an internet classic for catalog addicted gardeners

I first read this website ten years ago when it was on members dot tripod... If you like reading plant catalogs, have fun... then go read the link at the bottom of the page - Plant Delights, for a really good catalog.
http://www.shadydealsnursery.com/

Woodies For Local Herbies

The Genesee County Conservation District (Michigan) has their woody plant sale page posted. Order right now and pick up in April at Cummings Center - just in time for planting.
The prices are incredible. This is one way people (like me) who live on a budget can justify buying plants. I just ordered a ~$4 Hazelnut and a 10 pack of Serviceberry shrubs for ~$9.
Local herbies - you can order various other woody herbal trees and herbal shrubs.
Think Elderberry, White Cedar, Black Cherry. They are small and bare rooted, but alive and ready to go! Planting a small woody plant may seem like a long term proposition, but there is no shock from transplanting from a nursery pot, and if the plant is in the right spot, it'll take off! I've successfully planted GCCD Ginkgos (not available this year), a Serviceberry, a Filbert, and Elderberries. Check it out:
http://www.gettrees.org/catalog/index.php

quote

"If it's rare, we want it. If it's tiny and impossible to grow, we've got to have it. If it's brown, looks dead, and has black flowers, we'll kill for it."
- Ken Druse

quote

"There are two seasonal diversions that can ease the bite of any winter.
One is the January thaw. The other is the seed catalogues."
- Hal Borland

quote

"As I write, snow is falling outside my Maine window, and indoors all around me half a hundred garden catalogs are in bloom."
- Katharine S. White

Green Thumb Sunday

Join

Even the cats are shrugging their little cat shoulders, turning around and coming back indoors...

Gardeners, Plant and Nature Lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

I'm dreaming of a green thumb! While other GTS posts are showing plants, and gardens and such things that make us so in love with our growing green world, here in Michigan we are still looking at gardening catalogues and dusting off our seed starting lights. See what we're dealing with! SNOW! and COLD! and at risk of sounding like a broken record... CABIN FEVER!
This was a few days ago, but heck, the days all run together in February.

On a brighter note, my J.L. Hudson seeds did arrive in the mailbox yesterday - I hope a few hours at 26 degrees didn't kill them. But in the same mailbox was a catalogue from FarmTek/Growers Supply... gardener's porn, to be sure. I'm going to spend the rest of the afternoon daydreaming about which greenhouse I'd buy if I won the lottery, and how I'd fit it into the backyard.

(And thank you Blogger for restoring the spell checker!)

Snowbound with Garden Catalogues - What's a girl to do?

Seeds from J.L. Hudson, Seedsman:
(Shipping= $1.50)
Arnica montana
Astragalus membranicus
Artemisia vulgaris
Ocimum sanctum
French Sorrel

Plants from Bluestone Perennials:
Free shipping because I recycled my packaging
20 percent off my order because I ordered early
(And I used my coupons that Bluestone packs with their plants.)

Daphne x transatlantica 'Summer Ice' (shrub)
Kerria 'Honshu' (shrub)
Veronica 'Waterperry' (3)
Dianthus anurensis 'Siberian Blues' (3)
Dianthus gratianopolitanus 'Bath's Pink' (3) for extension herb garden
Achillea 'Terra Cotta' (3) for extension herb garden
a free surprise three pack
and backordered from last year with coupon:
Dianthus x allwoodii 'Old Spice' (3)
Fothergilla 'Major Mt. Airy' (shrub)

Both orders combined came in at a thrifty $56.00. I'll get some of that back when I plant the 6 plants in the extension garden. I feel pretty good about this, and I'm confident that although Bluestone perennials are small, they are true to name and they arrive healthy. All it takes is patience to increase their value.

I just talked to Norma, our club president, and we're going to ask (with permission from membership) a local herb nursery to be a plant vendor at our 2008 Genesee County Herb Society Herb Symposium in April.
That should make buying plants for the extension herb garden easy and support a good cause at the same time.

Catalogue dreams

Winter is the time for catalogue dreams and I'm trying to keep from ordering everything I see right now... patience! I almost gave in and used those great coupons in my favorite catalogue that have a January deadline, but at the last minute, hung up the phone and put my list aside. Patience!
If I give in to my collecting impulse, the baby plants will be piling up on the doorstep at Late April, early May planting time, and I'll be frantically looking for the right place for each plant. I love that time of year, I've relished that frantic planting in past years, it is great fun, BUT!
#1. I'm on a budget.
#2. I'm looking to downsize our gardens in terms of maintenance.
and #3. We just had two huge trees removed from our small lot over the course of the past year and I need to relocate shade plants from those spots and re-purpose or re-design those two areas. Two sixty foot tall, 50-year old Colorado Blue Spruces with pretty bad cases of suspected Cytospera cost a pretty penny for an arborist to take down, but I am relieved to have them finally taken out.
No more constant irritation of fallen spruce needles tracked indoors. No more putting on the grandbaby's shoes to protect their tender feet before they go outdoors to play. No more sticky spruce sap on the driveway and the car. No nagging worry about a good wind knocking them over, or the threat of accident as we incrementally pruned off the diseased branches.
It will be interesting to see what changes will be forthcoming in those spots with the alteration of water and light. I won't do any immediate landscaping, other than the serendipitous plantings of some plants I already had in pots which I needed to put somewhere and I did last fall. I'll be patient and wait and see how the areas respond to their new conditions and will take time to dream about what to do.

Putting on my sober realist cap, I need to admit I have more than enough to do this spring, so my catalogue dreams will be reigned in, and instead of looking for planting spots for the dianthuses I have my heart set on, this spring I'll be standing around in the yard with bushels of hostas in my arms to transplant before the weather turns hot. Fun, anyway.

Reverie

A warm and cheery fire roars merrily
And shadows dance about the darkened room.
Beside the hearth a gardener sits and dreams
Of sunny days, of flowers in full bloom.
Some hollyhocks should tower near the fence,
Bright red. ones that the bees can't help but find.
The trellis at the gate again must wear
Blue morning glories, or the rosy kind.
To lend a bit of distance to the scene,
Close to the rear I'll plant in shades of blue:
The tall and stately larkspur, double ones?
Of course I'll put in scabiosa, too.
I couldn't do without a pansy bed?
Snapdragons make such beautiful bouquets?
Frilled zinnias and yellow marigolds
Add just the proper touch to autumn days.
The flowers grow and bloom with loveliness
Until a sound destroys the fantasy?
A burning ember falls and I must leave
My garden and my charming reverie.

by Helen Bath Swanson

a no-cost no-cal gift for my gardening friends

Nationally known gardener Ken Druse and his garden buddy Vickie Johnson have been broadcasting an enjoyable weekly radio program for some time now, and here is the link to listen online:
Real Dirt Radio

For folks who "Ipod" (in other words listen to an .mp3 player) or who can listen online, the show (and the past the archived episodes - 25 or so) is available for free from Apple's ITunes store (Google it). Just type Real Dirt into the search box in the upper corner of the ITunes store and subscribe for free from the results page.

By Sheer Coincidence, on the very week when I sent this message to our Master Gardener volunteer coordinator to share on her list-serve, Ken and Vickie were discussing herbs and the Herb Society of America.

Vickie was telling about this year's collaboration between the HSA and Park Seed, that you will see when you get your Park Seed Catalogue. (Every gardener in America gets the Park Seed Cat, right?)
As I understand it, a committee within the HSA made a list of their Top Ten Easy and Annual Herbs, and Park will be selling a promotional package (link) in coordination with the 75th Anniversary of the HSA.

I must comment on both Park Seed and the HSA. The Park Seed catalogue is how I got into growing plants from seed so many years ago. It was my winter dream book. I grew unusual things from seed back in the days when our local nurseries only carried common plants and trips to Bordines Nursery were reserved for my birthday.
The Park Seed catalogue introduced me to the world of plants and led me to look for more seed sources, down the road to J.L. Hudson Seedsman, Richter's, and more.

Obviously, a seed packet can stretch the budget, but growing plants from seed gives a depth of knowledge that buying transplants does not. Following this thought back to herbs, if you are thinking of using your plants (herbs are useful plants by definition), you simply must know their Latin name. For instance, look at the sorrel in the Park package... it is NOT the same sorrel as you will find growing in the vacant lot. Learning to look for the right variety of a plant means learning their names. Common names are not adequate for a true herbie.

I've heard some (usually inexperienced) gardeners dismiss bionomial nomenclature as high hat, for instance, but if you are an avid garden catalogue reader, you learn botanical latin as if by osmosis. And once naming plants properly takes root, you only feel silly with pronunciation, which fortunately can become an ice-breaker in conversation if handled well.
I've read that no one really knows how Latin was pronounced in Classical Roman times (any more than a typical modern American would understand spoken Middle English) and binomial nomenclature only really gained popularity with Carolus Linneaus in the 1700s, so I personally give people the benefit of the doubt when they try talking about Clematis or Yucca and hope for the same grace in return.

Pronunciation is not the point, what the person is saying about the plant is what matters. But we need to be talking about the same plant, especially if we intend to use it herbally. But enough said about the common name-botanical Latin debate, I digress. Things have really changed since the 1970s, and we have all kinds of plant and seed selection we never had before, but the Park Seed catalogue is still great for a cozy winter afternoon read.

Whenever I go through my old seed stash that I store in a Tupperware box in the back of the fridge, I'll run across those little gold foil packets from Park Seed and recall the years ago gardens when I grew this or that, reliving good memories.
My seeds might be past viability but my memories were only dormant.

And Congratulations on your 75th anniversary and Thank you to the Herb Society of America. The HSA was founded back when herbs were certainly underappreciated and almost forgotten as garden plants. The Herb Society of America was a force behind changing all of that. They showed us what a small group of committed gardeners could do.

sell one loaf and buy hyacinths

How did that ancient Persian saying go ... to paraphrase, if you are fortunate enough to have two loaves of bread, sell one and buy hyacinths to feed your soul. Something to think about.
Persia, isn't that Iran?
I was just thinking yesterday while I was yanking out the tall purple verbena (bonariensis) about what I had written about my various plant collecting manias.
I had simply forgotten the grasses. I've grown over thirty ornamental grasses, most before they became popular. By the time Art Cameron was giving his grass talks I was winding down.
Not that I could ever afford to do it (collecting) right, but I used to hit every plant sale, plant exchange, wild plant rescue, plant clearance, and seed exchange I ran across.
I was the quintessential coupon clutching mom who finagled the food budget to cover the annuals and the bulbs.
Adding a bag or two of scilla or crocus to the shopping cart every week while doing the food shopping adds up when you figure the spring bulbs start showing up in the bins in late August. This week I finally broke down (they were half off) (I'd just been exposed last week to another mad bulb planter's powerpoint at our Master Gardener meeting) (it's tradition, TRADITION! - she said in her Fiddler on the Roof voice) and added two bags of pink hyacinths to my grocery cart. Life goes on.

Oh, back to the grasses ... a little pointer to folks who are just beginning and may recognise yourself in what I've described: if your budget is tight and you need to buy small good plants just to get the start of a collection, try Bluestone Perennials Nursery mail order catalogue.
And promise me you'll recycle the packing peanuts.

what can I say, winter is getting a tad l-o-n-g

My pal Janet, wintering away in Florida, sent an e-mail reply to a message I wrote for the Herb Society bulletin board, that she is allowing me to share with you all. It might help to take our minds off the troubles of the world.**

" I see it has been very COLD there but I know you have already planted a hundred gardens in your dreams. This time of year my Dad had a stack of garden books 2ft. high next to his favorite chair and he read every one from cover to cover ( Wayside gardens was one of his favorites- is it still in operation?) He had all the new tomato seeds ordered and would start them in flats on the back porch. Wish I was half the gardener he was.
We are enjoying our winter here, It has been cooler than usual but today it was 70 so we aren't complaining.
Tell all the gals Hi for me - see you when the grass turns green.
Your friend, Janet"

Now, folks, Janet is a wonderful artistic gardener - her plants like her and grow so well for her!
Green grass, ah, the memories. I miss the smell of green grass. There's just no way to capture the greenie-ness it.
I could use sure some 70 degree sunshine about now. Yes, Wayside is still the wish book around here - what luscious photos. The lovely deep saturated purple roses on the cover makes me sigh but then turn the page and you have a two page spread of the most perfect huge happy colorful Echinacea, that just bring a joyful heart to look at them.
Wayside's catalogue has me at hello as they say.

Gardening in Michigan in February demands a heated spot for a comfy chair with a good light and a small cleared place to set the teacup or coffee mug, room for notebooks and plans, and piles and stacks of books and catalogues.
The best thing about winter dream gardens is the weeding is so easy on my back and the bugs are only good ones, like butterflies and fireflies.

**The Wayside and all the other garden catalogues come free and unsummoned in the mail, small mizpahs from the world of the living to our frozen landscapes, you could say... the Nation magazine you see on the table comes by subscription, we invite contrition and dream redemption. I will say no more.

Catalogue dreams

January is dreamtime for gardeners and I finally have time, after an
over-stressed over-scheduled December, to sit down with all of the
mail-order garden catalogues I piled in a basket next to my favorite
chair since Thanksgiving. Last week I dedicated an afternoon to
checking out the catalogues.

There are pros and cons to using catalogues.
Con: You pay for shipping. But Pro: You usually don't pay sales tax.
Con: You don't get to make an 'on the spot' evaluation of the health
of the plant as you would in a nursery. But Pro: You usually get a
better deal with catalogues, a wider choice of unusual varieties, and
good mail order nurseries want repeat business so they stand behind
their plants, in case one arrives with problems.

There are plants I'll plan to buy at local stores, just because I
know that I can get a better deal and a common variety and a sturdy
plant, but still, I'm drawn to catalogues. They are part of the
gardening tradition for good reason.
For one thing, the best catalogues are great learning resources. They
describe plants. The best ones use plantsman's language, even
botanical names. If you read the better catalogues you will begin
saying and thinking botanical names. The good catalogues will tell
you tell you how to grow individual plants, what spacing and light
and watering and other factors they require.
And the luscious color photographs spark my creative thinking. I've
planted more imaginary gardens in January than I ever will have time
or space or money enough to plant in May.

Favorites? Plenty.
However...I order from:

Bluestone. My all time favorite catalogue to see in the mailbox. Small but healthy perennial at prices that don't make choosing too difficult. Somethimes has a jump on the competition in offering new plants. Fun coupons. Discounts. Recycling deal on packaging that helps with shipping. Nice people.

Nichols. Herb and flower seeds. Hops.

Park seed. Garden porn photos, always a killer "gotta have" plant .

Burpee. Veggie seeds.
======================
A relevant quote from a popular Michigan garden guru, Janet Makunovich:

"Make your catalogues support your plans rather than drive them.
Define your plans first, by re-organizing and re-reading notes, and then go to catalogues with a purpose."