Sunday 28 November 2021

GPE #13 : The Finale

The

I N F O M A N I A C

Garden Photos Event

2021 Finale

It's hot work being a gardener's boy!

 Yes, we have reached the end of this year's Infomaniac Garden Photos Event, and what a year it's been.  Your gardens, vases, and dog-bums have been eye-opening, enviable, and a little bit sick-making!  Thank you so much to everyone who took part - whether you opened your garden (outdoors or in), provided snacks, or just visited & commented - I hope you enjoyed it and that you've been inspired to undertake another year of gardening, whatever your skill level.  

 And an especially big thank you to The Very Mistress, without whom we wouldn't have a Garden Photos Event!  A potted history - complete with links to Events past - can be found at last year's 10th Annual Lady Garden Presentation Anniversary premier, with links to all the 2020 gardens included in that year's finale, up my, I mean, in my, I mean at the rear.  Oh, you know what I mean!

 Anyway, let's get on with with wrapping this thing up, shall we?  We have the links to this year's gardens followed by some interesting stats to get through.


Programme of Events

Friday, 9th April
Infomaniac Garden Photos Event 2021 committee meeting (with surprisingly little squabbling)
 
Thursday, 10th June
Garden Photos Event hosting announcement

Saturday 17th July
The first reminder for the Garden Photos Event

Friday, 10th September
The second reminder for the GPE

Tuesday, 12th October
The final nag for the GPE

Sunday, 31st October
The Infomaniac Garden Photos Event pre-launch attraction, Terrifying Triffidery 2021, opens

Wednesday, 3rd November
The Infomaniac Garden Photos Event 2021 unleashes The League of Extraordinary Gardeners
(half-naked, of course), and comforts the survivors of Terrifying Triffidery!
 
Friday, 5th November
Ms Nations becomes the first of the Blogorati to open her gardens
 
Monday, 8th November
We learn the art of top-dressing, with Hound
 
Wednesday, 10th November
Dinahmow implicates herself in a gardening crime

Friday, 12th November
Ms Scarlet reveals her pulsating Big Pink Bush™

Sunday, 14th November
Maddie, the Mistress Borghese shows off her purple, veiny, love cabbage

Tuesday, 16th November
Mitzi shares penny-pinching gardening tips - plus gossip.  Both equally scandalous!

Thursday, 18th November
Jon & Madam Arcati show us how they do it up their back passage

Saturday, 20th November
Bog witchery abounds in Melanie's garden

Monday, 22nd November
David from Portland offers his roses a ladder to help them climb up his house

Wednesday, 24th November
Savvy - yes, you read that right, she made it - gives us a brown thumbs up

Friday, 26th November
If you're not careful, you'll end up like wossname in my pond!


Most Popular Plants

 While going through your photos and putting the Garden Photos Event together, I noticed that some plants are rather popular and feature in quite a few of your gardens.  So, I thought it would interesting to see which featured plants are the most popular (I'm only counting featured or easily recognisable plants, not those blurry, out-of-focus ones lolling around in the background). 

In joint third place,
on show in three different gardens each are: 
Lilies at Ms Nations', Jon's & Madam Arcati's, and Savvy's.  
Dahlias at Ms Scarlet's, Maddie's, and Jon's & Madam A's.  
Cyclamen at Mitzi's, Jon's & Madam A's, and mine.  
Irises at Ms Nations', Maddie's, and mine.  
Hostas
at Ms Nations', Maddie's, and mine.

In joint second place,
featuring in four different gardens each are: 
Aquilegias at Ms Nations', Ms Scarlet's, Melanie's, and mine.  
Ferns at Ms Scarlet's, Maddie's, Melanie's, and mine.

And in joint first place,
growing happily in five gardens each are: 
Roses at Ms Nations', Maddie's, Mitzi's, Jon's & Madam A's, and David-from-Portland's.  
Fuchsias at Maddie's, Mitzi's, Melanie's, mine, and, of course, Jon's & Madam Arcati's!
 

 Only one gardener (two if we count Hound*) bucked the trend and didn't feature any of the most popular plants:
D I N A H M O W
 
Although Dinah is not all alone, as both her's and Mitzi's gardens sport a Brugmansia, otherwise known as 'Angel's Trumpet' (not a euphemism).
 
 
* Hound, of course, didn't feature any plants at all!  You may be surprised to learn that this is not a Garden Photos Event first.  LẌ famously submitted several cans of cranberry jelly to one Event, and a dusty, plastic weeping fig tree in another (they're linked to in the final paragraph of the last segment).

The Official Plant Spotter of Hexenhäusli Device and its Extensive Witchdom, nay, All of Blogdom Itself!
 
J O N  has just about earned his keep once more with one or two identifications (the third may acually have been identified by me!), plus a "How to..." of looking after Cyclamen (with input from  T H E   V E R Y   M I S T R E S S  herself), amongst other gracious offerings of expert gardening knowledge.  From all of us, thank you, Jon!


The "Did we win yet?"s

 Do you know, I've had to channel The Very Mistress (not a pleasant experience, let me tell you - the more I had to do it, the more I had to resist the urge to wear stripy tights and look at fat, naked, old men on the internet) and say "the Garden Photos Event is NOT a competition/contest" six times during this year's tour.  One particular Blogorati caused me to say it three times!  And there were a couple of occasions when I should have, but let them slide (crosses fingers and hopes not to be banished from Infomaniac - Although, I think I should be okay as one of slidees was none other than The Very Mistress herselfThe other was Hound). 

 I suppose you'll be wanting to know who invoked LẌ and provoked me into responding in the time honoured way, hmm?  Well, here they are:

P E E N E E (and David-from-Portland), here.

D I N A H M O W (and LẌ), here.

H O U N D (and an unwitting Dinah - OR WAS SHE?!), here.

And the winner is...

M S   S C A R L E T, here, here, and here.

 

 To find out how The Very Mistress dealt with such impertinence, may I direct you to two of LẌ's GPE posts from years past, here and here (there's a lot of sighing and threats of reaching into her bag of "Banned" stickers).  Me?  I'll be in the Gincuzzi...

☙❧

So there you have it.  It's the end of the Event, and the end of the season, so here's the Official Hexenhäusli Device Lumberjack getting his chopper out to deal with my wood (once you've all buggered off, of course, as he doesn't half make a mess).

. . .

Pee-Ess, I hope this all comes out okay.  It never looks quite the same once published as in the 'preview', so I may have to do some reformatting after this has auto-published and I'm awake.  I've also noticed that the font-sizes are all over the place when viewed on Safari (my phone died recently so I've been borrowing The Mother's old iPhone - which used to be my sister's - and occasionally use it to have a look at the blog when I wake up in the morning to check that it published while I slept) - this blog is best viewed in Firefox or one of those Microsoft things - Edge or IE or something.

25 comments:

  1. You have done us all proud, dear IDV! I always look forward to this event - not a competition! - every year, and this has been a rather good one (despite the hideous weather 2021 brought us in the UK). Roll on 2022! Jx

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Jon. Yes, now it's over, I can't wait for the next one!

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  2. Just so you know...before we moved to the Tropics, we lived on a 10 acre block in the boonies.And I had a bit of a thing for Heritage Roses. Of course, one can't stop there! And as David Austin has bred so many new plants that "echo" the old types, I had a few of his, too. Somewhere approaching 100 roses, though several were repeats, in different parts of the garden.
    and it was not all roses! Bougainvillea scrambled up eucalypts,honeysuckle escaped and threatened to take over the whole damn' place. Quisqualis(aka Rangoon Creeoer) went bonkers and shot up the galvanised poled that held the tv aerial.If there hadn't been a major rugby match on telly we might have ignored it!
    Huge thanks to IDV for sorting out all this. And props to the gardeners.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, thank you, Dinah! Do you have any photos of your roses and Bougainvillea and the like from the days of yore, perchance? It's given me an idea for next year's event: A Retro GPE feature (a warm up event to go alongside Terrifying Triffidery)!

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  3. I thought this year was a spectacular garden event! Maybe next year Ill featured the potted gardens. And any Cyclamen I shall attempt to grow. Meanwhile my veiny purple cabbage is all that is left in the garden, much like my own at a keys in the fish bowl party. You done good with this event handsome.

    And if you don't mind do I take that as a hint to slip into the gincuzzi with you, sly dog?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was a very good show, wasn't it Maddie. Your veiny purple love cabbage was the talk of the town!

      I hope you don't mind, but we have another Gincuzzi guest: I invited Asriel after he got me all hot and bothered by mentioning that he'd loosen his bow tie!

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  4. What a lovely revue. It could use a couple of snappy tunes, but it was also rather perfect the way it is. Gracias. You did a splendid job, my dear. And bravo to all you gardeners. My hat off to each and every one of you. Kizzes.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Mr Tonking. I loved your snappy tunes idea so much that it became the basis for my next post!

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  5. Blogger ate my first comment, What a bastard! Not you darling, Blogger. I know you have parents. Thank you for wrapping up the garden party so nicely! It was fun!

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    Replies
    1. Oh, dear... I hope it wasn't a Pulitzer Prize winning comment? They're always the ones that get eaten.

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  6. You had me till the Hexenhäusli Device Lumberjack, then I got all distracted.

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    Replies
    1. Very well, he can join us in the Gincuzzi, too. That's four of us now: You, me, Maddie and my Lumberjack. And it looks like Sixpence might dive in too...

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  7. Everybody is a winner!
    And that man should be more careful with his axe, mind you! But he needs to stay shirtless. It's the law.

    XOXO

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    Replies
    1. Not to worry, Sixpence. I've hidden his shirt now - it's his only one!

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  8. I'm so proud of all you Bitches for keeping it up, er, the plant submissions, that is.

    A round of applause for Mr. DeVice who has taken the Garden Photos Event to new and unprecedented levels of greatness.

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    Replies
    1. Applause hell MJ. I'll show him my appreciation later.....

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    2. *grabs popcorn and a front row seat for the Mistress Maddie / Mr. DeVice show*

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    3. The front row seats at the Gincuzzi are liable to get you rather wet, Very Mistress!

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    4. Something tells me she might like the splash zone.

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    5. ...is off to fetch some big plush towels for the show.

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  9. It's been a stonking success!!! Thank you, Mr Devine, for hosting such a brilliant show, and writing this write-up.
    Apologies for my lateness, I am in a mood, but this post has nearly knocked me out of it - all I need is tea, chocolate and a little rest, and then I might post something myself.
    Sx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And thank you, Ms Scarlet! I'm very pleased with how it all went this year, and thrilled at your be-GIFed garden!

      I hope your mood has been vanquished now? I too have been feeling rather 'different' over the past few days (the change in weather certainly hasn't helped), and cracked open a tray of Ferrero Rocher that were meant for Christmas in an attempt to cheer myself up.
      I'm looking forward to your tea-and-chocolate fueled post!

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  10. And..... I shall look forward to my prize - I must have won something.....
    Sx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes you did... empty Rocher Ferrero wrappers!

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    2. And I have oh so many empty wrappers to get rid of...

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Tickle my fancy, why don't you?