Carolyn’s Shade Gardens 2012 Calendar
Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a retail nursery located in Bryn Mawr, PA, specializing in showy, colorful, and unusual plants for shade. The only plants that we ship are snowdrops within the US. For catalogues and announcements of local events, please send your full name, mailing address, and cell number to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com and indicate whether you are interested in snowdrops, hellebores, and/or hostas. Click here to get to the home page of our website for catalogues and information about our nursery and to subscribe to our blog.
Calendar Cover
Carolyn’s Shade Gardens 2012 Calendar $21.95
11” x 17”, ships in 3 to 5 business days, available worldwide
To read reviews and to order, click here.
20% off through 2/5/12 with code SHADOWHOG
Just in time for the holidays, I have created the first ever Carolyn’s Shade Gardens Calendar. Using all my own photographs, each month is illustrated with a single photo or a collage that is seasonally appropriate. All your favorites are there: snowdrops, hellebores, primroses, hostas, native plants, and much more. Many of the photos have appeared on my blog and received numerous compliments. Now they are gathered together in a beautifully printed calendar.
February
Having seen self-published calendars before, I was stunned by the excellent quality of the printing. The printer uses high quality, heavy stock, semi-gloss paper. The photos are so clear that they look better in print than on my computer. I scanned the cover and the February and October collages for this post to give you an idea of what to expect, but I don’t want to ruin the surprise of turning each page. I am forever indebted to Clare at Curbstone Valley Farm for recommending the publisher and helping me through the process.
October
I hope you will want to order the calendar for yourself, but it would also make a great holiday gift for friends and family, hostess present, or gift for that someone who has everything. Please send a link to this post to anyone who might be interested in an easy holiday present. Let me know what you think of the calendar when you receive it or better yet write a review on the calendar site. Your feedback is always important to me.
This is a print-to-order calendar so you must place your order directly with the publisher by clicking here.
For aesthetic reasons, I didn’t put captions in, but here is a list for everyone who has asked for them:
Cover: Carolyn’s Shade Gardens main terrace
January: snowdrops ‘Potter’s Prelude’ (Galanthus elwesii var. monstictus ‘Potter’s Prelude’)
February: un-named hybrid hellebores (Helleborus x hybridus)
March: checkered-lily (Fritillaria meleagris); white checkered lily (F. m. ‘Alba’); fumewort (Corydalis solida)
April: glory-of-the-snow (Chionodoxa forbesii) with ‘Caramel’ coralbells (Heuchera x villosa ‘Carmel’) left; ‘Little Princess’ tulip with white stonecrop (Sedum album) right
May: cinnamon fern (Osmunda cinnamomea) left; Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica) and Celandine poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum) right
June: primrose ‘Cherry Pinwheels’ (Primula x polyantha ‘Cherry Pinwheels’)
July: ‘Teeny-weeny Bikini’ hosta left, ‘Holy Mouse Ears’ hosta top, Hosta tokudama species bottom
August: stone chair at Chanticleer with climbing hydrangea (H. anomala subsp. petiolaris)
September: ‘Early Amethyst’ beautyberry (Callicarpa dichotoma ‘Early Amethyst)
October: Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quenquefolia) left, northern sea oats (Chasmanthium latifolium) top, oakleaf hydrangea (H. quercifolia) bottom
November: ‘Blue Angel’ hosta with fall-blooming hardy cyclamen (C. hederifolium)
December: tea viburnum (V. setigerum) bottom, my gargoyle mascot left, Carolyn’s Shade Gardens carriage house top
Thanks, Carolyn
Notes: Every word that appears in orange on my blog is a link that you can click for more information. If you want to return to my blog’s homepage to access the sidebar information (catalogues, previous articles, etc.) or to subscribe to my blog, just click here.
CAROLYN'S SHADE GARDENS 
December 4, 2011 at 3:57 pm
ohh can’t wait…it looks fabulous…wanted to do one of my own so may email you….how are you getting your blog to snow???
December 4, 2011 at 6:17 pm
Donna, Please feel free to email me about the calendar. Last year something popped up and asked if I wanted snow. I said yes and it just started automatically this year. Click Settings in the left sidebar in your dashboard and scroll to the bottom. Click the box for snow until 1/4. Carolyn
December 4, 2011 at 5:47 pm
How lovely, Carolyn … good luck!
December 4, 2011 at 6:20 pm
Thanks, Joey. I hope I do sell a lot because of all the work I put into the calendar and how well it came out. Carolyn
December 4, 2011 at 6:41 pm
Carolyn, what a lovely idea! Have you considered asking the printer for a version for us in the Southern Hemisphere? Photos of snow in February just seem wrong, and of course the blooms are all at the opposite times of the year too.
December 4, 2011 at 8:21 pm
Lyn, I don’t even know if the printer ships to Australia, but they will do events/important dates to suit various countries. You are right—if I was in the southern hemisphere I would have to shuffle all the photos. Maybe you should make a calendar for the half a world I don’t cover :-). Carolyn
December 5, 2011 at 10:15 pm
It probably doesn’t matter to non-gardeners. I know they sell a lot of calendars here with the seasons all wrong. I’m happy to share the world equally with you, Carolyn, but I suspect I will have to get better at photography first!
I hope your calendar sells well.
December 4, 2011 at 7:40 pm
I came to visit because of the comment you left on my blog. I was pretty sure there would be a post about your calendar. It really is nice Carolyn and it looks like they did a fine job with your beautiful photos. Hope you are successful with it as it looks to make a nice gift. My friend and I discussed calendars but she said printing costs are generally too high, but she has a source that will do smaller runs that is more cost efficient. I have produced my own calendars for clients in the past and sent them as Christmas gifts. Producing them myself allowed all the graphics to be controlled by me which was the part I most enjoy doing. This company does do a nice product and looks like a good source that Clare found. Much luck to you in the sale of your calendar.
December 4, 2011 at 8:25 pm
Donna, Thanks for the encouragement. When you come here I will have to show you the amazing quality of the photographic prints in person. You really have to see it to believe it. One of my customers called it “high defintion” (she wrote a review on the site) and I have to agree. However, you are also right that the printing costs are very high so I need to sell a lot to make this worthwhile. Carolyn
December 4, 2011 at 8:29 pm
The photos that you chose look so pretty. I know the entire calendar must be superb. Good luck on the calendar sales. I bet each of your customers will want one.
December 4, 2011 at 8:31 pm
Holley, It would be wonderful if half my customers purchased a calendar. Thanks for your kind words. Carolyn
December 4, 2011 at 9:06 pm
Great looking calendar, this is a wonderful idea.
December 4, 2011 at 9:08 pm
Marguerite, Putting it together was a painful learning experience, but the finished product was worth it. Carolyn
December 4, 2011 at 10:31 pm
Congratulations on this endeavor. It looks beautiful. Good luck!
December 5, 2011 at 3:31 am
Your photos are always superb so I’m sure the calendar is wonderful, good luck with your sales
December 5, 2011 at 4:46 am
It looks amazing Carolyn, good luck with it. I will have to think of ideas like this to make retirement a little more comfortable.
December 5, 2011 at 5:11 am
it looks like a beautiful calendar Carolyn, I especially like October, wish you every success with it, Frances
December 5, 2011 at 9:39 am
it looks nice calendar with nice photos,good luck
December 5, 2011 at 2:04 pm
I will add my name to the the list of those who consider the photos for your calendar to be beautiful.
December 5, 2011 at 3:00 pm
Allan, It is always nice to have you visit and your seal of approval is much appreciated. Carolyn
December 5, 2011 at 4:16 pm
Looks beautiful Carolyn – congratulations.
December 5, 2011 at 4:31 pm
Congrats! Looks beautiful.
December 6, 2011 at 2:16 am
How beautiful Carolyn, I love it to have my calendar too, but that is too far out yet. LOL. Good luck.
December 6, 2011 at 8:44 am
The garden blogging world is such a kind and supportive place. Thanks for all the good wishes for my calendar. I wish you could all see it in print. Carolyn
December 6, 2011 at 3:30 pm
Well I couldn’t resist – I bought Claire’s too, but then decided I actually do need another for the office so I’ve just bought yours too. So know that at least one of your calendars will be gracing a wall in sunny South Africa very soon 🙂
December 6, 2011 at 4:05 pm
Christine, You don’t know how happy that makes me. I love the idea of you seeing Carolyn’s Shade Gardens in print all year. I wasn’t even sure that the calendar was available outside the U.S. I would love to know the details of the shipping. If I do this again next year, I will have to do a better job of figuring it all out. Thanks so much—you have made my day. Carolyn
December 6, 2011 at 4:51 pm
Hi Carolyn – I’ve e-mailed you the exact details, but just for the record, I was impressed with Lulu.com – it was quick and easy to order. They offered 3 shipping options: standard, priority or express mail (at a fee of course), but that is pretty standard – we pay Amazon.com for shipping too. So I would imagine its the same for anyone in Australia or the UK who want to order – Easy and quick. I was impressed with the process (I buy a lot from the USA and am not that easily impressed :). I think you chose wisely to do it through Lulu.
Best of luck with the calendar – I am sure you will sell plenty!
December 6, 2011 at 6:10 pm
Thanks, Christine. All my international blogging buddies can have a Carolyn’s Shade Gardens calendar on their wall too :-). Carolyn
December 7, 2011 at 12:15 am
Recipients of your calendar are sure to be pleased! It looks gorgeous!
December 8, 2011 at 8:17 am
Wow! What a great idea…love it! x
December 8, 2011 at 4:20 pm
I was very happy to help Carolyn. Sorry I disappeared at the end of this project, the storm that ripped through here last week was unbelievable, and severed our phone/internet. So glad it all turned out well without me though 😉 Aren’t the calendars gorgeous? I’ve used a number of self-publishers, and these calendars are by far of the best quality. I can’t wait to see yours!
December 8, 2011 at 4:54 pm
Clare, Thanks again for your help. You still need to email me your address. Carolyn
December 11, 2011 at 1:02 pm
Bet it’s an absolute stunner Carolyn as half the time I pop over to your blog just to ogle your shady blooms. Wishing you large sales, for now and when you next open your nursery.
Laura
p.s. have just ordered one 😉
December 11, 2011 at 1:10 pm
Laura, I am so excited to think of my calendar in Christine’s office in South Africa and now in your London home. The garden blogging world is a magical place. Thank you, Carolyn
December 11, 2011 at 5:32 pm
we garden bloggers are like original plant hunters – truly international. Looking forward to having your plants on my wall.