Like everyone else, gardeners soon learned to consider the Internet an indispensable resource. But when it comes to shopping for seeds, old-fashioned catalogs still hold sway.
There’s something delicious about the way seed catalogs fit so nicely into winter–those bright images of summer’s promise, or, at least, summer’s hope, arriving when only dreams of gardening are possible.
By contrast, surfing the Net for seed sources is a slow, painstaking process that can take one down circuitous and dead-end paths. Like gardening itself, the task of selecting and buying seeds requires thought and patience. But, at today’s stage of the technology anyway, it’s a lot slower via computer than by catalog.
The avid gardener might receive 20 catalogs between November and February; many more than that are out there. The selection within those hundreds of pages is enormous, and though some Web sites can match catalogs in terms of listings and pictures, a printed catalog speaks to the brain in a more comforting way than a scrolling screen whose boundaries are not immediately understood.
The Net can help
Not that the Internet has no role in ordering or learning about seeds. It functions as an adjunct to mail-order catalogs, in effect becoming another catalog. Online, the gardener might find a plant or variety that is rare or elusive. Using a search engine, the gardener can locate endless information and resource material. It can lead to unusual catalogs that would not otherwise cross one’s path.
The Internet is also the place to sign up for a real catalog, to order online (though not all seed companies have that capability) and to review catalogs that haven’t yet arrived.
Some mail-order companies have done a better job than others of producing electronic versions. The best are those that mimic their print versions and include all available varieties rather than just top sellers. Burpee (www.burpee.com) and Park’s (www.parkseed. com) are two Web sites that are as accessible as their catalogs and feature their full range of varieties.
Internet only
Some seed companies transact business only through the Internet. Renee’s Garden, for example, run by the estimable Renee Shepherd, is only available to the consumer through its Web site (www.reneesgarden.com). Gardeners will remember Renee Shepherd as the inventive, innovative seed purveyor, gardener (and cook) who started Shepherd’s Garden Seeds and then, several years ago, sold it to White Flower Farm.
Shepherd’s Seeds has lost much of the panache it enjoyed under Renee Shepherd’s guidance, but Renee’s Garden is the place to find it again. The site is enjoyable, and the selection is worth the effort.
Another such site comes out of Vancouver, but features seeds from all over the world. Called eSeeds.com, it may not fulfill its promise of replacing catalog shopping, but it does give gardeners access to seed and bulb purveyors all at one site. The attractive site is negotiated easily, with an admirable selection and great information on cultivation and gardening tips.
If the Internet can’t yet match the splendid sensation of delivering oneself up completely to catalog dreams of the upcoming garden, it does offer some pretty great resources that are sure to expand and help shape the dream into reality. Garden–and gardener–will hardly suffer from a little browsing, online as well as on the couch.
