Why we Fling, and other survey results

The Garden Bloggers Fling advisory committee polled the garden-blogging community last month to find out what you most enjoy about the Fling, how long you think it should run, where you'd like to see it hosted in the future, why you may choose not to attend, and what you'd like to see more of at the Fling. We also wanted to know who you are--age, sex, location, what other garden-related travel you do--and I bet you are curious about the results too.

It's no surprise that we love to socialize and see gardens, but what really draws us to the Fling is the recommendation of others. We think a 3-day event is just the right length, and the majority of us hope to attend the San Francisco Fling next year. Many of us travel to other garden-related conferences or go on local or out-of-state garden tours, and we are probably willing to travel to Canada for a Fling if that opportunity arises.

Within the U.S., we really want to attend a Fling in the Mountain West region of the U.S. (54.3%). We also favor locations in the Northeast (49.5%), the Southwest (44.8%), the Southeast (43.8%), and the Pacific Northwest (42.9%). The Midwest was the least favored location (34.3%).

Many of us are from Texas (20), with only Washington (9), California (7), New York (7) and Oregon (6) also providing more than 5 responses. (Although Texas is always well-represented at the Flings, I suspect the fact that two of us who promoted this survey were from Texas contributed to these results.) However, 32 states plus Canada and the U.K. are represented here too.

If you'd like to look over the results in more detail, here they are, minus any identifying information. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comment section.

Other responses included "never heard of it" (5), "wasn't blogging then" (3), "young children at home" (1), and "had more important things to do" (1).

 

Multiple responses included: Flower & garden shows (31), Garden Writers Assoc. (28), local tours & seminars (23), no other garden-related travel (12), trade shows (9), Independent Garden Center Show (4), Master Gardeners Assoc. classes/symposia (5), AHS National Children & Youth Garden Symposium (3), group travel (3), and Assoc. of Professional Landscape Designers (2).

Responses included: Texas (20), Washington (9), California (7), New York (7), Oregon (6), Georgia (5), North Carolina (5), South Carolina (5), Tennessee (5), Illinois (3), Maryland (3), Alabama (2), Arizona (2), Florida (2), Idaho (2), Indiana (2), Michigan (2), Virginia (2), Colorado (1), Kansas (1), Kentucky (1), Louisiana (1), Massachusetts (1), Minnesota (1), Missouri (1), Nebraska (1), New Jersey (1), New Mexico (1), Ohio (1), Pennsylvania (1), Rhode Island (1), and Wisconsin (1), plus Canada (2) and United Kingdom (3).