Well, I did get a few pairs of gloves and a 4" pot of rootbound petunias from my son :)
My DH did pay for my Fine Gardening renewal about a month ago and I considered that an early present.
Nothing exciting this year, like the compost bin and edging spade I got last year.

Rose

I recieved the 2006 Eurkea Daylily guide w/CD and a heavy duty garden cart.. plus my DH is putting the finishing touches on my greenhouse... some of my late arrival daylilies and older seedlings are spending the winter in the house until it gets finished.. : ) Can't wait to get started with some more seeds.

I want Mrs. Claus.

I got what I wanted.
{{gwi:845690}}

A new watering can for the greenhouse!

My greenhouse didn't come. :-( nor my magazines nor seeds... nor plants... nor plant pots. But I did get my tennis racquet that I bought for myself. Guess Santa and the hubby(ies) just don't get it, do they??? :)

My family doesn't really listen to me, but my friends do! A $50 gift certificate for a favourite nursery was the big surprise. As was a big blue ceramic pot I had long been coveting. Have to say that one daughter-in-law came up trumps with a suede jacket, garden clogs, deerskin garden gloves and a black sunburst thing. Another friend gave me a ceramic fish I had long been wanting. I live on the lake so fishy pots and stuff are gratefully recieved. Also a neighbour gave me a windchime. Am debating where to install it. I am so grateful to be remembered that really a gift is not needed, but doubly appreciated.

I got a few gardening books I really wanted. Perennial Combinations by C. Colston Burrell, Making the Most of Shade by Larry Hogson and the one I can't put down right now-- The Passion for Gardening--Inspiration for a Lifetime by Ken Druse. I think someone on this site actually recommended it. I am psyched to get 3 gardening books, I ask for a ton every year and am lucky if I get one. This year I learned, just don't ask for anything else, then they have to get them or think of something on their own.

Santa was a little late with one of his gifts this year. It arrived today... The new Georgia Native PLant Guide by Tina Samuels!!!

HURRAY!

GGG
P.S. Passion for Gardening is one of my favorite books!

GGG, please put a review on Amazon (or here) when you've looked it over.

I'm still waiting for one of my presents - the Georgia Tree guide. Hope it comes soon (it has been ordered).

Well, so far into reading the book, I find it has short descriptions on plants but lacks personal knowledge, and a lot of really important information if you plan on growing the plant. It has been written from more of an enviornmental persective. This isn't a bad thing, mind you, but for a gardener, it's not exactly what I was looking for. There is some, but not too much cultivation information and no information on propagation which, because it is dealing with some local endangered and protected plants, I think is very important.
There are not a lot of photographs of the more unusual plants, and none of the photos were taken by the author, they were all culled from existing sources (sited in the back of the book). Again, this is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does point to the lack of personal experience the author has with much of the plant material.
Guess what I am saying is that the book is a very useful guide, you can use it to find plant names (and correct names, I might add) that are LOCAL (also, another really good thing, the author often points to their native habitat by county!)... however, I think if you want to grow the plant in a garden setting, you need to do some research to find out more about cultivation, propagation and also garden worthiness. The back of the book lists some nurseries which may have some native plants (I've been to some listed here, which honestly, may only have one or two locally native plants).
The book is very small, and well worth the price (which isn't expensive) as an introductory tool into the subject. That said, the book does delve much farther into local natives than anything else I've read. Consider it a jumping off point. It's purely a reference book.
As a gardening book, I'd have loved to see more of what I'd mentioned above, and much more of the author's personality injected into the writing. There is a fine line to this, depending on what the publisher in particular is looking for (I do understand this, I am an author with published books). Since it was published through Mercer, they may have looked at it more as a textbook.

Esh, in particular, I think you'd like this book. As would of course would anyone who likes native plants. It is a great resource for anyone with a woodland.

GGG

Well, I don't want to speak badly of my family, friends, coworkers, or Santa Claus, but I didn't get a new compost bin, any new magazine subscriptions (except for the Organic Gardening subscription that I can't get them to cancel in spite of my numerous requests as a result of their increase in price), gift certificates to any catalogs or gardening stores, set of hand trucks, rolls of green velcro, packages of rooting hormone, expensive seed catalogs, home-raked pine straw, compost or manure, and I certainly didn't get a truck.

However, one night I arrived home from work to find a very large bag of freshly collected pecans hanging on the gate. I live in a neighborhood where you wouldn't really expect a gift bag to still be there if someone left it outside your house, so this little surprise was doubly exciting. It came from a fellow gardener in our new community garden.

And then a couple of days after Christmas I got a late present in the mail from my sons. It was a book, The FeederWatcher's Guide to Bird Feeding, which has turned out to be a very lovely book that has given me all sorts of new ideas about attracting birds to my yard. I guess I vaguely, on some level, knew that someone was counting birds, but apparently every year on certain days the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and several other major groups of bird lovers like the Audubon Society and others coordinate their efforts with birdwatchers and birdfeeders all over the continent to identify and count birds. This book draws from the personal experience of all those people to provide firsthand advice about the best practices of birdfeeding. I have learned so much in such a short time by reading this book, and even just by looking at the pictures I've gotten so many ideas. (To tell the truth, looking at some of the pictures makes me feel sort of stupid that I didn't think of some of those ideas myself. Some of the birdfeeder plans seem so darned obvious!)

Anyway, immediately after reading this book, I went out into my neighborhood and started collecting discarded Christmas trees (I'm up to 7 now - of course IF I HAD A TRUCK I could have many more) and leaned them against the trunks of my oak and sweetgum and dogwood trees because I didn't have any conifers in my yard and the book said most birds really love conifers. Would you believe that within a couple of hours my yard was filled with birds, including the first woodpeckers I've seen this season - three of them at once? It was amazing. That convinced me I needed to plant some conifers, so I went shopping at Habersham Gardens, where much to my surprise they were having their annual Boxing Day sale which I never knew about before now - everything in the store was on sale, some things up to 75 percent off, and I got some incredible deals including two beautiful shrubs, a juniper salicicola 'Brodie' and a cypress "laredo cadelabra' both of which are supposed to be columnar in habit which is necessary for my small yard. The birds seem to like them already. I also went up to Hastings where they were having a good sale and found a very pretty little eucalyptus whose tag was half broken off but which I think I have finally been able to identify as eucalyptus gunnii. The birds have been landing on it, too, although it's still in its pot as I haven't decided yet whether it's ok to dig up my entire front yard to make an herb garden with this little tree as its centerpiece (I realize it won't remain "little" for long unless I keep cutting it back). And I splurged on a Black Beauty elderberry - also for the birds, I keep telling myself. And I found lots of cabbage and cauliflower and broccoli and rutabaga plants, all of which seemed still to be viable, for pennies, for our community garden, as well as a really healthy-looking thornless blackberry bush for the same place.

In any event, I feel like the sale prices I found at Habersham and Hastings were wonderful Christmas presents, and the book my sons sent was a great gardening gift. So although Santa didn't leave me exactly what I wanted, it was still a very good Christmas.

Westender, you found blackberries as Hastings? Must check it out as I'm thinking of getting this. Also, thanks for the info on the FeederWatcher's Guide to Bird Feeding -sounds Perfect for my bird-watching friend who has everything!

GGG, I know what you mean about point-of-view and personality and actual experiential knowledge in garden books; those are the best. My favorite garden writer is (not too surprising) Henry Mitchell, precisely because of this.

Re: Natives, William Cullina has a book on native plants; he speaks with knowledge and discernment and he seems like a sweet guy.

Rose

GGG I was just looking at that book, I have a gift card for Barnes and Noble that is burning a hole in my wallet. So would you say go for it or is there something else I should get instead. I was actually thinking about getting a good book on hostas. Or maybe I'll wait for Armitage's new book. (I want it all you know.)

Barb I would love to see a picture of the boots, they sound wicked.

Kathy, I haven't seen the new Armitage book yet. But hubby is buying it the day it comes out. I do not think it is strickly about local natives though, it is about US natives in general. I'm sure each entry will have a small note on how well the plant does in the SE and it's gardenworthiness though, knowing Armitage.
Personally, I think you should probably have both books in the long run!!!

GGG

To: girlgroupgirl
Hey! I'm Tina, and I'm happy of your review of the book and I'm taking everything you said to heart. I'm currently working on the 2nd edition of the book and it should be at least double the size. I'm including a section on deer and the garden, plus I'm massively updating and including more on propagation.
I wanted to tell you personally that I really really loved reading what you said. The first edition had some non-user friendly flaws, and thanks to you I hope the 2nd edition will be much more palatable. Shoot me an email and whenever the 2nd edition comes out I'll send you one. (Keep in mind it will probably be a couple of years from now)...but I want to deeply thank you for your help.

My DH (eek, married now) had two pallets of stone and some lumber delivered (by Santa, of course), for raised beds and the patio in my rose garden. it was an excellent Christmas :)

Tina, I can't wait to see the updated book. It's very hard to write a book, especially something as detailed as a book on native plants, and then again have the time to actually grow them in a garden setting AND write about them. Man, that's a feat.
I write about rare rock 'n roll records. So I kind of understand where you are coming from. I have to actually FIND the record, afford to buy it, then try and contact the old band members, THEN try and find photographs etc. Sort of the same thing. Knowing about it and experiencing it are two different things.
That's sort of how I approached the book. I might have heard a band is great, but when I listen to it, what do I REALLY think myself? I might hear from someone else they love a plant, but when I grow it in my garden, what do I REALLY think?
That is one reason I appreciate the Armitage books I have read. He tells you what he thinks of the plant if he's grown it. Best of all, I disagree with him a lot, lol. His favorites are always pale pink. He doesn't always CONVINCE me I'd like the plant, but at least I've got an opinion. Tina, I want you to CONVINCE me that I must experience the plant. Let your passion shine. Often a labor of love ends up being clinical because heck, at least we've accomplished it (this is especially true for something that is very factual). What you just wrote above shows your enthusiasm for your updated version, how happy and positive you are about your work, and that you really want people to use your book. Please let that show in your writing, let us get a feel for your personality. I would definately buy another book by an author I felt akin in some way to. And I would gladly BUY the updated version!

GGG