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.

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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.

The Whatcom Seed Company

Moringa oleifera by dinesh_valke

There are so many seed catalogs whose photos show such wonderful plants that you can grow in your gardens, it almost seems too difficult to choose. Still I recently discovered yet another seed catalog that I think TheGardenLady readers will find as exciting as I did. Will this additional site add to the confusion?

This online catalog carries really unique seeds. They sell what they say are the “rare, exotic, unusual and beautiful” plant seeds. For example, if you are a hot pepper lover, they have varieties I never heard of before. They have seeds to raise trees- one has to be patient if one wants a tree, though many of the tree seeds are for bonsai lovers.

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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).

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Jonn Scheepers’ Seed-Starting Timetable

Image from John Scheeper’s Website Kitchen Garden Seeds

One of the catalogs that this GardenLady has been poring over has been the John Scheepers “Kitchen Garden Seeds” catalog. But how does a reader know when to start plants indoors to have them ready to plant outdoors when nature in your Temperature Hardiness Zones tells you it is safe to plant outdoors? One doesn’t want to begin seeds indoors too early or they may grow “leggy” and not strong enough to set outdoors. Or one might start the indoor seeds late so they wouldn’t be far enough advanced when transpanting outdoors. And do you know which seeds are best to start indoors and which are best to sow directly into the ground outdoors?

Here is the general indoor Seed- Starting Timetable for seeds from John Scheepers and the information about which seeds should be sown directly into the ground outdoors. Also, there are contact numbers for more information that you can get directly from John Scheepers.

When growing indoors, make sure you have all necessary equipment; some plants may benefit from LED grow lights.

 

When To Plant Seedlings Outdoors

April 16th: Seedlings galore by flickrich

TheGardenLady received this question about starter planting.

We have plants that we started in the window and green beans are 4 in and our corn is right behind. We have other veggies that are a little slower. We live in Olathe Kansas. When can we put them all out?

People read the directions on packages of seeds and often it says to start the seeds by first planting them indoors a certain number of weeks before the last frost date and after that last frost to transplant the seedlings outdoors. The seed companies cannot tell you when to plant seeds outdoors because they have no idea where the purchaser lives.

Each temperature zone has a different last frost date – some Temp. zones don’t always get a frost some years. And even in the same Temp. zone no one knows exactly when the last frost date will be. Where you live might be warmer because you are near the ocean or colder because of various reasons. So how are you supposed to know?  (see here)

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