Posted on 01/20/2024 7:00:36 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
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How To Read Seed Catalogs
Get the most from your garden order
Every year in late winter to early spring new seed/plant catalogs arrive in our mailboxes or onto our favorite gardening eCommerce sites. The anticipation of new varieties and the sheer number of available cultivars fuels our collective gardening fervor.
Balancing our gardening frenzy with more prudent purchasing is a skill new and seasoned gardeners must acquire: Have fun but be practical.
Here are some insights and guidelines to help navigate the printed or online pages of your favorite seed and plant catalogs.
Learn the seed catalog’s layout
First, figure out the organization of the catalog or website. Find the index of variety categories or category pages of the company website. For example, look for important categories like non-GMO or Organic options.
In a print index you can highlight categories with the most interest that will require in-depth investigation. If you work from this process, when you get deep into the pages and become dizzied by the sheer number of splendid sounding varieties and totally forget what you were even looking for, you can always go back to the index or return to the website home page to reset. Then continue with a more focused and frugal search.
Identify the symbols
Many seed catalogs and online garden stores will use icons, symbols, or “Collections” to indicate varieties that offer reliability and valuable plant predictability. If you are not familiar with these or simply miss them, you may be overlooking dependable or superior cultivars.
Here are examples of helpful symbols or collections you might find in seed catalogs or on websites:
‘Flagship Seeds’—The “Flagship Seed Collection” are tried-and-true varieties proven in our own test gardens and from our customers’ gardens.
‘H’—indicates heirloom or heritage, open-pollinated varieties that have been in commerce for over 50 years.
‘AAS Winners’—These are All American Selections of flowers and vegetables that have been “Tested Nationally & Proven Locally” by this impartial, non-profit gardening organization. You can be assured these items are tested for their superior home garden performance by horticultural professionals from every corner of the U.S.
Review shipping schedules
Shipping schedules are important—you need to know what to expect. Planning is paramount for gardeners—you need to prepare.
If you cannot find the information you are looking for, just ask. Every eCommerce site will have a “Contact Us” tab or button, so don’t be afraid to utilize it.
Asking for shipping information is way better than being surprised by a package or worse, missing an important planting window.
More helpful tips
As with any retail business, prices may be discounted for bulk orders, or there may be “Early Bird’ specials. If these are not front and center search them out or just ask.
Maybe the company has periodic specials for free shipping. Again, it never hurts to ask if this is not immediately evident online or in the catalog. Give customer service a call.
Beginner gardeners should always search for “Starter Kits”. These will typically have all the components and tools needed for getting started, usually with savings already built in.
When shopping online, you often get pop-ups or suggestions for additional items or companion plants. While these can sometimes be annoying, understand they are always created thoughtfully by the company to be a useful tool not just a bother. If you forget to order something, that can cost more in additional shipping charges in the long run.
Know the warranty
We never want or expect to have plants fail, but we know gardening can be full of surprises. Shipping plants in dark, humid boxes to far-off destinations can be wrought with peril for live plants. Find the warranty info on the company website or catalog just in case you need to make a claim.
Read, think, dream
One of the most important tips about reading gardening catalogs is to try not to get overwhelmed by all the options and information. Seed and plant catalogs are not meant to be read cover-to-cover like a mystery novel. Instead, consider plant descriptions as mere “Mental Morsels”.
Descriptions should be read, analyzed, and mulled over—the material is more “Gideons” than “Grisham.” Read, think, and then dream about what plants might be and how to best use them to create a successful, beautiful, and bountiful garden next year.
You can’t plant EVERYTHING, can you?
https://acreagelife.com/hobby-farming/how-to-read-seed-catalogs
Top 21 FREE Seed Catalogs in 2024:
https://simplysmartgardening.com/free-seed-catalogs/
The Best Seed Catalogs for 2024:
https://www.gardenbetty.com/best-garden-seed-catalogs/
Good morning...with a foot of snow on the ground...the garden is asleep. Catalogs do help me dream. Thanks for this thread.
https://seedvilleusa.com/collections/fruit-seeds
That is mainly for northerners.
I bought some seeds at Dollar Tree here in Florida earlier this week.
The local Walmart just got in its seeds.
Some people may be interested in this:
https://hsvbg.org/2017/07/27/native-azalea-propagation-methods-of-vernon-bush/
Birds peck at my tomatoes as soon as they turn red.
I’m going to try to hide the tomato plants with ripening tomatoes with kitchen trash bags this year.
Up here I’ll shop locally at Walmart and Farm & Fleet for basic seeds.
A few weeks ago, Menard’s (like a Home Depot), already had their seeds out, and I got their already reduced price on Burpee Seed, as well as an addition 15% off. Score! :)
I bought: Spinach, Roma VF Tomato, various Lettuces, Basil (Genovvese & Lemondrop) and Marigolds, Cosmos, Zinnia and Nasturtium. Also two 16-cell flats with Jiffy Pellets for starting tomatoes and some all-around-good-for-everyone fertilizer. :)
And, Yes. I DID ‘pledge’ to not order anything from my Stack-O-Catalogs until I sorted through what’s already on hand for 2024. I’m organizing seed packets while Beau is off to a Hunter’s Expo, today.
It’s a Good Day. :)
I realize I’m a different bird, but when it’s cold outside and there’s snow on the ground, I enjoy watching the animals outside my window. Maybe I’ll hit the seed catalogs in a couple of weeks. I’m kind of enjoying this weather, though I wouldn’t mind it being a few degrees warmer.
In my effort to ‘keep it cheap’ this season, I’ll be making a bunch of these paper seed-starting pots in the coming weeks:
How to Make Recycled Newspaper Pots for Seed Starting
Oooo! Fancy ‘Origami’ seed starting pots! Video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmwyyqGuNGo
Oh yes...I have been busy rotating hummingbird feeders and keeping other feeders full of seed during our sub freezing weeks.
Looks like my gardening work area! Almost exactly, though I may have another inch or so of snow on mine!
The birds are loving our suet feeders, and the deer enjoy the neighbors salt lick. I can tell we have some critter staying warm under our deck. Footprints go straight from the woods out back to under the lattice under the deck. Gonna have to chase him/her out when it starts to thaw around here. Hope whatever it is doesn’t do too much damage. I need to learn animal snow prints. I know birds, deer, raccoons, and squirrels. This isn’t one of those. Maybe a possum?
Yes; we Baltimorons got 4”, and then another 4”. Luckily it is powdery and not too heavy to sweep and shovel. Don’t know how much longer this old gal can still do her own shoveling in heavy snow.
I do notice that since I stopped coloring my hair and let it go white, perfect strangers are trying to help me all over the place, with shopping carts, Home Depot guys taking packages to my car, neighbors doing the street sidewalk (I have to stop them from doing the walk on my property). Nothing else has changed; I’m still strong and I want to keep going and not take it too easy. I try to do what I can for my neighbors; like if I have the leaf blower out, I’ll do part of theirs that abuts my yard. I guess tne day might come when I have to limit it to sharing baked goods...
We didn’t get that much, maybe 3+ inches. It’s just terribly cold here, and I’m an ole Florida gal. I dislike single digits and below. Not my cup of tea, so to speak.
The Experimental Farm Network is proving to be this year’s most dangerous catalog for me. So much cool stuff!!!!
https://store.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/
Feb 1 my first seeds get planted.
It’ll be onions and lavender. It would be rosemary, too, but I have to wait until I find seeds locally. It’s not worth ordering them and paying shipping for just one item.
I have heard the suggestion of hanging red Christmas ornaments on the plants before they produce fruit. Then the birds go after them and find they can’t eat them and eventually quit trying because they learned that they can’t eat them.
When the actual tomatoes come in, then, the birds still think they can’t eat them.
Sounds like it could work.
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