GWA: What’s In It For Plant Geeks?

GWA members and fellow plant geeks enjoy photographing a garden during the 2014 symposium in Pittsburgh.

By C.L. Fornari

In a world where everyone’s eyes are focused down on the screen of their cell phone, calling attention to plants is increasingly a challenge. But we gardeners don’t shrink from getting down and dirty. We are always willing to do whatever it takes to grow something beautiful, tasty, or intriguing…am I right?

Those of us who want to promote horticulture are plant pushers as well as plant geeks. We need to use every tool at our disposal to make our product attractive. Great photography is indispensable these days…it’s a visual world. People love stories, so you and I need to hone those skills so we can tell a great tale. And social networking? A given. Blogging and websites? Essential. GWA is about developing all of these abilities and proficiencies.

Of course, what’s also on our minds is how we can make a living in this field (hard to escape horticultural references, isn’t it?) that we love. Yes, we want to promote plants and gardening…but we also need to pay our electric bills. Not to mention buy more plants, pots, and pruners.

Simply put, GWA is our common ground. It’s the place where plant geeks and garden geeks come together to better market our expertise, our companies, great plants, the natural world, and a more sustainable planet. This is the organization that will help each of us to cultivate the life and career that we want to grow.

Perhaps you’re a garden geek, an employee of an IGC, a grower, master gardener, or part of a green industry sales team. Or maybe you’re a writer who loves gardening, a photographer with an interest in plants, or the member of a garden group who is charged with writing the newsletter. It doesn’t matter what part of the horticultural world you’re involved in; if you communicate about gardens and plants, you belong in GWA.

Need more information for your personal germination? Let’s connect: clfornari@gmail.com.

Meet the Author

C.L. Fornari is a garden geek who fell into communications as a way to put a somewhat legitimate framework around a serious case of plant lust. Her garden at Poison Ivy Acres can be found on Cape Cod, and her website/blog at GardenLady.com.