Subject: Ted Fisher: Seed Catalogs

From: [email-masked] (Dewey Coffman)
Date: Sun, 8 Jan 1995 17:04:05 GMT

Catalogs can plant the seed of new gardening ideas
       [Scanned in from Austin American-Statesman and posted to the
           Internet with permission of Ted Fisher and the AAS ]
                         Saturday December 31,1994

Ask gardeners what their favorite days are on the gardening
calendar and you'll get a variety of responses.

For many avid gardeners the most anticipated days are those of
early January when the new gardening catalogs are arriving. The arrival
of the year's seed and nursery catalogs is an event awaited with 
pulse-quickening anticipation. Filled with old favorites and never-
before-seen new varieties, the catalogs give hours of pleasure and
"armchair" gardening enjoyment.

The mailbox arrival of seed, bulb and nursery catalogs has been
an annual "happening" for gardeners for well over a century. Enticing
us with familiar favorites and challenging us with the new and the
unknown, the catalogs fuel our passion for gardening's best.

Catalog names and covers have changed over the years. Varieties have
come and gone. But catalogs have always been interesting and informative
Wish Books.

The 1995 catalogs currently arriving in my mailbox reveal that
plant breeders and explorers from around the world are continuing
to provide gardeners with exciting new varieties of flowers
and vegetables.

One cataloguer alone has added 150 new varieties to their listing
for 1995. Many plants being introduced today do represent significant
improvements over older types. Increased insect and disease resistance,
larger, more tasty fruit, greater productivity and more compact growth
habits are just a few of the modern improvements you will find.

Keep in mind, however, as you browse through the colorful mail order
catalogs, that not all varieties depicted in the beautiful color pages
will be adapted to your Austin garden. Even though the plants may be
hardy to nothern cold climates, they may grow poorly or not at all
in the Austin and Central Texas area.

However, it can be interesting and fun to try a few varieties from
the pages of the new introductions and check them out under your
backyard growing conditions.

If you decide to order from catalogs, exercise a bit of caution and
restraint. It's easy to order more than you need. You may have visions
of a well-stocked vegetable or flower garden, but ten packages of seeds
to fill a hundred square feet of growing area will certainly be too much.

If you have not ordered from any catalogs because you generally buy
locally, you might like to send for a few just for background information
and new ideas. There are many catalogs, including those that specialize
in listing specific types of plants, flowers, vegetables, perennial
trees and shrubs. You'll find them advertised in the back sections of
magazines and in the Sunday newspaper supplements.

Or you can go to the library and look through their collection of
garden catalogs. Then order your own copy of those that appeal to you.
Most catalogs are free upon request, but a few charge a nominal fee
that can be deducted from your first order.

One of the premiere organizations responsible for the release of
outstanding new varieties to the gardening public is the All-America
Selection.

All-America Selections is a nationwide testing organization that 
evaluates new flowers and vegetables each year in open trials. Judges
at 60 official trial grounds in the United States and Canada grow and
evaluate new flower and vegetable varieties submitted by plant breeders
>from  around the world. Each entry is carefully screened and evaluated
for superiority in its class. Only a very small percentage of those
plants tested are chosen to be introduced nationwide as All-America
Selections. Each new AAS variety is the best in its class, having
surpassed the performance of the previously top-rated varieties in
side-by-side comparisons.

The All-America label is considered the highest honor a flower or
vegetable can receive in this country.

For 1995 there are three All-America award winners:

* Petunia "Celebrity Chiffon Morn". Petunias used to be pretty delicate
and somewhat cantankerous in the garden, but the new varieties are easier
to grow, and more drought and weather tolerant. This new winner has a
unique soft pastel pink color with flower 2 1/2 inches across. Only the
flower color can be described as soft or delicate, as the plant is 
tough. Plants are reliable, growing about 18 inches tall in a sunny
garden.

* Petunia "Purple Wave". A new breakthrough in petunias, this new
introduction grows low to the ground (4 to 6 inches high), but can spread 2
to 4 feet. All growth is horizontal. Purple Wave is the first petunia with
a ground cover habit. As the name implies, the color is a deep true solid
purple. The plant is ideal when used as a ground cover or in rock gardens,
on sloping hills or terraces, and is heat and dry weather tolerant.

* Rudbeckia "Indian Summer". Rudbeckia also is known as the gloriosa
daisy and is native to the eastern United States. This free-flowering new
variety bears huge golden blooms 6 to 9 inches across. The low-branching
plants grow 3 to 4 feet tall. Because it is easily grown from seed and
quick to bloom, "Indian Summer" is outstanding as an annual bedding plant.
It may be perennial in our climate.

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     Ted Fisher is the horticulturist with the Travis County Extension
          Service. His column appears on Saturday.  (512)-473-9600
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If you like these postings, you should tune into KLRU, Public TV channel
18 on Saturdays(check listings) and the following Sunday on KLRU2 for 
The Central Texas Gardner Show. Ted Fisher has his own spot on these shows 
and the shows are always very local and informative. They are on every 4th 
Saturday and repeated on next Sunday.

Side Note: Currently, I'm scanning these in because Ted Fisher writes these
on a *typewriter*, if you like to contribute PC parts, software or dollars to 
a cause to get Ted a computer with some good wordprocessing software, and
modem, please contact me, not Ted. It's a surprise... ;-)  -dewey
-- 
Dewey Coffman  	[email-masked]  [email-masked]  [email-masked] CTC Texas Inc.
Notary Public, after 5pm service available.	 USDA Zone 8. Compost Happens.
All opinions expressed are unrelated to reality.	Austin Beer Club
"If you fail to plan, plan to fail" 		"One Dollar, One Vote" [\]