Garden Bloggers Fling Asheville 2012

Registration Form

2012-02-19T08:51:00.000-06:00

THE BUSES FOR ASHEVILLE FLING 2012 ARE FILLED. REGISTRATION IS NOW ON A STANDBY BASIS ONLY.

If you wish to register on standby, priority will be given to them on a first come first served basis. Spaces will become available either by cancellation or non-payment of the individual cost for the event.

At this point approximately 63 of the 87 total registered attendees have paid their fee. ON APRIL 1ST, 2012 any remaining registrations that have not paid will be reopened to those on the standby list for a two week period.

Registration will be permanently closed on APRIL 15TH, 2012 so a final tally can be given to all food vendors and swag providers.

*****************************************************************************

Our itinerary is set. The costs have been tabulated. The per person charge for Asheville Fling 2012 is $135.00. So much for confident promises. I was only $10 off. This covers all bus transportation for three days, rental/entry fees at six venues, three lunches, one dinner, ice cream treats, beverages at three afternoon social hours and a partridge in a rhododendron bush.

Click on the link below for the official registration form. A new window will open. Fill out the form and click submit. You will receive an email response with directions for your payment from our treasurer. This will be a human time response not a computer time response. Once your payment is received you will be double officially registered and your blog will appear in the attendees listing.

Short Note: Biltmore Rocks! The discount entry offer on the registration form to return to the Biltmore Estate to see the house - we will only be touring the gardens - is good for 4 adults and 4 children with no expiration date.

Registration Form

The Happy Planner Man

2012-02-17T18:07:00.001-06:00

You have all made me a very happy Planner Man. Our block of rooms at the hotel is at 90% reserved. That means I won't get stuck with a big bill. It also means there are only 4 rooms left. I know many of you are sharing rooms or made alternate arrangements. Thanks for letting me know. I also know some of you have not made hotel reservations. I hope the four rooms left will cover the procrastinators or that you can find a roomie. If I need to ask for more rooms, the group rate is not an absolute sure thing depending on the overall bookings at the hotel.

Strangely, people enjoy coming to Asheville. The hotel across the street had filled their allowed group quota back in October. Another hotel out by the interstate was planning for the NC Master Gardeners Convention to begin that same weekend. Hotel rates here can be rather high due to demand.

As of today there are 3 seats left on the buses. Once they fill registration will be closed. We will be starting a standby list in case a space opens up due to a cancellation. But who in their right mind would cancel the chance to see incredible private and public gardens in the cool mountain spring of Fabulous Ashevegas, the Cesspool of Sin.

Airport Transportation

2012-02-16T13:01:00.004-06:00

Asheville has a small airport in a smallish city. There are no trains or commuter lines to zip you from the airport, which is nine miles south, to the hotel downtown. Getting to and from the airport to the hotel will involve a taxi or van service.

The link below outlines the options. A link to a PDF file there will give you a list of names and numbers. Since many of you are likely to arrive and depart in close proximity, sharing a van could make sense. Feel free to use the FB group for hookups, no not that kind, ride sharing kind.

Asheville Regional Airport Transportation

The Asheville Airport Shuttle looks to get high marks on the google and interwebs.

The Early Blooms Get Pollinated

2012-02-01T20:05:00.003-06:00

This is a story about the block of rooms reserved at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel for the Garden Bloggers Asheville Fling 2012.

Based on the attendance at the last two Flings in Buffalo and Seattle, 50 rooms were blocked for our use at the discounted group rate. Part of the signed agreement I made with the hotel was that inside 90 days of the events dates I would be responsible for 90% of the cost of all those room nights reserved for the group. Mr. Planner Man has no intention of getting stuck with a bill like that if the rooms are not filled. So at that 90 day cut off point I will have to decide if some rooms in our reserved block have to be let go if they haven't come closer to being filled.

Our official registration only went live two weeks ago and we are doing very well. Thirty two rooms are booked, ten of them as double occupancy. We encourage you to share rooms to help cut costs for this fun event. More money left to buy plants and shop downtown.

Several members of our planning team only live blocks away and won't be sleeping at the hotel, but still count as attendees. One bus is filled and we are now filling the second. For just two weeks that is a great response.

This year's Fling is in May not July so that leaves less time to procrastinate. The last day you can reserve a room at the hotel before I may need to let rooms go is Sunday, February 19th. On Monday February 20th I will adjust the number of rooms in our our reserved block so any possibility of me getting screwed is removed.

If I need to reduce our reserved block of rooms I can ask for more once they are filled. I can ask. That doesn't mean once they have been set free I will be able to get them back at our discounted rate. Our discounted group rate is valid until April 17th, 2012 only on the block we hold.

The bottom line of this long story is that to ensure a discounted room rate in the downtown hotel of record you need to book a room by February 19th. After that the lower rate gets a little riskier. The longer you wait the riskier it gets. Got it? Asheville being what it is, the longer you wait, the higher the possibility you may even need to book at a different hotel.

Registration for attending the Fling itself will be closed in mid April. Official headcounts will be needed in advance for all of our food vendors and many of our swag sponsors. The exact day in April will be determined on another day.

The Four Points Sheraton link above will take you to the hotel reservation site. Fill those rooms.

Asheville Fling 2012 Itinerary

2012-01-15T21:30:00.012-06:00

The basic itinerary of the Asheville Fling 2012 is listed by day below. Each day will have it's own post (still to come) to fill in a bit more detail and can be reached by the link at the bottom of each days listing. (still to come) It is pretty well set in stone, but life is life and stone can crack. Slight change is always a possibility.

Thursday May 17th and Monday May 21st have short overflow events for bloggers who may come early or stay late to spend more time enjoying Asheville and the mountains of Western North Carolina.

Thursday May 17^th

RSVP Tour Sow True Seed – 1 to 5 pm

Happy hour meet and greet – Tressa’s downtown – 5pm to 7:30 pm

Explore downtown for dinner

More detail here.

Friday May 18^th

West Asheville Gardens

Wamboldtopia – Christopher Mello’s Garden – Sunny Point Café - 9:15am–11:30am

Lunch 12 Bones/Curve Studios with ice cream from The Hop 11:45am – 1:00pm

North Carolina Arboretum – Author led native wildflower walk available 1:30pm – 3:45pm

BB Barnes Nursery 4:15 pm – 5:30pm - Back to hotel.

Explore downtown for dinner

More detail here.

Saturday May 19^th

Peter and Jasmin Gentling Garden 9:15am – 11am

Lunch Laurey’s Catering 11:15am – 12:30pm

Biltmore Estate Gardens/ Conservatory 1pm – 4pm - Back to hotel

Dinner Masonic Temple with ice cream from the Hop 6pm – 8:30pm

Blogger Discussion post dinner - finish by 10pm

More detail here.

Sunday May 20^th

Haywood Community College Gardens 9:45am – 11am

Lunch catered by Trust Café on mountain

Bonnie Brae and Ku’ulei ‘Aina, two mountain top gardens 12pm – 3:30pm

Wine and beverages 2pm

Back to hotel - fast or scenic options

Explore downtown for dinner

More detail here.

Monday May 21^st

White Gate Inn garden on stroll to

RSVP Continental breakfast edible garden tour at Nan Chase’s 9:00 am – 11am

Explore broader Asheville on your own with list of suggestions

More detail here.

Down By The River

2012-01-14T20:01:00.003-06:00

We will go for some catered 12 Bones BBQ in a beautiful garden setting near the railroad tracks.

The Asheville 2012 Fling itinerary and official registration form will be posted by mid week.

Stay tuned.

You Have Been Very Patient

2012-01-05T17:10:00.002-06:00

Thank you so very much. Here's a little update.

Our planning team has the schedule of gardens, arboretums, estates and nurseries we will visit pretty well set. Lunches and one group dinner are lined up. Social hours with libations are in the mix. We'll even be having fresh homemade ice cream. Buses will take us to all the events scheduled each day. Times will be set aside for blogger talk. Short side events off schedule may be available with a courtesy RSVP to the host to gauge attendance.

Now we add up the costs, divide by the estimated number of attendees and seek out sponsors who may like to contribute.

Once we have a pretty solid idea of the costs a registration form will be posted for you to fill out, officially sign up to attend and send in the money. That should be coming before the end of January. One fee will cover all group costs. I feel very confident that the group cost will come in below $125 per person for all three days of planned events.

At the same time we will be posting each days itinerary to give you a better idea of what to expect and if you need to make any adjustments depending on your individual arrival or departure time. For early arrivals and folks who linger we will have a list of walkable from the hotel and other garden sites to visit in the Asheville area that we just couldn't stuff into an already full day. I want you all to have a little breathing room each day and not over do it.

Hotel rooms can be booked now. Click on hotel in the top link bar to access that post and a link to the hotel reservations is there. We have reserved 50 rooms for the group thinking some of you would like to share rooms to cut costs. Ninety days before our dates in May I will have the option to reduce or claim more rooms. The sooner you book the better so I know which way to direct the hotel.

Now back to planning Asheville Fling 2012.

For The Snow Days

2011-11-29T08:24:00.002-06:00

Or the rainy days as the case may be.

Here are two sites that will let you explore much of what Asheville, NC has to offer before you arrive.

Asheville Now

and

Explore Asheville

Grab The Badge

2011-11-10T15:13:00.004-06:00

After a request was made, duh, we need a badge for folks to put on their blogs for Asheville 2012 The Fling if they so desire. The grab the badge function is now in the right sidebar.

You can copy the code in the box below the image to paste into your own blog's sidebar functions. This will give you the image as a link to the Flings website without the code box.

Holla if this doesn't work.

Anticipation

2011-11-04T19:29:00.000-05:00

The time has come to announce the dates of the fifth annual Garden Bloggers Fling to be held in Asheville, North Carolina in the year 2012. Nestled in the beautiful mountains of western North Carolina the climate zones can range from a 5a or lower high atop the tallest 6000 foot peaks to a 6b in the lower sheltered valleys, all within a very short driving distance.

This is a land of four seasons. Being in the south, the seasons come slow and linger like a good southern drawl. They aren't all bunched up and in a hurry like they may be further north. When oh when should the garden bloggers come to see the garden charms of our fair mountain metropolis? Each season has so much to offer.

The definitive itinerary is still in the works. All the various garden owners and venues need to agree to our plans. Transportation needs to be arranged. Timing and prices need calculating. Adjustments are bound to be needed.

There will be three days of planned garden tours with an evening reception planned for the day before and a breakfast social in a local garden planned for the day after. Then we will send those who remain out to explore things on their own that just couldn't be fit into the schedule. Two days will be spent in Asheville and on the third day we will head into the woods to see the wild cultivated garden high on the low spot of a North Carolina mountain top.

Lunch will be provided on our three touring days and one group dinner planned. This will leave you up to three evenings to stroll downtown and have dinner in the eclectic and renowned culinary scene of Asheville.

So when is it you want to know? You need to mark your calendar.

Asheville 2012 The Fling will happen on Friday, Saturday and Sunday,
May the 18th, 19th and 20th, 2012.

The Hotel

2011-11-04T17:02:00.000-05:00

The hotel of record where the buses will pick us up in the morning for our days activities is the Four Points Sheraton. It is located at 22 Woodfin St. in the left atrium of downtown Asheville, NC. It is walking distance to all that downtown Asheville has to offer. Here is a map. Feel free to go for a stroll and familiarize yourself with downtown.

We have reserved 50 rooms at the hotel for four nights, Thursday, May 17th to Sunday, May 20th under the assumption about half of you may want to share a room to cut costs and based on attendance numbers from the past two flings. More rooms at the group rate are available depending on when they are booked prior to the fling and the hotel's overall booking percentage. The sooner we know the better chance of getting more rooms at the group rate.

We have our own booking page at The Four Points. It also has links to much more information about the hotel.

Ignore the dates on our booking page. Shoulder dates were added to our requested nights and planned touring days for those who may want to come early or stay late and still enjoy the garden bloggers group rate.

That is downtown Asheville, NC, the famous "Cesspool of Sin" right outside the lobby of the Four Points Sheraton. Pleasure awaits.

If any important questions arise about the hotel accommodations this page will be updated.

Sponsor Opportunities

2011-11-04T16:30:00.001-05:00

On Friday, May 18, 2012 though Monday, May 21, 2012, nearly 80 nationally (and internationally) known garden bloggers will descend on Asheville, NC, for the 5th annual Garden Blogger’s Fling. During this four day event, garden bloggers will be blogging, tweeting, and facebooking - generally spreading the word, around the world, about the host city’s gardens and their sponsors. Collectively, the reach of these bloggers and their other writing outlets is in the millions!

To help defray the cost, allowing more bloggers to attend who might not otherwise afford to go, we are seeking sponsorships.

We invite you to consider being a sponsor of the fifth annual garden blogger’s Fling, May 18 - 21, 2012 in Asheville, NC.

The committee:

Chair: Christopher Carrie of Outside Clyde http://outsideclyde.blogspot.com/

Finance: Frances of Fairegarden http://fairegarden.wordpress.com/

Sponsorship: Helen Yoest of Gardening with Confidence

http://gardeningwithconfidence.com/blog/

Itinerary:

Charlotte of Daffodil Planter http://daffodilplanter.blogspot.com/

Lisa Wagner of Natural Gardening http://www.naturalgardening.blogspot.com/

Nan Chase, author of “Eat Your Yard! Edible trees, shrubs, vines, herbs and flowers for your landscape”

Rebecca Bull Reed, Southern Living Magazine

Sponsorships will range from providing funding for a meal, to funding the busses taking 80 bloggers around beautiful Asheville. We will also offer cash contributing sponsorship levels:

Bloom - $750 - $1,000

Bud - $500 - $749

Root - $250 - $499

Seed - $100 - $249

We will be providing sponsor exposure on our blog http://gardenbloggersfling.blogspot.com/ and mention the sponsors as they come in on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/178821858807086/.

Additionally, we will ask the bloggers who can attend, and even those that can’t, to share with their readers the generosity of our sponsors. Also, during one of the meals, we will allow our cash contributing sponsors to speak about their product (or have it presented by a liaison, and I’m happy to do that for you, if you are unable to attend.)

Each garden blogger will also be receiving a SWAG gift bag. Please let me know if you are interested in donating something to that, as well.

Feel free to contact me at 919-760-5404 to discuss the specifics about sponsoring this great event. You can also email me at helen@gardeningwithconfidence.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

Here is a little background on how the Garden Blogger’s Fling got started; in just 4 years, we went from 37 bloggers to 75, attending from 11 to 26 states, Canada and England. We hope we can count your support.

The Garden Bloggers Blog

http://gardenbloggersfling.blogspot.com/...

2008 - First Fling - Austin - April 4 -5, 2008

2009 - Second Fling - Chicago - May 29 - 30, 2009

2010 - Third Fling - Buffa10 - July 8 - 11, 2010

2011 - Fourth Fling - Seattle - July 23 - 24, 2011

2012 - Fifth Fling - Asheville - May 18 - 21, 2012

Do you wonder how it came to be in Seattle in 2011 or how Fling was started in the first place? Well, I'll tell you anyway.

2011 Seattle - According to Mary Ann Newcomer, "I kept hearing everyone saying they would love to go to Seattle, NEXT. I said I'd see if I could get the Seattleites to host if gave them my first born male child. Then, I forgot to have a child, pleaded with them and they relented." So there you go!

2010 Buffalo - According to Jim Charlier, "For the Buffalo visit, I helped host because Elizabeth told me I had to. It was easier than saying no. As to what on earth made her think that we'd like to host 70 garden bloggers from 23 different states and Canada, you'd have to ask her what she was drinking at the time."

2010 Buffalo continued - According to Elizabeth Licata, "On Buffa10: I had been eager to get my fellow garden bloggers to experience Garden Walk Buffalo ever since I started blogging in 2005. I attended the Austin and Chicago get-togethers and loved them, planning all along to get the group to Buffalo, which I did with Jim's help in 2010. You can find out all about last year's Buffalo event by revisiting here: buffa10.blogspot.com"

2009 Chicago - According to Barbara Pintozzi, "During the Austin Fling, Pam got me liquored up and asked me to host the next Fling. How could I say no? So I invited everybody to come to Chicago at the end of May 2009. It was a perfect time to visit gardens, if a bit chilly."

2008 Austin - According to Pam Penick, "If memory serves, I'd started organizing local garden blogger meet-ups in 2007. In December of that year I was planning a spring event, but I had an epiphany while reading the Blotanical profile of Carol at May Dreams Gardens. In answer to the prompt "Gardens to see before I die" she'd written, "All those gardens of the Austin garden bloggers." So naturally I thought she should come visit--and so should everyone else! In those days the number of garden bloggers was growing exponentially, but the community still seemed small enough that maybe one could follow everyone. Can you imagine such a thing now?

At any rate, after I got all fired up to invited the whole garden blogging world to Austin, I emailed the locals to ask for their help in pulling it off. Diana Kirby (Sharing Nature's Garden), Bonnie Martin (Kiss of Sun), and M. Sinclair Stevens (Zanthan Gardens) immediately volunteered to help me plan it, and many others offered their help with hosting and chauffeuring visitors around on tour day. After a frenzy of planning during the holidays, the official invitation went out in early January via Blotanical, which was in its infancy then. We were thrilled by the response. 37 garden bloggers attended from 11 different states -- a great turnout for a first offline event hosted by a bunch of crazy Texans."

Where garden bloggers meet

2011-09-19T01:50:00.000-05:00

Garden bloggers at 2010 Buffalo Fling

After four successful years of Garden Bloggers Fling -- the annual meet-up of garden bloggers organized by volunteer hosts in cities across the U.S. -- the event has grown large enough to benefit from a central website and an advisory committee. Why? To provide general information about the Fling (its genesis and purpose, a schedule of future Flings, sponsor information, etc.), to provide a centralized record of each Fling, and to help each year's organizers build on the previous year's successes.

To that end, the former and future planners have, over the course of a few email discussions, formed a small advisory committee: Pam Penick (Austin), Diana Kirby (Austin), and Elizabeth Licata (Buffalo). We're setting up this blog for general Fling information and also for any future planners to use, if they wish (rather than having to create their own site each year -- reinventing the wheel, as it were). We hope you'll subscribe or add it to your feed reader in order to keep up with the latest news.

We'll also be communicating with the garden blogging community on the Facebook page for Garden Bloggers Fling. Soon we'll be posting a survey to find out what you like about any Flings you've attended and/or what you'd like to see at future events.

We love the unique local energy brought to each of the previousFlings and don’t want to impose any bureaucratic structure or rules to what hasbeen a wonderful, organic experience from year to year. However, it’s also an enormous amount ofwork to host the Fling, and our goal is simply to share some economies of scale, provide someplanning and management advice, and gather input from participants about whatmakes a Fling fabulous.

We hope you'll join us in making the Fling even better each year!

Pam Penick - Digging

Diana Kirby - Sharing Nature's Garden

Elizabeth Licata - Gardening While Intoxicated and Garden Rant