Happy Birthday to Us!

This issue marks the fifteenth anniversary of the Upstate Gardeners’ Journal. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long—I certainly don’t feel fifteen years older than when we started.

I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every advertiser, subscriber, reader, contributing writer, critic and cheerleader. We’re grateful to have learned a lot about horticulture and a little about business, and for all of the wonderful friends we’ve made over the years.

We’ve been looking back at that very first issue, and I have to say that is still makes me proud. It was only 24 pages, black and white with one spot color (green, of course), but even back then Dean’s eye for clean design set the magazine apart. Like each one since, it was painstakingly proofread by my mom, Sarah Koopus. Some of the advertisers in that very first issue are still with us today! These include the Greater Rochester Flower and Garden Show, which we now know as GardenScape, Clover Nursery and Garden Center (formerly DeVisser’s), Van Putte Gardens, Sara’s Garden Center and of course, my dad, Jeff Koopus.

In the past fifteen years we’ve grown considerably, expanded geographically, added color, put up a Web site and gone to all-digital production. Much of our growth is directly attributable to our Western New York representative, Maria Walczak. Brian Eshenaur, who has been my go-to-answer-guy since the beginning, joined up “formally” as technical editor a while back, and subscriptions management and the calendar are now under the capable supervision of Debbie Eckerson. It’s a great team. I’m very lucky.

In fifteen more years, who knows what changes technology, the weather, and life in general will bring? It’s my hope that I’ll still be publishing the Upstate Gardeners' Journal, in whatever form that takes, that you’ll still be reading it, we’ll all still love getting out and playing in the dirt, and that none of us will feel any older than when we started.