Fling souvenir buttons ready to be mailed to attendees

This year Fling attendees received wallet-style name badges that hang from the neck, replacing the pin-on tags of years past. These badges, which have a handy zippered compartment for collecting business cards, were also perfect for displaying the new Fling buttons!

Just for a fun little souvenir, the Fling Advisory Committee created pins for each of the previous Flings and passed them out to attendees in San Francisco. Everyone got the San Francisco button, of course, and those who'd attended other Flings received those buttons as well.

That's my badge in the photo above, and you can see how I pinned my Fling buttons along the margin. I added a Flower Floozie pin from Annie's Annuals for good measure. Badge jewelry! Don't you want yours?

I brought home the extra pins, and I'm ready to mail them out to those who've attended Fling(s) but didn't make it to San Francisco this year. Just mail me a stamped, self-addressed envelope and tell me which Flings you've attended. I'll mail the buttons right out to you.

I'm loath to put my mailing address online for everyone to see, so email me at FlingButtons at gmail dot com to request the address. Please include your blog name in the subject line of your email so I know you're not a spammer.

Remember to include an SASE; return postage is on you. A 1st-class stamp ought to cover it. UPDATE 7/23/13: I've just learned that postage for multiple buttons can significantly exceed one 1st-class stamp. You may need to put 4 stamps on your SASE or risk getting billed by USPS for the remaining postage. Please use your best judgment regarding postage. For one button, a single stamp should be enough. For multiple buttons, be generous with your stamps or keep an eye out for a bill. We definitely want the buttons to reach you!

Enjoy your souvenir buttons! Oh, and bring them to next year's Fling if you like and dress up your badge again. 

The SF Fling has Flung

Official Group Photo by

Saxon Holt/PhotoBotanic

San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers

June 28, 2013

Dear Garden Blogger Fling Attendees:

Thanks so much for attending and making this the best Fling ever! We hope you've recovered from three days of garden and nursery touring... and then some! Surely many of you have started to go through images and recount stories from our time together. Please consider sharing them, via links to your personal blog posts, in the comments section below, and/or on the Garden Bloggers Fling Facebook page. If you have specific posts for specific gardens, each of the tour stops has a general information post (following this one), so you can add your post to their comments section accordingly. It's a great way to see and read about everyone's perspectives of the various places we visited together.

Please be sure to share your personal thanks with the generous sponsors that helped make the San Francisco Fling so successful. Each sponsor is listed by sponsor level category along the right hand column of this blog, with links to their websites and contact information. Sponsorships contributed not only to the TWO swag bags you received, but also to offset the costs of our travel, garden admissions and sustenance. A hearty thank you goes out to them all!

Happy blogging and we hope to see you at the next Fling in Portland, Oregon. Sounds like the PDX Crew is tentatively looking at mid to late July, 2014.

Your SF Fling Crew,

Kelly, Andrea, Charlotte, Claire and Maggie. 


P.S. To post a hyperlinked URL to your blog post in the comments section you'll have to add a bit of HTML code to do so, as Blogger thinks they're spam and won't publish the comment.

I'll use Helen (The Patient Gardener)'s First Fling overview as an example 
(surely she won't mind...)

First, post a comment with your URL & blog post title (shown in orange above) added to the HTML code as shown below

Then, click the Preview button to see if the link worked and/or to edit as needed:

Then, enter Publish and your comment with a hyperlink to your post should appear, pending Blog administration, of course.

Hope that helps and isn't too confusing. If anyone knows a different workaround, let us know.

Flora Grubb

(photo via FloraGrubb.com)

Flora Grubb Gardens

Location: San Francisco

Closing Fling cocktail party

Possible tour of Flora Grubb staff designed gardens nearby

Fun & Shopping

Fling Attendees: Please add a link to your post about this garden event in the comments section below.

Nichols Garden

(photo by Floradoragardens)

Nichols Garden
Location: Oakland

Garden Description by Ann Nichols:

When eco-visionary landscape designer Bob Clark first visited Ann Nichols’ house in the late 90’s, he found a boring narrow walkway along the side that led up from the street to the back yard. Today one is drawn toward a whimsical fence built of tree branches and ropes which Cristo and Robinson Crusoe might have built together. One climbs past gurgling water that passes through salvage pipes onto shells, then along a mini-canal and into ponds surrounded by her personal collectibles embedded in cement. On the wall at the top, a mirror set within a mosaic mural invites the curious visitor into the back yard.

On the other side of the gate, one discovers a yard on many levels, each designed as an outdoor room. The black and silver garden, called the entry “parlor,” is bordered by a wooden fence and two cement walls. Another mirror hangs from the fence, as if to say “you are here!”  Jasmine, a Japanese maple, heucheras, black mondo grass and various ferns create a restful spot for a visitor to sit and enjoy the cool shade.

Going past the patio, one enters the white garden. White digitalis, gardenias, white day lilies and other flowers whose hues range from chalk to cream give this room its color. Up another level lies a lawn, bordered brightly colored flower beds.

Higher on the hill is the Rose garden. Weeping Sequoia, tied together, form an allee  into this fragrant garden underplanted with blue flowered perennials. Forget-Me-Nots, Salvias, Clematis, Irises, and Geraniums color this room, as does the blue star creeper that grows between the patio pavers.

The front garden at the street is the most recently developed. This garden was built around a Canary Date Palm, the only plant that remains on the property from the time the house was purchased 30 years ago. For the most part, there is a subtropical feel here. It is filled with Bromeliads Echeverias, Orchids, Tillandsias and Aloes. The hope was to give passers by a few seconds in the tropics on their way to their busy lives!

Fling Attendees: Please add a link to your post about this garden in the comments section below.

Keeyla Meadows Garden

(photo via KeeylaMeadows.net)

Keeyla Meadows Gardens + Art
Location: Albany

Fling Attendees: Please add a link to your post about this garden in the comments section below.