Gardening Catalogs

[country freedom]

If you've received 3 or more catalogs, how do you decide who to order from, or, do you order a little from all?

 

[Rosalind]

I look up their ratings on Dave's Garden or else ask someone I know if they are good. This helps a lot--some companies look awesome on paper and then send you a tiny little stick that is already damping off from being improperly packed, or they substitute something without asking. Some won't ship if you don't order at a very specific time, or hold your order, but they don't tell you anywhere and you're left wondering where your order is.

It seems a pretty good way to do things. I found out ahead of time that one lilac place I was going to order from is not very good at all; the guy who ran it was even closing it down to get another job, but he never took his website down, so if you were just looking on the internet you'd never know.

I also try to order only from places that offer cold storage or ship according to local USDA zones. The last time I ordered from a company in California that did NOT offer cold storage, only one plant out of seven survived a chilly Massachusetts spring. A waste of $150.

 

[jc12551]

I use the catalogs to choose what I want. Then I buy local what I can and order from the catalog that carries everything else for the best price.

 

[digitS']

Here's the "Garden Watch Dog" at Dave's Garden that Rosalind mentioned. You gotta get real specific with the names if you use the search button.

These are customer ratings but the Watch Dog people do a good job of keeping track of things so the ratings don't get skewed or that some company people don't pack the ballot box.

Gotta watch the shipping costs when you only order a few things. Your shipping can end up higher than the cost of the products. Still, I value those catalogs and want 'em ALL to show up every Winter. Helps keep me sane !

Steve

 

[Reinbeau]

I have at least 22 catalogs to browse through this season. I'll do my usual run through the Johnny's catalog, then search through the others for better prices and/or anything unusual that catches my eye that isn't offered by Johnny's. I usually buy from three or four each year.

 

[patandchickens]

I won't order plants (as opposed to seed) unless I can snoop around and assure myself that others have had primarily good experiences with the company.

Other than that, my usual m.o. is to decide what relatively specialized seeds I really HAVE to order this year (by specialized I mean things listed by only one or a couple of sources), and then try to compose the rest of my order(s) so that I am ordering from as few companies as possible. This year I've got it down to just Thompson&Morgan and (fairly randomly) William Dam, but only because I'm getting my mother to mail up some extra Early Girl seeds as well as some of Pinetree's lettuce mix.

One reason I like reading lotsa catalogs, though, is that you can often kinda triangulate on what an unfamiliar plant is REALLY like. While some sources just 'cut and paste' the same photos or descriptions, often you can get slightly different takes on the same variety. For instance, you may get lucky and find a source that describes a particular plant as somewhat less strong-growing or trickier to germinate, or a bush as lower and more spreading than other varieties, or you may see a more realistic-looking photo, or discover anomalies in alleged hardiness, that can be really useful in deciding whether or not you actually want to try the plant.


Pat

 

[digitS']

Pat how close are you to Niagara Falls??

Stokes has their retail store at Thorold, Ontario.

(Probably shouldn't tell you this since you rubbed our noses in the fact that you live 10 minutes from Richters Herbs !!

Steve

 

[patandchickens]

Enh, I'm almost 2 hours from Niagara and it's an obnoxious drive (have to go thru Toronto etc). So I am not going down there for seeds (I do drive almost all the way there in early May for the Royal Botanical Garden plant sale and to hit some local nurseries, but of course that's too late to buy seeds). I did not know Stokes had an over-the-counter retail store though... thanks for pointing it out!

There are a Whole Lot of big growers and mail order outfits in the Hamilton-Guelph-Waterloo area just N of there. It's the 'banana belt' of the province <g>. My favorite does more or less wholesale growing (mostly shrubs, some trees and perennials) yet is open to the public for retail sales. Their pricing scheme is as follows: everything (all in 1- and 2-gallon pots, mostly big bushy plants) is $4.99 Hardly anything has labels, and there are no 'cultural information' signs to speak of, but if you know what you are looking at and they happen to have things you can use (esp. if you can deal with doubt about cultivar identity), you can sometimes score terrific deals. Got some 2' high white spruces, $4.99 each, and planted a hedge full of all kinds of nice lilac cultivars.

I am insanely jealous of y'all in the States however, because there are a good number of specialist companies that do mailorder that just have no Canadian analog. Like for instance the rhododendron-and-obscure-rare-woody-plants guy in NJ, whose name I forget but I drool over their catalog every time I visit my sister. Someone here can probably recall their name - do you know, Reinbeau?

Pat

 

[Hencackle]

Hi Rosalind & DigitS'---thanks for mentioning that Garden Watch Dog database. I was wondering about Select Seeds Antique Flowers and when I peeked at Garden Watch it showed that this company was in the top 30. I got this catalog a couple of years ago and held onto it, waiting until I had the money to splurge on unusual flower seeds.

 

[country freedom]

Thanks to everyone's responses. Now I don't feel overwelmed by all the catalogs I've received. I will also look at Dave's Garden. You all help me out alot.