Save yourself a trip to the nursery
When it's too nippy to venture outside, gardeners traditionally hole up against the winter chill or rain with a hot beverage and a stack of garden catalogs. The newest, coolest plants appear in these pages long before they show up at the local nursery. But some garden catalogs are a real snooze. Luckily, a few skip the jargon and focus on amazing, unusual plants and seeds.
The Old Guard
Burpee's company, established in 1879, and is still going strong. Ten to one, this is where your great grandmother got her flower and vegetable seeds. From abutilon to zucchini, Burpee's has everything—and not just musty old supermarket varieties. You'll find seeds for "Purple Dragon carrots, "French Breakfast" radishes, and a new "Deep Rose" coneflower. Flashy? Not really—but you don't get to be 126 without having at least a little spunk.
The Clown
Tony Avent owns Plant Delights Nursery. His mission?to make gardening a hoot; his sense of humor—admittedly silly. Avent specializes in the strange and the exotic—pitcher plants, fly traps, even several varieties of Amorphophallus, the "stinky corpse" flower. The plants introduced here are given names like Dianthus 'Heart Attack,' Disporum 'Tightwad' and Hosta 'Outhouse Delight.' Cheeky monkeys!
The Looker
White Flower Farms is the Chanel of garden catalogs. It specializes in the simple, the classic, the tried and true—as far as beauty shots go, it's the bomb(shell). The perfectly lit images inspire instant plant lust. Picture peonies stuffed full of petals and as round as a summer day is long, as well as tulips, in every color imaginable and lilies galore! Glamour pusses, every single one.
The Purist
Seed Savers Exchange is its name and promoting genetic biodiversity by saving and sharing heirloom seeds is its game. This is one of the only places to get your hands on oldies but goodies like Red Velvet Lettuce, a loose-leaf variety so purty you'll be reluctant to eat it. You can buy from the catalog or even become a member of SSE to access 11,000 rare varieties of vegetables and fruits. Have your fun and save heirloom plants from extinction in one fell swoop!
The Intellectual
Meet Dan Hinkley, the Indiana Jones of nurserymen and director of collections for Heronswood who scours the globe for rare and unusual flora. New Zealand, Costa Rica, South Africa, China—he'll cross any border. Then he goes home and fills a catalog with information, lyricism and wit. His love of plants is infectious, his knowledge vast and his descriptions vivid. Of course they had to be, because until now the catalog had (gasp!) no pictures. Never fear, the new catalog and the online version has plant images galore.
In fact, all of the catalogs listed here have an online counterpart—so ordering is fast and convenient. But while it's tempting to go straight to the websites, the ritual of cozying up with a cup of tea and catalogs—dog-eared, highlighted and doodled on—has a sensual appeal during a time of year when fingers are itching to garden. You can't plant it yet, but you can plan it, and you can dream it all winter long.
