Today - Burpee
Yesterday - Thompson & Morgan, Territorial, Gurney's, Jung
First 2011 seed catalog!
Baker's and Seeds of Change
Burpee and Territorial yesterday. Still waiting for Gourmet International, Baker's Creek, Johnny's and a few of the others. Pinetree and Totally Tomatoes, and Fedco, came before Christmas. I agree about the cost for Territorial and Johnny's; I would order more from them if they were more reasonable!
My first Johnny's catalogue yesterday and I am in love!
I am still waiting on BC.
I don't spend a lot on seeds etc but get anxious that too many years of free favorite catalogs will go by and then I won't get one- horrors!
podster, I never saw a Johnny's catalogue before, so your comment prompted me to go to the website. They have a sale on quite a few veggie seed packets if you order online - might be worth a look.
[I think someone has already trimmed my goofy 'cat comment' for me, but I've just now removed it entirely - sorry if it messed up anyone's viewing of this thread.]
Back to business -- on Johnny's website, I also saw a great calculator for when to start various seeds. Put in your frost date and it does all the calendar calculations. I will make use of that.
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/e-PDGSeedStart.aspx?source=SeedCalcGrowGuide
This message was edited Dec 30, 2010 11:15 AM
According to Johnny's I should set onions around March 4th.
I just got through ordering sets from Dixondale. They suggest February, but I over-rode their suggestion and asked for March 6th. They sent onion sets on February 20th this spring, and many of them did not make it.
I've allowed 110 days for them to bulb-up.
I just got Johnny's today, and while it's a very attractive catalogue as usual I am noticing that along with their relatively high prices most of their offerings are hybrids; I prefer open-pollinated varieties so I can save seeds!
I got Johny's today and noticed all the hybrids. I loke OP for the same reason.
I also got Burpee and Cook's Garden today. I don't order much but it gives
me ideas of what to put on my want list to trade for.
When y'all save seeds and don't need to buy more of those seeds, what do you look for to order then?
I always find things I want to try in the catalogs but I try to trade for them instead of
ordering them.
I didn't mean to sound rude but I don't see how a seed company can put out a catalogue like Johnny's for example:
205 pages with a wide selection of seeds, in full living color, full of glowing descriptions and growing information.
I can only imagine the cost of layout, printing and shipping. I cannot see how they can continue to do business
in this manner when we don't buy because their prices are too high or they have too many hybrid seed or whatever.
Is it any wonder their prices are higher.
I realize we are 'small potatoes' in the seed industry but I can't help but think we better hold on to our old seed
catalogues for future reference because these companies cannot continue to do business like this with the accelerating costs
we are all seeing.
LiseP ~ I agree on the online seed sites. Most offer sale/clearance pricing and many have valuable information as well. I think
it will be the seed catalogue of the future.
Please tell your kitty to type shorter posts when 'laptopping' lol. I will need a wider monitor soon! 8 )
Some of us order from Johnny's. My greenhouse tomatoes, for example, Johnny's is the only place that has the variety I need.
My order is close to $400.00.
Do you people realize how much seed is needed for the farms that plant hundreds of acres of vegetables.
They buy by the 50 lb sacks & not a pkt.
As far as I am concerned, Johnny's has the best selection of varieties there is. I don't care if it is hybrid or not,
I'm looking for things that are beautiful, tasty, and produce!
Bless you Bernie! I did see your post earlier on the dollar amount of your Johnny's order.
I was thinking maybe you could double it? Maybe help their catalogue costs? LOL
Maybe make up for us slackers... just kidding. But thank you.
I have worked in retail too many years and being selfemployed can see both sides of retail business.
High price comments fuzz my fur up. If one doesn't want to pay the price for whatever reason that is their
business but when they tell me my prices are too high, I think how do they know!!?!
They need to wear my shoes for a while.
I do intend to order from Johnny's ( and a few more ) but they won't get rich on me.
If I can get the same seed from an equally reliable source at a lower price, guess what I'm going to do. Pinetree has a good idea in that their packets hold fewer seeds and also cost less - good for home gardeners. Bernie, of course it's different for you; I can understand that your needs are not like mine, and there may also be an economy of scale when you order large amounts.
I can never save all the seeds I need, and some types cross-pollinate, so that's a problem because I usually grow more than one variety of each. For instance I have to buy some more Fortex beans because they seem to be cross-pollinating with my Pelandrons, so I need a fresh start!
I buy seeds from Johnnie's because their seeds are very high quality--they are fresh and big. All seeds are not the same, even for the same varieties. I'll never forget how this was brought home to me with some belladonna seeds. I bought some from an herbal seed seller to grow plants out from so I could harvest my own seeds. Meanwhile, I bought some from a wholesale seed supplier in Germany that supplies nursery growers. THEIR seeds were about twice as big and just plain glossier looking than the ones I bought from the herb seed retailer. Then I harvested seeds from the plants I grew myself, which I had babied. My seeds were big and fat, much bigger even than the wholesaler's. Ever since then, I have looked closely at the seeds I buy. Cheap seeds are often small and elderly; they get worn and dusty. I have seen this repeatedly when I have bought from suppliers that specialize in cheap seeds. Steve Solomon mentions this in his book Gardening When It Counts, too, where he describes cheap seeds as floor sweepings. I wouldn't go that far, but if I am going to grow out a bunch of seeds, I want whatever problems I have to be of my own making,:) not because the seeds I started with are garbage.
Hybrids are not evil in themselves. Hybrid vigor, for one, is a good thing. It is what make mutts the best dogs, and its great for plants. What's more, many plants do this on their own in the wild, so there is nothing unnatural about it. Granted, some places specialize in hybrids because they want you to keep coming back to the crack pipe. Johnnie's sells a lot of hybrids not because they want you to buy the latest stupid gas-station petunia but because they have decided to focus on growers, who more often want varieties that can grow faster, bigger, have various disease resistances, are tailored for specific environments, and have more uniform germination and harvest times. Those folks are not doing seed saving. I myself do seed saving only with plants where I cannot buy the seeds wholesale and which I can then turn around and sell myself. Otherwise, most of my seed saving comes down to holding back seeds every year.
This message was edited Dec 30, 2010 11:00 AM
Cooks Garden came here- addressed to my son. LOL--what mailing list did he get on that was of interest to a seed company? That must have been a real stretch of imagination.
I do save the nicest seed catalogs until the next year one comes. Paper version is always nice for bedtime.
Got Burpee but Parks seed from Greenwood S.C. are my favorites as we used to visit their facility once a year to see the test gardens and tour the seed house. They were so accomodating.
Just got Willhite's! Rapidly becoming one of my top five seed companies.
I will say one thing for Johny's, they have more information than all the other catalogs I have gotten.
Today I got Bountiful Gardens. That is a first for me. I have not looked at it yet.