The 2014 Catalogs!

[digitS']

First in the mailbox!

Stokes is often #1 or #2 in my seed orders. Along with Jung and Johnny, it won't take much more to fill out my offensive line . . .

Whatscookin'! Let's see: There's Aspabroc broccoli. I don't know how it can be a "famous new product in grocery stores and restaurants" unless Stokes is admitting they have been behind the 8 ball on finally getting a variety offered - I think that might be true.

Carrots in this rocky soil . . . an "improved Sweet Baby Jane type" . . ?

How do you suppose veggie varieties get their names? Beans: Bronco, Pony Express, Hickok, Frontier - they've got a new one, Oakley. Shootinist, hootinist, tootinist . ! . . no wait, we are talking beans . . .

. . . hmm . . . always the new sweet corn varieties . . . Stokes worried me a few years ago by having so few new anything. I guess that was the recession. . . Rockstar cantaloupe, well we all want to be a rockstar. Goosebumps pumpkins. Lunch Lady!! Ornamental gourds - warted! Well, how rude!

. . . Indigo Rose "cocktail size" tomato. Black tops to rose red . . . hmmm.

For the folks who like impatiens, Stokes always has a nice selection! . . . Jade sunflowers. I wonder if that is too much like the whites and doesn't hold its petals well. Sure doesn't look jade green to me but it is kind of green. Oh look at those pansies!! Yeah, this is petunia country. Should start them again in the greenhouse. They've got a new grandiflora, Limbo. Can't decide if I want petunia bedding plants, kind of in a state . . . maybe I'll give that some more thought. Some of those shorter snaps . . . dwarf delphiniums? Oops, I must have missed the salvia . . . Where did I get those big salvia in 2012?

What's in your mailbox??

digitS' . . .

[imafan26]

I like to browse through the catalogs too. I go a little more mass market and little specialty. I like Johnny's selected seeds, seed exchange, Kitazawa seed, Pepper Gal, Stokes, Thompson and Morgan, Evergreen Seeds , and Seeds of Change. I really like Park seed, they do the best job of preserving seeds in foil pouches. I look in catalogs for seeds or varieties I can't find locally. I also get some seed from the University extension seed program, and local seed packers, since those seeds are more adaptable here.

I had looked at Jung but I haven't ordered from them yet. I did see a few things I liked and maybe I will added to my long list which I have already started.

[rainbowgardener]

I just got my first seed catalog in the mail: HPS which is a bulk seeds catalog that I ordered from last year. Most of the catalogs seem to wait until the first of the year, so as not to get mixed in with all the Christmas catalogs.

I started looking at what I have and what I need. Since I did the bulk seed order at the beginning of this year, and did a lot of collecting seed, it is a shorter list than usual. I want to try a cherry tomato, which I have never done, but my "customers" always ask. I need some of the cool weather stuff and maybe a few flowers-- I haven't checked through the flower seed collection yet. But it will leave me a little room in the seed budget to try something unusual. Haven't figured out what my "new thing" for next year will be yet. Every year, I try to do at least one new thing that I've never grown before. This year it was roselle, which was great and pineapple sage, which started out great and then up and died mid-season. Might have been too wet for it, it was a very cool rainy season.

[digitS']

Imafan, Kitazawa is always the very last catalog to arrive. I think there may be the 2nd Burpee catalog in the mailbox before that one from Kitazawa shows up. Am I right in thinking that Evergreen Seeds doesn't have a paper catalog, just an online presence?

I became very upset with Evergreen several years ago when they stopped taking orders in March, I believe it was! Wow! I thought that was very unprofessional but I never had any complaints about their seed or service before then.

Are those customers, plant customers or produce customers, Rainbow'? We grow quite a few cherry tomatoes and I am sure thankful that DW joins me in picking them! The real tiny ones are too much bother altho' I really like cherry tomatoes. There had just better not be too many to pick!

Steve

[imafan26]

Most companies post on their site their last days to send out seed. Burpee usually sends a couple of catalogs with different covers. I usually use the online catalog and sometimes because I can't always decipher the shipping costs, I call in the order instead. I just have to order at like 5 a.m. my time because of the time difference. I prefer to mail or call in my order because I really don't want to have my credit card number on line. I have had viruses in my computer before and I also had my mail stolen from my mailbox so I know what it is like to live under a 7 year fraud alert.

I order some catalogs to be sent and I take it with me to the garden to share with my friends. If we can get a group order, we can get a better discount and most of us don't need 20 zucchini or 10 squash seeds so we can even split a pack.

We have a seed exchange box at the garden. So far there are only kale seeds in there, but I may add a few seeds of my own.

[rainbowgardener]

My "customers" are plant customers. I don't grow enough produce to sell or give away, but I start hundreds of plants every year from seed (around 600 this year I think) and sell the extras as a fund raiser for my church.

[KeyWee]

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (MO). Probably the most beautiful catalog out there. And they are reputable and I have had nothing but great good luck with any purchase. Catalog is free (but I would pay ) www.rareseeds.com

[imafan26]

I take care of the herb garden where I volunteer. I also grow herbs and sometimes other plants for monthly sales that we have at the garden. Some of the seeds I buy and some propagation material is collected from the gardens since we actually have a loyal following of customers who come back every month. The sale is only on the second Saturday from Feb-October. I like to try to change things up and offer something new or different every three months or so.

Because we do get the same people and I only have 1 -1/2 benches to grow the herbs for the sale, ( 1 bench is 20 ft x 4 ft), I will stop growing things when demand tapers off and either try a different variety or plant or bring back one that I haven't had for a while. Some things are always in demand and some things can only be grown seasonally. Some things don't work out, but it was worth trying something new.
I provide about 20 trays or around 400-800 plants for each sale. I sell approximately 50-60% on average but have had sales where 90% sold, but that only happened once or twice. I try to plant only one tray of one thing and sometimes only 10 of something so I don't need a lot of seed. If I have an over supply, I have to cull, and I try to avoid that kind of waste. Some herbs like mints carry over but veggies cannot.

Some people donate plants for the sale and other groups the "Sprouts", grafting, and veggie volunteers also grow vegetable and ornamental plants for the sale and grafted fruit trees. Sometimes the veggies from the demonstration gardens are harvested or someone will donate produce and it is bagged and sold as well. The proceeds of the sale and donations provide things like carts, tools, bottled water, and sometimes amendments for the garden, workday events, volunteer activities, and other things that are not funded.

Other than sales we have a harvesting group that harvests fruits and sometimes vegetables from the garden and delivers it to the food bank every two weeks. It can be one or two hundred pounds of whatever is in season.

I do not sell any produce that I grow from my home or community garden but I do share it with friends, family and neighbors and I often get produce in return so it all works out. A little seed can go a long way.