I just spent the last few days (virtually speaking, that is, as I barely left my office) at the GardenComm 2022 Virtual Conference. And it always closes with the annual Annual Honors & Awards ceremony. Well, that was Saturday… and Laidback Gardener won big, with a gold medal (top honors!) in the garden blog writing category.
The award goes to the best-written garden blog in 2022.
Thrilled and Proud!
As you can imagine, I’m thrilled to have won this award. I’ve been writing about gardening for 40 years now, with 65 books under my belt and literally thousands of articles, but I have received very few awards specifically for my writing.
Four, actually:
- (1990), Florida Foliage Association Houseplant Expert of the Year
- Certificate of Appreciation for his contribution to the development of horticulture, Regroupement Expo-Plantes
- Iris versicolor Award (1995) for Best Garden Communicator in the province of Quebec.
- Garden Media Promoter award (2006), Perennial Plant Association.
One Final Effort
Essentially, I’ve never been one to blow my own horn (although I will today!), so have not made much of an effort to enter competitions over the years, not even the wonderful GardenComm Media Awards Program. I figured budding young writers needed the boost more than an old, established freelance garden communicator.
However, as I retire bit by bit from garden writing for health reasons (I suffer from a fatal lung disease that’s brought me very close to the end), I realized this would be my last chance. After all, it’s pretty much certain that I won’t be alive next year. So, this truly is a bucket list item!
To win the 2022 award, I had to submit 3 articles from among those published over the previous 12 months (easy enough to do: my blog is a daily one, so I had 365 choices!) and… kept my fingers crossed. I chose a variety of subjects—plants, science, garden-friendly animals, etc.—in the hopes something would catch the judges’ eye. And obviously it did, as I won the award!
GardenComm, this association of plant people who communicate their passion for plants and gardening, has been like my second family for the last 40 years. I’ve attended most of its symposiums, been on the Board at various levels, hosted the 2013 Symposium here in Quebec City and was even President from 2013 to 2015. I consider many members as my closest friends.
To win this coveted award has been like receiving an honor from my peers. I’m so pleased to have won it!
Thank you so much… and may a budding young garden writer win the award next year!
Larry Hodgson
Still and always the laidback gardener
Pingback: The Laidback Gardener Is No More - Laidback Gardener
Congratulations! You deserve it! Your blog is the best Garden Blog I have found. Axx
Congratulations, Larry! I just discovered your blog but have worn out my copies of your books on perennials and shade plants- some of my very favorite gardening books. You are an inspiring and very enjoyable writer, and this award is richly deserved. Wishing you the best possible outcome on the health front, and thanks for sharing your knowledge with the gardening world.
Congratulations, Larry! Well deserved.
Larry – I have discovered you in the last year, and eagerly read your contribution every morning, before I read any other email. THANK YOU, I have passed your articles to many friends and they too, have become “followers.” Keep the faith, continue to give to us novice gardeners and your work will live on for me – I save the articles in the ‘cloud’ and will be forever endeared to your works and advice. CONGRATULATIONS, well deserved!!!
Marti – The Adirondacks of New York State
Congratulations on a very well deserved honor! You have touched many lives and have made invaluable contributions to the betterment of our planet through your wisdom and encouragement to generations of gardeners. Sending you huge thanks and well wishes.
You rock! Your books were some of the first I read about plants and I still recommend to friends and buy as gifts. Thanks so much for your HUGE contribution to the world of gardening!
Congratulations Larry! You certainly deserve this award. Thank you – a fan, Pat
so well deserved Larry! You deserve recognition for your work!
Oh my! Congratulations! I have been writing for half as long and found that most garden writers either write well but know very little about horticulture, or are very proficient with horticulture, but do not write so well. Few can write both in a manner that is both accurately informative and entertaining. (I would like for my writing to be more interesting, but I am a horticulturist, not a writer.)
Congratulations Larry! I’m so happy that you won this award. Your lifelong passion for plants and for passing on your knowledge is so appreciated by countless people. Like others have already mentioned, I also appreciate the fact that you care about your followers so much that you have
opened up about your health condition. You are a class act and it shows since you care so much that you have made arrangements to have others continue on your good work. We all will forever be grateful to you. All the very best Larry. Dave in Guelph.
Well done! May you receive many more such accolades! ?
Congratulations from another fan that has only recently discovered your blog.
Best wishes from Whitby, Ontario
No one deserves it more than you. I’m so happy for you. Thanks so much, Larry.
Congratulations on this gold award – no one deserves it more than you do! Thinking of you with best wishes as you continue on your earthly journey. I hope (but IDK) there’s a big beautiful garden up there above for you to discover, and tend to, and enjoy for a long, long time. Perhaps your readers will meet you there…
Thank you for your wonderful blog. Thank you for thoughtfully introducing us to those who will continue it for you. I think it will make the transition a little easier. Bit by bit your enthusiasm, together with your vast array of knowledge, have worked their magic on me and my gardening style has become more laidback. I am a happier and more content gardener as a result. Oh, the joy I find out there! Congratulations Larry. I am so happy for you!
Bravo and congratulations!! ???
Congratulations on your well-merited award. Frankly, I am surprised there haven’t been more. (But, yes, you have to play to win.) Thank you for all the knowledge and insights you have so generously shared over the years; I am glad to have met you some years ago and proud to say I have been in your bathroom! ? Bon courage, Larry, as we say au Québec.
Congratulations Larry!! A well deserved award.
I’d like to add another “congratulations” to the chorus. Though our environments are vastly different – I’m in a rainforest in Hawaii – I find much of your advice works as well here, as many of your houseplants are
outside here. In addition, your joyful and encouraging writing motivates me to get out and enjoy my garden! Thank you!
So very happy for you, Larry, congratulations! Well deserved! I follow a few facebook gardening groups but yours is the only blog I read. Besides the wealth of information that’s helped me, I am always inspired by your upbeat, positive attitude. You are truly an amazing person, and I wish you well when your next adventure arrives. I’m sure it will be full of plants, flowers and other beautiful things. God bless you. (Cleveland, Ohio)
Congratulations ! I recently found your blog and every day I receive your articles which I read with great interest. Well deserved this recognition and the joy you have received.
Sending you, Larry, and yours love from Bellingham Wa.
Congratulations I am so pleased that all of your dedication and your knowledge has been acknowledged by your peers. Cheers!
Glad to see such well deserved acknowledgement. Thank you for sharing your vast knowledge and skills with all of us. I too will continue to use what you have shared for as long as I garden.
Very, very well-deserved! Your knowledge, spirit, and voice impress me every time I read one of your posts. You are a delightful writer and, I’m sure, a delightful person. Thank you for sharing your wide-ranging interests and insights with us.
Congratulations, Larry! Your blog is the best out there, for sure. I’m glad that you are recognized by this wonderful award. I think it’s wonderful for you to receive this little bit of happiness right now. Well deserved!
Congratulations!!!!! A wonderful honor. I do not do outdoor gardening but have found much help and enjoyment in your houseplant posts! Thank you!!!
Congratulations! I’m a newcomer to your blog, but appreciate the wide-ranging, practical advice and your ongoing commitment as your mortality imposes itself on you.
Mark (Toronto)
May I add my congratulations to hundreds of others
I too enjoy the daily blog and often take tid-bits to relay at our Harriston Horticultural Society meetings.
Looking forward to seeing how your bathroom tropical wall is coming along
Congratulations Larry. Your blog is great and well researched.
Congratulations. A well deserved reward honouring a lifetime spent dispensing your knowledge and new research to the gardening public. Indeed a bucket list item.
Congratulations! An award well deserved!
Larry, I feel as though I know you. Never met you. Your writing has brought me closer to understanding the plants around me and how to give them their best life. This enhances many lives. You have been such an ambassador for gardening. You have such a diplomatic approach so your advice is easy to hear. I wish you a grand day . May this well deserved award lift your spirits today. I will follow your teachings for a long long time to come. Thank you and many congratulations on a well deserved award.
Congrats & 100% agree with the “well-deserved” comments.
I’ve learned more from your daily blog than from any other. Congratulations!!
Just excellent and congratulations
Laidback Gardener is my favorite garden blog, so I am not surprised that you won! Well deserved; Keep up the good work!
Congratulations. Reading your daily e mail is a great way to start the day. Thanks for sharing your vast gardening knowledge. I rely on you and the late Lois Holes books to help with my gardening. I too have IPF so we have similar health challenges and I wish you well in your life’s journey.
No one deserves to receive this honor more than you, Larry. Thank you for all you do and CONGRATULATIONS!
Congratulations on a well deserved honour. This is one more component of the legacy you will leave behind of a life truly well lived.
Congratulations from upstate NY. My dear husband was the gardener in our family and recently succumbed to a fatal lung disease and I’ve taken over his duties. Your blog is inspiring and gives me (and his poor gardens) hope!
Many thanks and a well deserved recognition
What a well-deserved honor! I am delighted by your joy. I have learned a great deal from your wealth of gardening knowledge and also from your attitude toward life. Thank you for your words of wisdom. May you be blessed with strength, and renewal of body and spirit.
Congratulations on this most recent award. Well deserved! Thanks for all of your effort and information. I enjoy your newsletter very much. A wonderful way to start thevday!
So well deserved! My houseplants and I are both so glad we found you. Peace and many blessings to you, my laidback guru.
Congratulations! Very well deserved.
Echoing all the other comments! Big smiles. ?
Congratulations on your award. I have been reading your articles for quite a while now. I have learned so much from them. Thank you.
Congratulation! I have really enjoyed your blogs.
Congratulation, Larry. I have been enjoying reading your posts. I love when I “hear” the words and phrases I have used to answer questions and I have also loved learning new information. Bravo!
Well done! As my husband always says “the cream always rises to the top”. You must be the creamiest!
Victoria from Indiana
Congratulations on the award! I do have only recently discovered your blog but I’m thoroughly enjoying it.
Dear Sir, I absolutely love reading your wonderful articles. I have only read them this past year and wish that I had found you earlier. I have learned so much in this short time. I truly appreciate the time you take to teach all of us. I pray for your health and just wanted to let you know I am jealous that you will get to see Heavens wonderful gardens in your own time. And I just know that YOU will be taking care of them!!! Sincerely, Audrey – Ohio USA
Thank you, Larry, for your daily blog, which I read each morning. This Nova Scotia gardener has learned so much from you.
Sincere congratulations what a neighbor to the south. You definitely earned that award.
Dear Mr. Hodgson,
Every morning as I drink my breakfast tea I look forward to 5:30, when your beautifully illustrated, informative and often amusing blog lands in my inbox and starts my day on a happy note. I am delighted that you have won this prestigious award. No one could deserve it more.
I thought of you recently when I made the trip to Quebec to see the Mosaïcultures exhibit on a beautiful fall day. Your blog about your own visit was very moving, and it spurred me to make the effort to go.
Deepest thanks for so generously sharing your knowledge!
Joan McCordick (Montreal)
Congratulations, Larry! Your articles are always very well written, both factual and entertaining. Thank you for your efforts on behalf of your readers. May you be given a measure of extended health.
Louise from Victoria, BC