2018 Garden Catalogs

If you are a gardener who enjoys getting garden catalogs in your mailbox, here is a list of some catalogs for seeds and plants for 2018. This is not a complete list by any means. It is a list of some of the more unusual catalogs. TheGardenLady does not endorse or recommend any businesses though TheGardenLady has mentioned when she ordered from a catalog. You are on your own if you order from any catalog. This list contains just suggestions of catalogs that look interesting to this GardenLady. The fact that many of the companies have been in business for many years is a good recommendation of the quality of the companies. Note that besides plants, some catalogs sell heirloom seeds, some sell organic seeds, some sell exotic seeds. Order a bunch of catalogs and “let it snow, let it snow, let it snow” while you are snug indoors dreaming of Jonquills peeping through the snow, or having a phantom smelling of the fragrance of the English Rose ‘Graham Thomas’ voted the world’s favorite rose  or day dreaming about the taste of your ripe Cherokee purple tomato fresh off the vine.

Continue reading “2018 Garden Catalogs”

Garden Dreaming

Winter may not be the time for gardening outdoors in most of the country, but it is the time of year to start dreaming about plants and gardens by getting seed catalogs in the mail or going to flower shows or going to garden symposiums and lectures.

One website that claims they list over 500 Garden shows in the US in 2015 and also tells you where to get tickets is this.

A good website to find 70 free seed and plant catalogs is this.

Every botanical garden in the country and most of the great gardens have outstanding lectures on plants, horticulture, gardening, you name it related to your garden or indoor plants. Check their list of programs to see if there is a talk that interests you. Wikipedia has a list of the major botanical gardens and arboretums in the US. You can then go on the website of the place that interests you or find their phone number to call to see what talks or garden programs they will be having in 2015.

Happy garden dreaming.

Check out the attractive centerfold in the garden catalog

Bessera elegans by Sericea

It is that time of year again when glossy seed and plant catalogs are arriving in the mail box. So dreams begin. What is new that one’s garden must include? Which plant have I wanted for years that I will finally buy? These seed and plant catalogs are for me now what the old Sears catalog used to be when I was a child. How many of you recall the old Sears Christmas Wish Book catalog.  We kept one in our outhouse.

So now with seed and plant catalogs we have visions of flowers, vegetables and other plants, shrubs or trees dancing in our heads. One friend calls the seed catalog, Flower Porn because every flower is so lusciously, even lasciviously (I will let my dear reader look at the meaning of this word, if you do not know it.) photographed. Looking at some catalog photos, one cannot tell whether the flower is miniscule or gigantic- they all look gigantic. Some catalogs only have photos of the flowers, so one doesn’t know whether the plant is an unattractive one with a pretty flower or if the entire plant looks attractive. I know that photography is an art but when it comes to selling plants there should be truth in advertising. Let the buyers know what they are really getting, not buyer beware.

Continue reading “Check out the attractive centerfold in the garden catalog”

Thompson & Morgan: An Excellent International Seed Catalog

bug of the day by urtica

Most catalogs have a limited area they can ship seeds or plants because of all the different countries’ rules and regulations regarding seeds and plant material coming into their country. In the United States some seeds or plants cannot even be shipped into certain states.

With all the international movement of people and things, countries fear invasive plants being brought in that will take over the native habitat or they worry about diseases or insects which, while being contained in the country of origin, destroy crops in their new “adopted” country. In the US we have many such problems caused by unwelcome pests coming in and it is a major economic problem. For example, one problem is an insect called the Asian Longhorned Beetle (see photo above) which came to the United states from China and is now decimating our hardwood trees like the Maple tree, the willow tree and the Elm tree (see here).

Continue reading “Thompson & Morgan: An Excellent International Seed Catalog”

The 2012 Burpee Seed Catalog – Part II

Queen Sophia French marigold closeup by OrganicNation

In the last post, TheGardenLady discussed  some of the flower part of the Burpee Seed Catalog.   In this post, TheGardenLady will talk a little more about Burpee’s flowers, but more about their vegetables.

In the vegetable part of the catalog you will find sweet corn that is red, tiny golden colored peppers, bright orange tomatoes, white tomatoes and swiss chard that is rainbow colored – all Burpee Exclusives. Together with the regular colored vegetables and such vegetables as the purple carrots or blue potatoes, your harvest can decorate your house as fancifully as any bouquet of flowers. You have to see this catalog to believe what is being offered for this year’s garden.

Continue reading “The 2012 Burpee Seed Catalog – Part II”

The 2012 Burpee Seed Catalog – Part I

Black Cat Petunia by Burpee Gardens

When I was a little girl, the Sears Catalog was my dream/wish book. Now I am grown and I still have “dream/wish books.” Only now these books are seed and plant catalogs. How I wish I could buy every plant I see in some of these catalogs.

I just received my first dream/wish book, the Burpee Seed Catalog. Reading this catalog, I wish I owned a larger property. I wish I had more room to plant all the fabulous plants in this 2012 catalog. Are plant options getting better and better? It seems that way.

In the 2012 catalog there are so many new seed selections; but I will write more about some of the new plants later.

Continue reading “The 2012 Burpee Seed Catalog – Part I”

Gardening Catalogs

Torture by Sun Dogs & Daylilies

It is that time of year when garden catalogs start coming in the mail. I think gardeners have a problem; at least this gardener does. There are so many plants that I lust to own that I can’t read a seed catalog or go to a plant nursery and not find another plant that I want to add to my garden. So in spite of all the plants in my garden, I am definitely ordering more from some of the catalogs I have received. And some of the catalogs are giving half off the price of the order as an added allure.

But now the problem is where can I find space to plant.  Most flowering plants want sun. But I have a lot of trees. My dream is to get rid of as much lawn as possible and just fill the yard with flowers. But then I have deer… and rabbits…. Oh well, one has to dream and add to the garden.

If you are not receiving any catalogs, you can always go on line. But if you like to receive catalogs in your mailbox like I do, so that you can go over and over the items at leisure, there are many free catalogs that you can order and have mailed to you. Just remember to share your unwanted catalogs with friends and family when you have finished reading them.

Continue reading “Gardening Catalogs”