Spring won’t officially arrive until March 20, but gardeners are already at work — indoors.
As seed catalogs arrive in the mail, gardeners are looking for old favorites as well as new varieties of vegetables and flowers to plant when the weather warms up.
“Seed catalogs are a fun way to snuggle on the couch and dream about spring,” said Tom Stebbins, University of Tennessee Extension agent for Hamilton County. “The colorful catalogs inspire gardeners to go beyond their ordinary choices at the garden center.”
Stebbins said there are thousands of flower and vegetable varieties available, and hundreds of new varieties are introduced each year.
He offers the following tips on buying seeds via catalogs or online.
FIVE TIPS
1. Order catalogs online. Gardeners interested in receiving catalogs by mail can find many choices on the Internet. Before you order, check with other gardeners about some they’ve found most useful.
2. Peruse catalogs online. “I typically buy seed at my favorite garden centers, [but] I will experiment by buying seeds from paper catalogs occasionally if I see something really interesting,” Stebbins said. “Online catalogs have more information on the seeds and how to grow. Some sites even have design tools to see how your garden will look.”
3. Consider specialty catalogs. Many catalogs will carry all types of seeds and supplies for the home gardener. Others will specialize in particular varieties (houseplants, perennials) or resources (garden decor, aquascapes).
4. Try these established companies: Ferry-Morse Seed Co. (ferry-morse.com), Johnny’s Selected Seeds (johnnyseeds.com), Seed Savers Exchange (seedsavers.org), Totally Tomatoes (totallytomato.com), The Cook’s Garden (cooksgarden.com) and Vermont Bean Seed Co. (vermontbean.com).
5. Remember that some seeds are better than others. “Growing and harvesting techniques make a lot of difference, so I like to order from companies who grow their own seeds,” Stebbins said. (Some catalogs are by brokers who contract with several seed growers.)
“Seeds from local garden centers are usually good because they buy and sell what customers want,” he said.