I'm just curious as to how many folks see value in subscribing to
gardening magazines. I have subscribed to two of the biggies for a
little over a year now. There are some beautiful pictures, however
often the plants in large vignettes are not identified. One magazine
always highlights some rich couple's gardens, the ones done by
professional landscapers, and the ones that you really need to have some
$$$ to afford. Well, it is nice to see these photos, but I'd like to
see some pictures of gardeners more like me. A few more practical
gardens. The other magazine has too many articles and ads for garden
furniture. For either, when a plant is identified, I find it is not
something carried in the local nurseries where I live.

Do you all think they are worth it?

Overall I'd have to say ... nope! Every so often I'll see a mag on the
newstand that has an article in it of interest -- I'll usually just take it
over to the bookstore's seating area to give it a quick read, if not stand
there and read it. I've subscribed to several over the years but they just
seem to have more and more advertisements -- NOT what I am buying the
magazine to see. My favorite used to be Horticulture and it's still not bad
but it seems to have gotten a bit light in actual reading material. About
the only thing I subscribe to these days is This Old House magazine and even
that one is getting heavier with advertisements while having less articles.
:-(

FWIW, if you want to get a wide variety of plants in your landscape you're
going to have to break out of the nursery and hit the mailorder catalogs.
In some cases you can ask the nursery to order certain plants for you, but
they simply cannot carry the wide range of diversity that mail order
companies carry. The reason is fairly straightforward -- nurseries have a
particular clientele to service and as a storefront they have to stock what
commonly sells; when they do pick up something outside their normal stock it
doesn't really last long or it never sells. Mail order companies have a
wider range of tastes among their clientele -- with a larger market, they
can sell a wider variety.

Anyone else get annoyed that the featured gardens always show some
wealthy couple lounging around in pricey furniture, next to their outdoor
shower, which is being fed by their faux waterfall, etc...

Chuckle Yes, this does seem to be the trend. My big pet peeve with this
is a different media -- namely TV. The landscaping shows on HGTV only do
projects on obviously well-to-do homes and they're all in the LA vicinity.
The vast majority of the plants they utilize in their shows only grow in
climates where winter is when the mercury hits 65 degrees farenheit -- not
very practical for 3/4ths of the continent (or even 2/3rds of the US). I
wrote the production company and they made it clear they're not interested
in the rest of us at this time. It would be nice to see a show that focuses
on colder climates (i.e., Z-7 and lower) and people with less than a
$20,000+ budget. Some of the shows aren't bad, but when I hear "...and all
on a budget of no more than $80,000" I have to cringe.

James