Like many freelance journalists, I receive a lot of “goodies” in the mail. I love it when garden, design, and plant books arrive for me to review. And of course, I appreciate “plant booty” — those boxes sent by growers who want me to trial their new introductions (although it’s uncanny: the boxes of tiny annuals, perennials and the like inevitably arrive on the hottest day of the week when I’m away from home, making it very hard to quickly rehydrate and revive the contents once I return!).

Press kits abound (although many are now sent electronically), and since I belong to countless horticultural societies, I also receive colorful monthly newsletters. Hand-written notes from friends are highly valued, as are checks from publishers (yeah!).

Today, as I was trying to organize the piles in my office, I pulled out a few of the items in my In-Box that caught my attention. Here’s a list:

Personal notes come first:

My friend and former co-author Mary Robson, a faithful letter-writer, jotter of quick notes, and all-around dear friend, dropped me a note with a nice little story: “. . . an incident you will appreciate,” (she wrote). “I stayed over at a friend’s home, in their garden-shed turned guest house. And what should be on the bedside table – of course, your book. She bought it to show guests! Warm thoughts, Mary.” [Oh, I love it. . . Stylish Sheds as bedside table reading! Thanks for the imagery, Mary]

With a SUNFLOWER STAMP, no less, Julie Schoenfeld, she of my auction-planning days, sent me a lovely hand-written note on letterpress stationary from Snow & Graham. We recently enjoyed a Malibu breakfast catch-up/gab when Julie brought her son from Seattle to Cali so he could attend the same summer camp of her childhood. As a memento of our sunflower obsession (see my “Stamps for the Gardener” post on August 21st), Julie tucked a book of the current sunflower postage stamps inside her note. She knows I’ll use them! And her sweet sentiment cheered me up with wonderful memories.

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