By this time in January, I have a collection of catalogues from various seed companies complete with colour photographs of perfectly grown vegetables and flowers. It’s enough to make you want them all – just the way they look in the pictures.
The catalogues arrive well before seeds are in the stores, to get avid gardeners planning and ordering early. Other gardeners prefer to pick up their seeds at a local store closer to planting time. Either purchasing method has its advantages.
Picking up seeds at the store is quick and easy, and can be part of your regular shopping trip. No need to spend time deciding which variety of carrots to choose as there are only two or three selections.
If you start your own flower seeds the selection is a little wider than what will be available as bedding plants. For a small garden or a few planters local seed selection is fine and cheaper than ordering from catalogues.
Perusing catalogues can be enjoyable if you have the time and inclination, but ordering from catalogues can be expensive if you pay shipping charges. Some offer free shipping depending on a minimum purchase, while others offer free shipping for early orders. There are some advantages to ordering from catalogues or online.
Many catalogues will let you know how many seeds are in a packet. Too many seeds for your requirements are a waste, unless the seeds are viable for more than one season. Smaller packets are generally cheaper. A good catalogue will list “days to maturity”, information that is very important in our region. Short season varieties of vegetables are more likely to produce a good harvest before frost, and you want your flowers to bloom for most of the summer.
The biggest advantage of catalogues is the great variety offered. There can be dozens of varieties of any vegetable, with descriptions of growth habit, flavour, whether it freezes well, can tolerate heat or cold, etc.
If you like to try something different, like purple cauliflower or soybeans, catalogues will provide some interesting selections. Catalogues and seed packets often include more complete seeding and growing instructions than the packets at the store, depending on the company.
There are many seed catalogues online, and a search will find them. Some that I have found useful for short season varieties, good selection and good information are: Vesey’s Seeds, www.veseys.com, William Dam Seeds, www.damseeds.ca, Stokes Seeds, www.stokeseeds.com, T&T Seeds www.ttseeds.com.
There are many others. One catalogue with good prices is not online yet, but hopes to be soon. You can check it out at www.lindenbergseeds.ca. These sites are fun to check out even if you don’t shop online. You can also order print catalogues from them.
Horticulturalist Mary Wright has lived in Denare Beach for over 20 years. She shares her passion for gardening with Flin Flon readers in The Reminder.
