‘Poppy’ (c) David Panter, runner-up, Easton Walled Gardens category

I do like a nice bit of garden photography.

Roses at Hampton Court Flower Show – (c) Ashley Watson, winner, Roses and Sweet Peas category

It is one of the greatest ironies of garden writing life that at a time when pictures are acknowledged to be the most important factors in attracting everything from Twitter followers to magazine and book sales, a time when you’d think publishers would be falling over themselves to buy the very best and eyecatching photos they can afford, they are spending less and less money on actually buying photographs from proper photographers. They are, instead, relying on freelance writers like me to supply substandard snapshots as part of the writing ‘package’, or buying for pennies from agencies supplied by non-professionals.

Quite apart from the effect this has on the bank balances of some excellent and very talented garden photographers, it has a sadly diluting effect on the quality of photography you see in all but top-flight magazines and publishers.

So here’s to garden photography competitions, independently celebrating the excellence of a well-framed shot, a perfect pull focus, or an abstract vision of beauty: photography as art, if you like.

Dragonfly, (c) Karen Antcliffe, runner-up, Summer Life category

The biggest and best-known of them all is IGPOTY which despite it’s toe-curlingly ugly acronym produces some of the most astonishingly lovely garden photographs of them all. Many are taken by leading professionals: but there are classes for amateurs (and youngsters) too.

The RHS holds its increasingly highly-regarded garden photography competition each year with £2000 up for grabs; and there’s a flurry of smaller ones from a wide array of organisations from My Garden School (monthly) to Ness Botanic Gardens in Liverpool (you will have to visit the gardens: no great hardship).

Sweet pea and butterfly – (c) Karen Antcliffe, runner-up, Rose and Sweet Pea category

And now there’s a newcomer: the Essence of Summer photography competition, run by the lovely and tirelessly dedicated Ursula Cholmeley at Easton Walled Gardens in Lincolnshire.

They’ve just announced their first set of winners, distilled from 900 entries, some of which you can see here. You can see them in real life if you go to the garden next February, too. It may be a smaller competition but it just goes to show what a wealth of talent there is out there. And what a wonderful thing we have competitions like this to celebrate it, too.

‘Let’s Go Fly a Kite’ – overall winner