First, a couple of notes and explanations:

What is winter interest? Plants, trees, and shrubs that bloom, fruit (berries) , or show color and/or texture in the leaves, bark, seed pod, or foliage during the dormant months of the year. Not every plant falls into this category, and the admins will delete any photo that doesn't fit into the category, and acorns will not be awarded.

Also, we request that only one photo per plant/per member. Respectfully- we do not need multiple pictures from multiple angles or distances of the same plant

Have fun, and enjoy!!

Sounds like fun! Most of the plants here (zone 11) don't go dormant in the winter, in fact that is their prime growth season because that's when we get our rain. Do pictures of aloe flowers and the like count? This one is on track for winter, for example.



Also, as a matter of curiosity, is there a reason the bounty ends barely a week into winter? Seems like weird timing if you're wanting new pictures rather than ones out of the archive, so to speak.

Yes, I think your blooming aloe counts

While winter is just beginning for some of us, it is well underway for other zones. It is difficult to time things appropriately for the entire US, never mind the world. We do the best we can to accommodate the most members. Also, we have other events planned.

Great new photos being added!

And perhaps these promotions will encourage us to all think outside the box a bit. I started taking photos of the prettiest bloom of each plant in my yard. Then I moved to emerging growth because sometimes I forgot what each looked like when it popped up in the spring. Then I noticed that some plants were OK in the fall, while others really were pretty ragged. I don't have many winter shots, but will now give that some attention. Foliage. Buds. All good galleries, and very helpful when a person is researching or trying to ID a plant. I remain hopeful that the database itself will eventually have tabs or some other means to be able to view the different galleries separately.

I also like that these gallery promotions are skewing the 'favorite' photo a bit, which is always fun to see change.

For what it's worth, speaking of out of the box, 11 out of 14 of the new pictures (not counting Lin's) for "winter interest" were not actually taken during winter.

I guess it depends on when your 'winter' is. Or, sometimes photo programs change the date to the last time one edited it, which may skew things a bit.

Interesting... regarding my iris photo, it looks like the system stripped my caption stating that my photo was taken in mid February. The metadata of the photo on my computer gives the exact date...

OK, now I see the system gave my photo the date of December 5, 2017! This date hasn't even arrived here yet!! I took the photo on February 19, 2014, and that is from the metadata... These irises are winter bloomers for pete's sake!

Actually, Connie, it gave it a date of 4000-12-05. I just fixed the year, but clearly I was wrong!

Even stranger... that weird date came up when I was entering the information for the upload and I corrected it there. When I open the photo that is actually on my hard drive the metadata is correct. Must have something to do with the supermoon.

I think the term "Winter Interest" means different things to different people. I've lived in the south my entire life and my perception of winter interest is plants that have gone dormant for the season; shrubs and trees that have lost all (or most) of their foliage showing the "bones" of the plant, a type of sculptural beauty. Also, plants with leaves that take on different shades of color other than autumnal tones; for instance, many succulent plant leaves turn deeper purplish shades during cold weather.

Some of my northern relatives consider winter interest the beautiful Poinsettias and Amaryllis flowers, Live Oaks dripping with Spanish Moss, Palms swaying in the breeze and all the green shades that we experience year-round here in Florida. I enjoy the interest of landscapes covered in ice and snow, tree limbs hanging with icicles instead of spanish moss, frozen ground.

I find beauty and interest in things that others might find odd, like this area of huge vines entangling trees at a local botanical garden where I used to volunteer. We referred to this area as: "Natures Sculpture". I remember one volunteer laughing out loud when I commented on how pretty it was. A few people liked the look, while others thought it was horribly ugly.

Is there an appropriate forum for adding the winter interest?

Already there are awesome photos being entered. Just love the seasonal photos.

crawgarden said:Is there an appropriate forum for adding the winter interest?

RJ, I think you have to upload the photo to the particular plant entry in the database and check off "winter interest" instead of bloom, leaves, etc.

Glad I have until the end of the month. I think the onslaught of acorns has slowed, but my oaks still have most of their leaves.

We frequently can count on our annual ice storm to occur on or around New Year's Eve. Good timing, eh? But I would be more than thrilled if I actually get to see my Frostweed (Verbesina virginica) do it's thing. For anyone unfamiliar with this plant and what its 'thing' is, take a look at some of the pictures of it in our plant database.

In the meantime, I am thoroughly enjoying the winter pictures that have already been posted.

Question: I know that seed pods are part of the definition for winter interest. I'm not sure how to word this but here goes. What if I take pictures of the seeds or seed pods no longer attached to the plant/shrub/tree? Fallen seeds, as it were. I'm thinking of a tree that still has a few seed pods on it (or it did yesterday) but the tree is way too tall and I'm way too short to get a good picture. But it would be easy to get a picture of the dried pods on the ground. Not as cool of a picture but would that count?

It's cold (for here) and I don't want to spend any extra time outside!

I don't think seedpods on the ground would count as winter interest but rather go in the category of seedpods/heads.

I just went back to the beginning of this thread and this is what Trish posted as suitable for Winter Interest:

~ What is winter interest? Plants, trees, and shrubs that bloom, fruit (berries) , or show color and/or texture in the leaves, bark, seed pod, or foliage during the dormant months of the year. Not every plant falls into this category, and the admins will delete any photo that doesn't fit into the category, and acorns will not be awarded. ~

I guess we need @Trish to tell us if seedpods on the ground would be considered winter interest or not.