George's Current Ramblings and Readlings

10 Favorite Garden Catalogs

January 17th, 2012

    I like to shop locally and support Pennsylvania small businesses whenever possible. But sometimes I’m looking for offbeat stuff or unusual varieties that I can only get online or via mail-order.

Five of my favorite seed catalogs.

   An excellent web site for consumer reviews of these and just about all other mail-order companies is the Dave’s Garden website. It has a “Garden Watchdog” service with ratings and reviews that’s akin to a Better Business Bureau for gardening.

   Here are 10 of my favorite mail-order companies (and by the way, I don’t get any commissions, kickbacks, or other earnings by mentioning them):

   1.) Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Mansfield, Missouri. 417-924-8917.

   This down-home company has become THE source for all things heirloom. The flagship seed catalog is loaded not only with great old-time, non-Frankenfood varieties (the ‘Ali Baba’ watermelon from Iraq, the alien-looking ‘Reisetomate’ tomato, the variegated ‘Fish’ hot pepper) but some edible oddities you’ve probably never seen, like the Chinese red noodle bean, the jelly melon (an African cucumber-like fruit) and the ‘Rat’s Tail’ radish (has edible seed pods).

   The paper catalog is more of a book with the best photography of any catalog out there. It’s earned a top spot on the prestigious Dave’s Garden Watchdog Top 30 of all companies.

   2.) Pinetree Garden Seeds, New Gloucester, Maine. 207-926-3400.

   This has been one of my main go-to seed companies for years. What I especially like is the family-owned company specializes in smaller packets at lower prices, which is ideal for experimenters and those with small gardens.

   The selection isn’t as broad as some catalogs, but the service is good, and the seeds are good. It’ll hold down your costs, and give you better quality than the dirt-cheap, poor-quality choices sometimes found at bargain outlets. Pinetree offers both edibles and flowers.

   3.) J.W. Jung Seed Co., Randolph, Wisconsin. 800-297-3123.

   This one’s a mainstream choice and from the same company that runs the Totally Tomatoes, Vermont Bean Seed, and R.H. Shumway Seeds catalogs. It’s been another of my long-time go-to seed suppliers for its good seeds, good selection, and decent prices (although higher lately than they used to be).

   Jung offers a mix of vegetables and flowers and does a particularly good job of picking out the latest and greatest varieties. I’ve always received what I ordered quickly.

Confused Plants

January 10th, 2012

   I was out inspecting the botanical troops over the weekend, and two things struck me.

Helleborus 'HGC Pink Frost' blooming already.

   One is that the landscape is unusually colorful for this time of year.

   And second is that some of my plants are doing odd things they’re not supposed to be doing in early January.

   A nice surprise was the beautiful pink flower – just one – on my new helleborus (Lenten rose) ‘HGC Pink Frost.’ There it was – open in full glory among its still green and glossy foot-tall foliage.

   Helleborus are normally the first perennials to open for the season, but I didn’t think we were there yet. A January-blooming perennial is strange, but I’ll take it.

   Then on the opposite, western side of the house, I noticed a big, fat flower bud on my ‘Perfume Delight’ rose, looking to be just days from popping open. The plant still has some green leaves, too.

   I can’t decide if the confused thing thinks it’s still fall or whether it’s already starting on 2012’s bloom. Ditto for the ‘Pink Chablis’ lamium, which also are blooming pink with more buds on the way.

Hard-Working Plants

January 3rd, 2012

   I told you last week that there really are some super plants out there that meet just about all of the conditions we demand these days (four-season interest, no bugs, no disease, low care, tough in heat and cold, etc.)

   So which ones are they? I could rattle off dozens, but for your 2012 plant-buying pleasure, below are 20 at the top of my list (at least for today).

   For lots more choices, check out my “George’s Survivor Plant List.” This is a detailed, 18-page listing — organized by plant type — of hundreds of specific varieties that make good choices for central-Pennsylvania landscapes. It includes sizes, light needs, bloom times, flower and leaf colors and other important attributes.

   Download a copy for $7.95 or order a paper copy for $12.95 (includes shipping) at this link: https://georgeweigel.net/helpful-info-you-can-buy

   For individual baseball-card-like profiles, photos and care tips of most of the hard-workers below, go to this part of my web site: https://georgeweigel.net/plant-of-the-week-profiles

 Trees

Bark of the paperbark maple.

   * Paperbark maple (Acer griseum). If I can have only one tree, this is it. Beautiful cinnamon-colored peeling bark and brilliant red fall foliage on one of the more compact, slow-growing maples. (30 feet tall, 20 feet wide, full sun to light shade.)

   * Korean and Japanese stewartias (Stewartia koreana and S. pseudocamellia). OK, you have to give me one of these, too. They’re both sleek slow-growers with white summer flowers, bright multi-color fall foliage and Dalmation-like flaking bark. (20’ x 18’, sun or part shade.)

   * American fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus). A small U.S. native that gets unusual white, confetti-like flowers in mid-spring. Yellow fall foliage. Prune to shape in early years. (20’ x 18’, sun or part shade.)

   * Persian ironwood (Parrotia persica). Can be grown either as a multi-trunk or a single-trunk tree. Great long-holding neon-gold fall foliage and mottled bark for winter interest. (20 to 30 feet tall and wide, sun or light shade.)

Perfect Plants or Else

December 27th, 2011

   Gardeners are a demanding sort these days.

Close to the perfect plant (it's a fothergilla).

   Ask people what kind of plant they’re looking for, and most say they want plants that look great in all four seasons and that don’t get bug or disease problems.

   We want plants that are colorful, that are different from what’s growing in every McDonald’s parking lot and that don’t take a lot of trimming, watering or other fussing.

   We want plants that are cold-hardy in winter, heat-tough in summer and not likely to get eaten by deer, rabbits, groundhogs or voles in any season.

   Something native and butterfly-attracting would be nice, too.

   Above all else, we want plants that simply aren’t going to die in the lousy clay or shale soil most of us have.

   And, oh yeah, we don’t want to pay a lot of money either.

   That’s a pretty tall order. The surprising news is that these kinds of plants DO exist… except maybe for that last part.

   I’m constantly impressed with the high performance of so many of the new plants hitting the market every year. Not everything new is better, but a lot of it is. (I’ll be writing about what’s new for 2012 in my four January garden columns in The Patriot-News and naming some of my favorite hard-working, low-care plants in next week’s post here.)

   The bottom line is that we’ve got way more and way better choices today than even 10 years ago.

   The dilemma is that you won’t find most of this stuff in the box stores, where so many “yardeners” buy their plants.

A Basket for the Next Generation

December 6th, 2011

   The lucky winner of my gift basket filled with $180 worth of gardening goodies is… pause for theatrical effect… Kim Hess of Monroe Twp., Cumberland County.

Kim Hess, George's gift-basket winner.

   Kim and her husband, Mike, are young gardeners who just moved in September to a quarter-acre lot in the suburban development of Monroe Acres.

   They’re looking forward to building their own raised-bed veggie garden in the back next spring.

   For the last two years, the Hesses did their growing in a rented plot at the Dauphin County Community Gardens along Elmerton Avenue, not far from the State Farm Show Complex. They had been living in a condo in Harrisburg.

   It’s heartening to see young couples like this interested in gardening – especially vegetables.

   For a few decades, home vegetable gardening was becoming a lost art. I’d see hardly any veggie patches in my travels, and the prevailing opinion was, “Why would anyone want to go to all of that trouble when you can just go to Giant and buy whatever food you want?”

   But in the last few years, edible gardening has been making a comeback. The twentysomethings or Gen-Y’ers or whatever you call them have been leading the way.

   Many of them are thinking just the opposite: “Why wouldn’t we grow our own food that’s fresher, cheaper and more nutritious than stuff shipped from who knows where?”