Digit, I haven't seen any yet, but I did get the CSU seedling order form this week. They've eliminated the 2 acre landowner requirement and are selling perennials as well as trees and shrubs now.

I'm with you on liking to have something in my hands. You can't curl up on the couch with a dog beside you on a computer! Well, I can't anyway. I'm too clumsy to hold a laptop and pet a dog at the same time! ;o)

I hope some catalogs show up soon. It looks like the our beautiful fall is about to come to an abrupt close. I need more to peruse!

Barb

None here yet, either.

Steve, I am shopping for a short season cantaloupe and am hoping you have a short list (one) that you think i should give a try. I had been growing something that volunteered years ago. It ripened at the very end of the season with some sweet succulent fruit. But this year the saved seed would just not germinate and what did ended up being so late that they are just now the size of baseballs.

Bonnie, I have grown Goddess from Stokes with just fine results!

One of the "tragedies" of 2014 was that I forgot to order that Goddess seed from them ... I also see that variety in Osborne, Jungs, and Harris seed catalogs! Ordered from all.

One might have thought that the light would have gone on somewhere along in there ...

Steve

I will check those beauties out. Thanks Steve. I get Jungs and Stokes catalogs, at least in the past.

The 2nd of these ... but it does say "2014-15."

From the Jung Seed Co. family of catalogs with more supplies and larger packets of seeds.

(Fantastico tomatoes now look twice as fantastico! ;o)

Steve

I get my Candy onion and Diva cucumber seeds from HPS, and often a package of petunia seeds as well. Save what I don't use in the freezer.

I've ordered most seeds already, so taking paper seed catalogues to a book exchange so others can use them.
It keeps me from being tempted by the pretty pictures.

Osborne has some varieties that may be unique to it and, quite a selection!

A word of caution: when Osborne talks of "Westside!" they aren't referring to the west side of the Rocky Mountains. They are talking about the westside of the Cascades. Still, that's a cool growing season area and may apply to some mountainous communities, elsewhere.

(Personally, I skip right over the wetside-designated varieties and there's still plenty to look at. :o)

Steve

Johnny's showed up yesterday.

~~drool~~~

Yep!

Got it yesterday -- Johnny's! I got about half way. ( I'll come back to RMG on that one, later. :o)

Pinetree preceded it! What a fine way to fill small gardens ...

Steve

I'm expecting Jung's any day. HPS showed up sometime ago. Totally Tomatoes arrived yesterday. In between was "Seed 'n' Such."

I hardly know what to think about this outfit's relationship to Jung's other than what I read in their "About Us." It makes some sense but 15 plus years is a long time for the owner to have sold his business and then come off the sidelines. It may be all good. The emphasis is on the sale of multiple packets, with discounts!

The similarities of offerings, descriptions and pictures isn't total. For example, the tomato varieties on page 13 include 5 which do not appear in Jung's "Totally Tomatoes.

It's okay with me if this guy wanted to get back in the seed game. I can imagine non-competition contracts and shared company stock but that sort of thing is common going back to Rockefeller and Morgan and Vanderbilt!

Steve
Edit: I'm coming back to edit in a different Totally Tomatoes link. Egardeners may be still good for ordering but their catalog information has gone nutz! Maybe it's the interwebs that have gone nutz ....

Here is a link that might be useful: Totally Tomatoes

This post was edited by digit on Wed, Dec 10, 14 at 12:22

I've only gotten a handful so far. SSE, Dixondale, and Potato Garden I think. I like having the catalog because its way faster. THen I can look through it, mark what I want and then order. Course, I have to be careful and wait because I change my mind nearly every day.

My only problem is, I look through the catalogs and see what I want to grow and wind up spending 60$ by the time it's all said and done. If they'd quit sending me these dam magazines, I'd be forced to grow what I have on hand instead of spending money on new stuff every year.

{{gwi:2130600}}

This is what things have looked like around the LazyBoy the last 2 days.

Steve :o)

Botanical Interests came today. New to me. Beautiful artwork.

Haha Steve! Mine get tossed all over the sofa... The wife hates it lol.

Cottonwood, Botanical Interests is a good company IMO, and a local Colorado one, too, from up in Brighton. I use their seeds frequently (just WS some of their columbine seeds yesterday). Good deal of their seeds are widely available at the garden centers in the Denver area though so if you live around here I'd save the 6 or 7 dollar shipping charge.

I have been salivating since November and most of that saliva turned into spending WWWAAAAYYYY too much money on seeds. I can't even talk about that except to say that 99% of what I purchased is heirloom and I hope to save much of my own seed at the end of the season.. **rolling eyes**

Baker Creek's "Whole Seed Catalog" is utterly amazing and inspiring, in addition to the many dozens of other beautiful catalogs distributed by the wonderful companies who provide all of us with the opportunity to grow such interesting things in our own backyards.

Cheers to an awesome 2015 in the garden!

This post was edited by NBM81 on Thu, Jan 22, 15 at 15:00

I just popped $45 for 3 different kinds of shallot seed from Territorial, places are running out but Territorial still has some in stock. Building on last years success but they didn't have the same seed variety so I'll try three different ones, (along with one kind of sweet pepper and one kind of squash that jumped into the cart at the last minute when I was distracted...

I'm now ordering from a badly dog-eared, item-circled Johnny's.

And this time, I went to my seed stash in the freezer, twice, to check that I'm not ordering something I don't have enough of already. And I have a lot, already.

Edited to add that as I'm doing this, I'm reminded of something my elderly gardening neighbor, who always had spectacular gardens, once pointed out. In the overall scheme of gardening inputs, seeds are about the least expensive component. If he wanted a row of, say, radishes, he'd buy 4-5 packets, and plant them all, then thin them out. Ending up with a beautiful, full row of properly spaced radishes, weeded as he thinned them.

Anywho, as I'm ordering seeds, in many cases if you buy the quantity one up from "packet", you get several more multiples of seed for not even twice the price.

Particularly with peppers and tomatoes, I always start 3 or 4 times the seeds for the plants I need, then I get to pick the strongest ones.

All in all, trying to insure a good start.

This post was edited by david52 on Thu, Jan 22, 15 at 18:35

There is the labor to account for if you expected a reward for the effort beyond exercise. Of course, staying healthy is priceless.

There is luck. But, if I'm not planning for success, I must be planning for failure.

Something about the shadow of the gardener once I'm out of the starting gates. The 2015 season really started with my first saved seed ... awhile back. (The King's Banquet has a table full of company. :o)

It isn't really so tough for me. I have to stay organized to provide both fresh seed and variety isolation. Having distant gardens can make that easier for something like peppers. All my varieties can be "out there," while a rotation of "breeding stock" can be here at home. I'm trying to give myself a pepper pep talk here ... Steve, you could do a better job to isolate a variety each year for seed stock.

Fedco must have a history as a co-op for seed growers. I'll link a very conservative chart on isolation distance and viability.

Steve :o)

Here is a link that might be useful: SeedSavin'

My whole elaborate pepper selection / seed saving operation was blown out of the water when I got hit with mild mottled virus last year, didn't recognize it in time, so had to throw everything out. Spread by touch, contaminated soil, tools, and seed. Bleh.

I save seed for 3 kinds of beans, peas, chard, okra, kale, basil, dill, onions, leeks, and of course tomatoes, then I'm on generation 12 or so for garlic. But some hybrids do so well, eg Diva cucumbers and Johnny's Cha Cha and Winter Sweet squash, I just buy the seed.

I'd save half my bill if I could figure out an open pollinated shallot. I could do like you and grow from bulbs, the ones from last year are certainly doing well in storage.

I have a seed saving experiment with the hybrid shallots this season, David. It may fail so I had to give some thought to admitting the attempt (but if I can't set a good example ... just consider this a fair warning ;o).

Wrestling with the catalogs, note pads and current inventory list in hand, has come to an end! I typed out all possibilities, crossed out what was too expensive and sent off the first two seed orders. Johnny's has promised shipment Monday and Osborne, by Wednesday.

And, I'm off! (But, y'all already knew that ...)
{{gwi:2130601}}

Steve :o)

Ok, if we don't hear from you, then we know it failed.....

Mine seeds are on the way as well. And so it begins....

I believe I've made my last seed order yesterday afternoon ... and, received a reward! After spending another hour or so with Kitazawa, I felt ready to go. But, it was already 1pm so first to lunch.

Lunch was a bowl of Jacob's Cattle beans with carrots, onions and parsnips all from the 2014 garden. A couple stalks of store-bought celery and those veggies roasted in the oven before going with plain water over the soaked and rinsed beans. They'd hit a boil at 12 but, as I say, it was already 1pm before they were cooked ... After lunch, which came with homemade bread, it was back to Kitazawa.

I don't know when I'd finally finished with the order but they sent a "received and thank you" at 2:41pm. At 2:47, another email: "order has shipped!" I'm not kidding! Six Minutes from the time they said they received the order, the package was in the outbox! How's that for prompt! I could learn something from those guys.

Steve

see the date? Two days!! Now if that leek etc. seed would just show up from Maine ...

Steve

My Fedco seed order arrived yesterday! And, that concludes what I feel will get me through the season ☺.

Six days from the time they said they turned the package over to the USPS! I don't remember Johnny's taking long, at all. But, that order was sent before this most recent storm in New England (both companies are in Maine).

Bad weather will slow the postal service, I've learned in the past. I'm sharing some of the seeds with a friend in the SF Bay area and will need to get them off immediately. She has even set her warm-season plants outside!!

Steve