Plant video contest on YouTube

Do you have some video that promotes the appreciation and understanding of plant? Put it on YouTube and you might make some money on it.

Chlorofilms is the organization behind the contest and is looking to bring attention back to plants and flowers.

ChloroFilms is a nonprofit project started by Dr. Daniel Cosgrove at Penn State University with initial grant support from the Education Foundation of the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB). Additional support comes from the Botanical Society of America and the Canadian Botanical Association.

Check out the contest rules and ideas for videos.

Twitter: Part II

I'm seeing more and more gardening and garden center Twitter accounts - nice! Kimmerg sent me a message asking what would make good content for a garden center Twitter feed.

And just today I saw this article - 10 Tips To Be Effective At Marketing On Twitter. There's some good stuff in there, including "you need to know the difference between posting often and spamming," "Make the most out of your account," and "Facilitate conversation!" Great tips.

I'd also say give lots of information gardeners can use. Thinking of the upcoming season, when should I start growing my seedlings? When is it safe to put annuals outside? What's the new annuals you're excited about? Stuff like that.

Manure does happen, doesn't it?

I need to go to Texas to get one of these shirts. I love it. Great job, Great Outdoors.



Click here to see more from The Great Outdoors in a slideshow of images from this year's Revolutionary 100 garden centers.

The thirst for online knowledge

I was on my microblog Twitter last week looking around for news on poinsettia sales, Christmas plant sales, anything. I searched for 'poinsettia' and I found quite a few recipes for the drink (champagne and cranberry juice, had no idea), but not much news on plant sales.

So I asked my Twitter followers, "Any gardeners out there following your favorite garden center's Twitter feed? Which ones? If not, would you like to, if it was offered?" Here are three responses I got:

have not found any. It would be great to find some

I would, if they tweeted. I don't think any of mine are. I'm in Wilmington, NC.

Sure, I would love to see garden center feeds!

We're the plant experts, and there are gardeners out there starved for information. Growers and retailers - give them what they're looking for!

I propose a New Year's Resolution. Step outside your comfort zone. Take a step towards your customers. Go to Twitter.com, click on 'Find People' at the top of the page, and search for jreck, gardenofwords and treesandshrubs. These are the users who commented above, and they have a thirst for knowledge about gardening. There are tons of other gardeners on Twitter, looking to learn more about plants and flowers. How about you set up an account and give them a tip of the week?

If you're on Twitter, let me know. I want to follow you. I'm stambascio. Follow me!

Update: Here's an article on how Ford, Dunkin' Donuts and Comcast are using Twitter corporately to communicate on a more personal level.