Frequently Asked Questions

• How does the tour work?
• How do I register?
• What are the tour guidelines?
• Why is the registration so complicated?
• I registered online, but didn't receive the verification email.
• I registered online, but didn't receive any information about the tour.
• Can I change the number of people in my registration?
• How can I cancel my registration?
• Can I register a group?
• Is my garden eligible for the tour?
• Do you sell your mailing list?
• I still have a question.

You will also need good street maps for the cities in which you will be visiting gardens. Using the tour materials, you can determine which gardens you want to see and plan your route before the tour.

On the day of the tour, gardens will be open from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Visit as many, or as few, as you like, in any order that you like, during the hours that the gardens are open. Transportation to the gardens is up to you (no tour buses are provided). Please also read our guidelines for the tour.

Everyone who participates in the tour agrees to the following Waiver of Liability:

In consideration for being allowed to participate in the Going Native Garden Tour, I agree to hold harmless and indemnify the Santa Clara Valley Water District and its retailers and each member of their Boards of Directors and their officers, agents and employees, all other sponsors and supporters, Going Native Garden Tour and its organizers, garden owners, volunteers, docents, and sponsors from any and all claims, demands, damages, expenses, and any other liability for injury, death, damage, loss or liability of any kind arising out of or resulting from participation in the tour excepting claims arising out of willful misconduct or gross negligence.

When registration opens, a registration button appears on the home page labeled "Click here to register for the Going Native Garden Tour". Click on this button to display the registration form.

Online registration is a two-step process.

First, fill out the online registration form. You will need a valid email address to fill out the registration form. After filling out the form, click on the "Submit" button at the bottom of the form. This will cause an email to be sent to the email address you entered on the form. This email will contain a special link.

Second, open the email you receive from the previous step and click on the special link in that email to complete your registration. The link in the email will expire within 3 days (or when registration has closed, whichever is sooner), so be sure to act on it immediately. Click on the link in the email to confirm receipt of the email (or copy and paste the URL into your web browser). A page will appear confirming your registration, and a second email will be sent to you confirming successful registration.

Please note that you will not be registered for the tour until you have completed the second step successfully.


What are the tour guidelines?

• A hat, sunscreen, water, and comfortable walking shoes are recommended. Tour day is often sunny and warm.
• Gardens open at 10:00 a.m. and close at 4:00 p.m.
• Street parking is limited; carpool, if you can, and be prepared to walk a short distance to each garden, or move on to another garden.
• Sign the guestbook.
• Bring a camera. Ask the docent or the owner before taking any photos.
• Gardens may not have chairs or benches; be prepared to stand and walk.
• Do not clip or injure the plants in any way.
• Stay on marked paths to enjoy the plants.
• Please respect the owners' privacy. Come only on the day of the tour. Note that houses are not included in the tour.
• Plan a lunch break and pit stops. Restrooms will not be available.
• Take only one copy of any available handout.
• Turn off your cell phone or set it to vibrate only.
• Smoking is strictly forbidden.
• No strollers, pets, food, or litter, please.
• Children must be supervised at all times.

It really is not complicated. In any case, here are two very good reasons:

• The tour is staffed by volunteers, and we have no resources to handle bounced emails. The two-step process ensures that the email you provided has been entered correctly. If you misspell your email, nothing will happen, and this will let you know that you need to repeat the registration. Without the confirmation step, you would not be able to retrieve the tour materials, if your email address were misspelled. See also the next topic.

• The registration process requiring two steps is known as Closed-Loop Opt-In. Another good description of what it is can be found here.

  Closed-Loop Opt-In is really the only legitimate way for us to maintain a mailing list and send mass email that provably does not fall into the category of spam. Even so, last year we were blacklisted by AOL because some user mistakenly reported the notification about the open registration as spam. This mistake prevented over a hundred of other people with AOL addresses from being able to receive the tour information (or even to complete the registration). The two-step registration process we use is the easiest way to prove to the maintainers of any spam-related blacklists that our mail is not spam.

This could be due to many reasons. Go through the entire checklist below to make sure one of these is not causing your problem.

1. Check your mailbox and make sure it is not full. Empty your deleted items folder.
2. Send an email to yourself to verify that your can receive email.
3. Configure your spam-blocker to add goingnativegardentour.org to your list of approved senders.
4. Add the contact register@goingnativegardentour.org to your contact list. Some email programs do not allow receiving emails from unknown senders.
5. Check your "Bulk" or "Spam" folder to make sure that the verification email is not being automatically moved there.
6. Are you using an email address from your workplace or school? Some businesses and schools have additional spam-blocking procedures that reject the verification email. Retry registration using a different email address (see below).
7. Are you using an AOL email address? Verification emails have not been received by many AOL users. Make sure you follow all the steps above.
8. Are you using an Earthlink email address? Make sure you follow all the steps above. We cannot respond to automated requests like: "I apologize for this automatic reply to your email. To control spam, I now allow incoming messages only from senders I have approved beforehand. If you would like to be added to my list of approved senders, please fill out the short request form."

The tour is operated by volunteers working in their spare time, and we apologize for our inability to handle special requests or to respond to automated requests to confirm our identity.


I registered online, but didn't receive any information about the tour.

Everyone who has successfully completed the second step of the registration process has been sent an email with information how to retrieve the information about the tour. If you have not received this email, these are the possibilities that come to mind:

1. You might not have completed the second step of the registration process. Typically, about 5% of registrants complete only the first step.
    
2. You might have changed your email provider and did not notify us at register@goingnativegardentour.org. We did receive a couple of bounced emails, telling us that email used for successful registration was not a valid address any more. Do let us know if your email has changed.
    
3. It could be because of any of the reasons described above in the topic I registered online, but didn't receive the verification email. Note that after the first step, you should have received email that said something like this:
   
   Please click on the link below to complete your registration. If the link is not active, copy the entire URL (web address) and paste it into the window of your web browser. You must click through this link to be fully registered for the tour.
   
   http://www.goingnativegardentour.org/r?regid=123456789abcdef123456789xxxxxxxx
   
   Please note: This link will expire in 3 days (or when registration is closed, whichever is sooner).
   
   If you still have such email, find it, and click the link that resembles the red-colored text in the above example. Be sure that your email program did not chop it into pieces; the link should be a single line of text, and there should be 30 characters following the regid= text.
   
   Clicking the link is likely to do one of the following:
   • Tell you that the no registration was found. This happens if your registration link was mangled in the email or in the copy-and-paste. Please copy the link carefully.
   • Tell you that the registration has expired. You need to register again.
   • Take you to a page with the link to the tour information.

If registration is still open, click on the button labeled "Click here to register for the Going Native Garden Tour" on the home page. There will be a link on the registration page to change your registration information; click on that link to go to the form. Please note that you will not be able to add people to your registration after registration has closed.

If registration has closed and you want to reduce the number of people that you have registered, please send us an email: send it from the same email address that you registered with, and please include the words "Registration Change" in the subject line. Send the email to register@goingnativegardentour.org.


How can I cancel my registration?

If registration is still open, click on the button labeled "Click here to register for the Going Native Garden Tour" on the home page. There will be a link on the registration page to change your registration information or cancel your registration; click on that link to go to the form.

If registration is closed, please send us an email: send it from the email address that you registered with, and include the word "Cancel" on the subject line. Send the email to register@goingnativegardentour.org.


Can I register a group?

Yes -- follow the instructions in "How do I register?" and enter the number of people that will be in your group. If it's a group of 20 people or fewer, you can register online. For groups of more than 20 people, please follow the instructions that will be displayed on the screen.


Is my garden eligible for the tour?

If your garden contains 50% or more California native plants, and is located in Santa Clara or San Mateo counties, it may be eligible. Gardens are chosen based on several criteria, and the Garden Selection subcommittee is always looking for new gardens to showcase on the tour. We encourage you to submit your garden by filling out the Garden Submission Form, after which a member of the Garden Selection Subcommittee will contact you.

Please note that the submission deadline for the Going Native Garden Tour 2012 has already passed. Any submissions will be considered for the next tour in 2012.


Do you sell your mailing list?

No, we do not sell our mailing list, nor do we share it with anyone else. The information we collect is used only for the purpose of the Going Native Garden Tour.


I still have a question.