"Medicinal Herbs," by Carol Sharp -- IGPOTY Finalist, Bountiful Earth

Whether it’s the latest telephoto lens, a top-of-the-line camera body, a spacious new gear bag, or to see your photographs on display in a public exhibition, there’s a wishlist in every photographer’s back pocket. But, really, how long has it been since you crossed something off of yours?

Start planning your International Garden Photographer of the Year photo compositions now, and you might find that your wishful thinking is that much closer to reality.

Beginning May 2013, selected photographs from the prestigious International Garden Photographer of the Year competition will go on display at The New York Botanical Garden as a part of our summer exhibition, Wellness: The Power of Plants. The NYBG is the exclusive U.S. partner of this worldwide photographic competition that showcases the very best professional and amateur garden photographers from around the globe, and this year we are upping the ante by offering a cash prize to the winners in a category sponsored by us: Wellness.

In addition to the more than $18,000 in prize money offered to the  winners in the annual International Garden Photographer of the Year competition, the winning photographs in the Wellness category will hang in the Ross Gallery at the Garden and we will award an additional total purse of $1000. With $500 for the first-place photograph in the Wellness category, $250 for second, $100 for third, and $50 going to each of three runners up, there’s ample opportunity to earn the recognition and reward your art deserves.

"Conversations from a Balcony at dusk along the High Line," by Claire Takacs - First Place, Competition 5 - Greening the City

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Joyce H. Newman is the editor of Consumer Reports’ GreenerChoices.org, and has been a Docent with The New York Botanical Garden for the past six years.

In the midst of winter’s blustery winds and wicked temperatures, it’s a great relief to see the warm yellow flowers of witch-hazel (Hamamelis x intermedia) brightening up the Garden path behind the Home Gardening Center.

This fragrant hybrid shrub is a relative of the North American native H. virginiana, or common witch-hazel, a plant that is certainly a little magical to some. Lore suggests the common name refers to the forked twigs that were sometimes used in earlier times for “water-witching,” or dowsing to locate underground water. These native plants bloom in the fall rather than the winter, but are just as impressive.
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