(10/30/25) BATON ROUGE, La. — As the new year approaches, the LSU AgCenter will be releasing the Get It Growing calendar for 2026. For another year, gardeners and plant lovers can have information on Louisiana gardening and take in the magnificent pictures.

Since 2005, the AgCenter has released a calendar that provides new photos of local flowers, trees and other plants, said Elma Sue McCallum, of AgCenter Communications.

“The LSU AgCenter 2026 Get It Growing Calendar is a perennial favorite for Louisiana gardeners,” said McCallum, who serves as the calendar’s coordinator. “It features beautiful photos from Louisiana photographers and gardening lovers, helpful monthly tips, gardening terms and much more. It makes a great gift just in time for the holidays.”

The calendar provides monthly tips that will help both new gardeners and experienced ones. It also comes with a special section on AgCenter programs for home gardeners with advice from AgCenter horticulturist Jason Stagg.

Each calendar contains a list of Louisiana Super Plants, an AgCenter designation given to attractive, resilient plants that perform well in Louisiana’s climate. It also includes helpful information for projects, such as when to plant seeds for Halloween pumpkins.

In addition to monthly gardening tips, the full-color, 32-page, 9-by-12-inch calendar includes a guide to gardening resources from the LSU AgCenter.

Beyond just helpful gardening tips, the calendar offers a list of AgCenter lawn and garden publications, gardening terms and definitions and information on the AgCenter Louisiana Master Gardener Program, the AgCenter Plant Diagnostic Clinic and the AgCenter Soil Testing and Plant Analysis Lab.

Photographs for the calendar are chosen each year through a public call for entries. The 2026 calendar winners include James Baker, of Lafayette; Brenna Barzenick, of Hammond; Trudy Campbell, of Covington; Melissa DeJean, of Denham Springs; Claudia Husseneder, of St. Gabriel; Randy LaBauve, of Baton Rouge; Therese Lavergne, of Church Point; Samantha Morgan, of Baton Rouge; Bianca Owens, of Walker; Charles Paxton, of West Monroe; Anna Taylor Poe, of Natchitoches; Rachel Shaddox, of Campti; Vivian Shoultz, of Mandeville; Rhoda Stevenson, of Campti; Ann Taylor, of Metairie; Lisa Tortorich, of River Ridge; Malorey Uzee, of Baton Rouge; and Audrey Woolsey, of Monroe.

The Get It Growing calendar sells for $13.95. It is available at garden centers statewide and online at www.LSUAgCenter.com/OnlineStore. Sample photos and more information are available on the website.

The calendar is created as part of the AgCenter’s Get It Growing educational campaign for home lawns and gardens.

Sunflowers (Helianthus annus) are available in a vast range of sizes and colors, bringing smiles to faces wherever they are planted. Usually grown by seed, multiple plantings can be made throughout the warm season as long as the plants can mature before first frost. The flowers provide nectar for pollinators and butterflies. Photo by James Baker, of Lafayette

As temperatures begin cooling in October, morning fog can create some beautiful landscape art. Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) trees, a Louisiana Super Plant, will begin to drop needles that have turned a striking, rusty brown. Live oaks (Quercus virginiana), however, will continue to hold onto their leaves until late winter or early spring. Photo by Brenna Barzenick, of Hammond

Plumeria (Plumeria spp.) is one of the most popular flowers used to make Hawaiian leis. Wonderfully fragrant, these tropical plants can easily be grown outdoors in Louisiana during warm weather. Photo by Bianca Owens, of Walker

Cephalanthus occidentalis is commonly known as buttonbush. These native, deciduous plants usually appear as large, multi-stemmed shrubs. They love wet or damp soils and full sun, so they are often found along the edge of bodies of water. The unique flowers look like tiny Sputnik satellites and are a magnet for pollinators and butterflies. Photo by Charles Paxton, of West Monroe

Rudbeckias (Rudbeckia spp.) and guara (Oenothera lindheimeri) provide sunny, spring gardens with vertical interest, movement and, most importantly, plenty of forage for pollinators. Both of these plants are native, meaning they are well adapted to our climate, and both are perennials. Photo by Samantha Morgan, of Baton Rouge