Brenda, when the city and club were MUCH smaller (16 years ago and more), the addresses of the winning gardens were published in the newspaper, and anyone could see them. Unfortunately, when things are free, some people don't respect them, so winning gardeners found beds trampled, plants vandalized (people ripping off cuttings), and lawns ruined. :-( The Calgary Horticultural Society (CHS) decided to start charging admission, and that did two things: it raised money for the society, and it limited the number of people walking through the gardens. And, if you had to pay, you just might be more respectful. Rules were started too, saying that viewers needed to keep children under control and pets at home--what a concept!! The first year, the tickets were $5. The price has slowly climbed (now that there are about 1 million citizens in Calgary, 6,000 of whom are CHS members) to $20 for non-members and $15 for members. The "ticket" is actually a small booklet with the names and addresses of the winners, and the categories they won. The addresses are clustered by quadrant of the city and usually, except for this year for some reason, contain a simplified map to help you plot the route. With 24 gardens scattered all over this huge city, and only 12 hours, it takes a fair amount of planning (and a good map or navigation system)! Viewing is limited to those who have passports because a) you don't know where the gardens are without one, and b) there's a volunteer at the entrance of each winning garden and he/she doesn't let anyone in who doesn't have a passport in hand. He/she is also keeps track of how many visitors each garden receives. Volunteers usually do a three hour shift and then they get to view the gardens with their complementary passports. I volunteered a few times, but found it hard to get to all the gardens I wanted to view with 3 fewer hours!!! Lawns still get trampled with the number of people (I've heard that many winning gardeners have to fix their lawns after the tours), but there's much more control and hardly any chaos. It makes the experience much more pleasant for the winners and the viewers. I'm really sorry I don't get to go this year. :-(

Coll, I think your garden is just stunning! You mention the garden is fairly small, and you have about 125 hostas, and also that you have a bathroom area for your dogs. How big is your yard and garden, actually? I posted some photos of some of my hostas the other day, and am going to add a couple of wider angle photos to show how the yard sits (size, arrangement, etc). Would you maybe be able to do the same? I'd love to see the total overall effect. You said that in the photos you put up, we just couldn't see the weeds, failures, etc, and I have to admit that I tried to avoid those in my first photos as well, but I'm going to go for it and lay the whole thing out there for all to see! LOL! I'm hoping you'll do the same :-)

The Brunnera is Jack Frost. I just love it but it doesn't love our Southern heat and humidity. Those flowers are echinacea in there with the impatience that pop up every year by themselves. I have the regular common pinkish ones and also some white swan in that spot. Mary

Well ...... it's not growing as much as it oughtta' ;-) And not only that -- new plants keep appearing in the yard of one who is cutting back on plants .... just don't understand how things like that happen. Like how I was a Schumachers the other day and bought a tropical orchid tree, but for $16 and in a 7 gal pot how is one to resist? And not only that -- now it's fixin' to bloom -- out of season! Jim, you probably have one, aren't they supposed to bloom in the spring? (p.s. thanks Omar and all :-)