Subject: RE: Seed Catalog Awards

From: [email-masked] (Rob King)
Date: 18 Dec 1994 10:43:28 -0600

[email-masked] (Jon Charles Gilliam) wrote:

G>My 'awards' for super catalogs & seed companies:

Except for the last company you mentioned: "Le Jardin"... I have
received and used all the companies you have listed, and can't disagree
with any of your assessments...  I can only add a couple for comment.

G>Most Useful & Informative:  Goes to Stokes without a doubt.  An impressive
 >   range of varieties, with culture information that rivals most reference
 >   books.  Included:  % germination, bloom dates, days to transplants,
 >   when to sow in the garden, ideal temperature for germination, light
 >   requirements for germination ... what more could you ask for?

G>Most Beautifully & Tastefully Illustrated:  Parks!  The color photography
 >   is vivid, the varieties are gorgeous.  Simply a delight to browse.
 >   An incredible reprieve from the winter blahs.

Not to mention Parks publishes 3-4 SEASONAL catalogs... you almost have
to put them all together to see the entire inventory.  Thomson & Morgan
has a nice 'little' colorful catalog also... small pictures, tho.

G>Most Variety:  For herbs, Richter's without a doubt.  If it's an unusual
 >               herb, and nobody else has it, chances are Richter's does.
 >               For flowers & vegetables, the award goes to Stokes, with
 >               honorable mention to DeGiorgi Seed Company.

Another honorable mention <HERB catagory> Companion Plants/ Athens, OH.
All they sell are HERBS... not quite as many as Richter's... but they
have a few that Richter's doesn't... all seeds are $1.25 each + ONE BUCK
for shipping... period.

G>Best Value:  Pinetree Seeds!  Reasonable packet sizes, good germination,
 >             fine selection of varieties, and best of all low prices.  The
 >             seed quantities have been more than enough for my home garden,
 >             I don't have large quantities of leftover seeds from year to
 >             year, and I with the money I save I can try out some more
 >             unusual varieties.  What more could you ask for?

It's interesting that the company that sells .40 seed packs also prints
on recycled newsprint in 2-color.  NO complaints here.

G>Lowest Prices:  It would be hard to beat thw 25 cent sample packets from
 >                Le Jardin du Gourmet.  This is my first year ordering from
 >                them, so I can't as yet comment on the quality of the
 >                seeds, but the catalog does explicity give a range for each
 >                variety of the seed count in the sample packets.

G>Worst Classifications:  Liberty Seed Company, out of New Philadelphia, OH
 >                for placing a tomatillo with little distinguishing
 >                identification under the Tomato heading, and for commiting
 >                the same sin with New Zeland spinach under the Spinach
 >                heading.  I for one would be disappointed to order either
 >                of these expecting them to be just another variety of
 >                tomato or spinach.

G>Worst Editing:  Le Jardin du Gourmet.  Hand-typewritten catalog (a computer
 >                with a printer isn't that expensive!), creative spelling,
 >                and interesting grammar, to be kind.  The included recipes
 >                were appreciated, but seemingly out of place.  I would have
 >                prefered the space devoted to description of the varieties,
 >                which for the most part are not described at all.

Speciality catagory= GARLIC:  Filaree Farms, Okanogan, WA. <Yes, it's
        called SEED>  350 varieties of garlic from around the world.
        Ron <literally> wrote the book on garlic.

Rob.

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