Graduate students and student teachers alike often say they really didn’t know a topic well until they were forced to explain it out loud to others. Certainly, I can attest that I wished I had experienced classroom teaching before I took my qualifying exams decades ago rather than after, as the exercise really helped me to understand the subject better than my student notes or textbooks ever could. In a similar vein, explaining a program can help overcome both one’s insecurity as to the value of the program itself and signal the need to bolster the explanation of benefits going forward.

As I write this column, we have just concluded our ninth annual AIB educational symposium and awards program in St Louis. And I find myself preparing for yet another talk about AIB. This one will be delivered in a couple of weeks at the annual symposium of our Canadian sister organization, Communities in Bloom. And while I think I understand the AIB program as well as anyone, it is the nature of the upcoming talk, as well as the interaction I had in St. Louis a few weeks ago with several attendees, that really makes me pause to reflect on the AIB program.

At the welcoming address at the AIB Symposium, I spoke about the benefits of plants, something I often do. I reminded the folks that plants are great for any number of reasons: First, some of us make our livings with plants. For all of us, plants provide beauty and contribute to the quality of life. I noted that plants can also add to the economic viability of a community, as they add to property values, bring in tourists and shoppers, and can help to attract businesses and residents to a community. Plants can certainly help improve the environmental quality by making oxygen, sequestering carbon, reducing erosion, and helping to deal with light, wind, noise, sound and environmental pollution. And plants have all sorts of documented social and psychological benefits including helping to reduce crime, speeding recuperation, helping students focus, increasing creativity, and increasing one’s self respect.

I also encouraged folks to think about America in Bloom as a sustained effort, as opposed to simply an annual contest. We certainly are happy to have cities in our contest at any (or every) time, and we really want to increase this participation. But it is the sustained efforts of using plants in a community as a matter of habit that will generate the best returns for the community and its citizens. To that end, we’d like to congratulate the many cities which have adopted the America in Bloom ideals and made them part of the city’s culture.

Quite ironically, if you look at our list of 2010 award winners, you will see that all but one of our population category winners and all but two of the criteria award winners were veteran participants in the contest. Believe me, this was not planned. Instead, this is a testament to the benefits that continued participation provides. Things do get better with time.

These benefits admittedly sometimes do need some explanation. It is not enough to say, “Plants are great!” Indeed when I first said it from the podium on the opening night of the symposium, and indeed on many other occasions when I begin a talk the same way, I often hear a chuckle or two. But when I begin explaining why I am so passionate about plants, folks often take notice in ways they have never before contemplated. Indeed, immediately after I gave that talk, a person from one of our repeat cities asked for a copy of the presentation. She wanted to share it with her mayor who kept questioning the real value of the program for their city. (Plants offer health and economic benefits.)

In my upcoming talk, I have been asked to discuss some of our best practices. After nine contest years, we have learned a lot from our cities about the various ways they have adopted our eight judging criteria. And just as our judges share ideas with each city they visit, these cities present us with various unique ways these criteria work in their locales. At our symposia, we have a number of opportunities to share the best practices among cities. But we’ve also assembled these ideas in our Best Ideas book by population categories, so cities can learn what other cities of like size do.

After a particular idea-sharing session at this year’s AIB symposium, one participant shared that her mayor thinks the AIB contest is the best expense their city has in the entire annual city budget. Her mayor’s stance was there was no better way to have the city evaluated than by having two outsiders visit and offer their perspectives, in writing, of what was good and what could be improved. Her mayor said the city had received far less feedback from several teams of urban consultants costing much, much more, which had spent entire weeks in their town. That is certainly a great endorsement! And it serves as a great explanation as to AIB’s value.

Isn’t it time to plan to participate in next year’s America in Bloom program? It’s about “Planting Pride in Our Communities.” And so much more!