Soon to be Sowing Seeds: Check the Catalog

They usually start arriving just before the new year and are often hidden beneath the end of year bills, credit card offers and unsolicited health care plans.

The annual deluge of seed and plant catalogs is in full swing and for the gardening lovers among us, they present a promise of normalcy.

Despite the sad state of world affairs, spring will come, it’s a promise. The seed catalogs are arriving.

The temperatures will warm and the earth will once again produce a bounty of produce and flowers. The seed catalogs are offering the great things of which gardening dreams are made of.

“They get me through January and February,” said Janet Ronk, one of my sisters who lives and gardens at Hesston. “If I get a rough day and things look pretty bleak, I get out the seeds catalogs and they liven me up.”

More often than not, the pages are slick with print large enough for most to read, but it’s the covers that make them irresistible to look inside.

Another sister and gardening enthusiast Donna Martino said seed catalogs have a similar affect on her.

“They’re vital for every gardener. They help create dreams, and in the cold of winter, dreams help a lot.”

The 2023 Johnny’s Select Seeds catalog does not disappoint.

The cover pulls one in with an offer of free shipping of orders of over $200 and boasts of serving market growers for the past 50 years.

But it is the “wow” bouquet of yellow sunflowers, gold marigolds, red amaranth, purple status and lime green Bells of Ireland that make it difficult to put the catalog aside.

With the goal of appealing to all, the back cover boasts easier, more uniform harvests with Johnny’s reinvigorated strains and the favorite peppers being taken to new levels.

Quite a promise, which includes a display of nine long peppers in a range of color from lightest green to orange to deepest red.

New varieties of types of annual, biennial and perennial flowers tubers and bulbs are pictured along with descriptions and growing tips. Bare root ornamentals are hugely popular with catalogs offering some of the more exotic varieties not available at local garden centers.

One Southern Cove gardener has a stack of nine 2023 catalogs and two he pitched due to lack of interest.

One of the catalogs that made the cut for brother-in-law Jeff Mellott is “Totally Tomato.” No need to say more.

“They have all the odd balls, the hard to find stuff,” he said. “I go through them and I usually order from three of them.”

The key to receiving the orders and not ending up on back order is to order early, said Janet.

“Make up your mind what you want and order in January. The stuff won’t arrive until May, but at least it should arrive,” she said.

Most seed germinators who I spoke with recommended looking into the old catalogs.

As producers make cost cuts, the new-age seed catalogs fall short of those of decades ago when descriptions and suggestions abounded.

“We have one catalog from 35 years ago,” Donna said. “It tells us everything we need to know about the seeds and plants, information often not provided today.”

Citing an example, seeds for perennial geraniums need to be soaked for a significant amount of time prior to planting and other flower seeds need cold storage for a spell before germinating.

“Not all of the catalogs provide that information and it’s things growers need to know,” she said.

From a historical perspective, the first seed catalog was offered to the public in 1612. It was from Germany and showed up at the Frankfurt Fair with the distribution of a bulb catalog.

Others growers soon caught on to the initiative and in 1875, W. Atlee Burpe, perhaps a name most familiar in the United States, began offering mail order purchase of their products.

The catalog rocketed the business. In 1915, when son David took over upon the death of his father, the catalog was the most popular worldwide, mailing out over one million catalogs annually. Up to 10,000 orders were filled daily, during peak seasons.