heart of southern life, the

Dear Friend,

I take great pleasure each month in seeing how many creative ideas and beautiful looks we can produce for the magazine using readily available things. Our March issue, in fact, is a good example. By simply stacking two pots and adding single-color pansies and wheat grass, we created a mock topiary-which required a lot less work. (For step-by-step instructions, see page 60.) The cover is only one example of the creativity that Associate Garden Editor Ellen Ruoff Riley, Cover Art Director Jon Thompson, and Senior Photographer Joseph De Sciose bring to our pages each month. I hope you'll find lots of other inspiration in this and every issue.

Last year, I went to Dallas at the end of March. During my trip, Mary Brinegar, president and CEO of the Dallas Arboretum, and Dave Forehand, vice president of gardens and visitor services, gave a group of us an amazing tour of their facility and the Dallas Blooms festival. The display about knocked me over. All I could say was "wow!" The photos you see on pages 94-95 represent only a small portion of the 400,000 spring bulbs that bloom there each year. They inspired me to ask Senior Writer Steve Bender to tap into the arboretum's brain trust to learn about growing tulips. His story and the glorious photos will make you want to plant tulip bulbs this fall, but if you are in the Dallas area between March 10 and April 17, definitely put the arboretum on your must-visit list.

Believe me, this is not an all garden issue, and I do hope that you enjoy our salute to the season throughout the magazine. Our editors and photographers have produced a wide variety of stories in Travel, Homes, and Foods, too, all of which lend a touch of warmth to the pages. Happy March.

Best regards,

John Alex Floyd, Jr., Editor

Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Mar 2006
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