Seed catalogs offer a mailbox full of promises
The seed catalogs now filling the mailbox and piling up on the desk catch us at a time of optimism. At the start of the year we tend to forgive the last one's disappointments, and we're ready for another go at the garden's blank slate. All those colorful photos cheer us on, and the persuasively written pages seem to read our minds, promising success with crops that might have let us down before.
Did last year's fennel bolt before producing its desired bulb? This is less likely to happen with Mantovano, newly offered in 2015 by Adaptive Seeds. “They seem to just get fatter the longer they are in the ground,” the catalog proclaims. The early Preludio fennel raises similar expectations in the Natural Gardening Co.'s catalog — a handsome collection that helpfully marks with a star the varieties most suitable for organic growing conditions.
Did the carrots balk at your poor, heavy soil? Maybe you'll have better luck with the “stubby, thick-shouldered” Kuroda, which debuts this year at John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds.
Was your broccoli gone in a blink of the eye? Try Fedco's Green Super. “After the primary cut, the second growth created side heads, not ho-hum shoots.”
Rainbow mixes are still exploding with color and show no sign of stopping. Gurney's goes in big for them, as with the tomatoes in its Heirloom Rainbow Blend or the peppers in its Carnivale Cayenne Blend. With a small planting of one of these mixed-seed packets, you might not always get the distribution you want, though. Another catalog, Johnny's Selected Seeds, solves this problem with its Artisan Tomato Mix — you get an individual seed packet of each variety.
For a rainbow of sweet bell peppers, you might try High Mowing's Iko Iko, from its own breeding program. This pepper achieves its kaleidoscopic range by going through multiple color stages as it ripens. Many peppers go from green to pale yellow, then orange, then red. But this one throws in lavender, purple and a bit of lime green as well. For a hot pepper with color changes, Southern Exposure's Charleston Hot looks extra-pretty, too.
There are always plenty of items in the category I like to call “Great If True.” One of my favorite herb catalogs, Richters, is full of these. Does its new cold-tolerant Keira basil really “tolerate post-harvest refrigeration?” That would be so handy. Most basils turn black in the fridge. Does the African Power Cress help you develop “the powers of persuasion and influence” before important meetings? Will the Plectranthus Sumcol 01 plant actually drive away cats and dogs? If I plant a Bo-Tree and sit under it for seven years, as the Buddha did, will I attain enlightenment? I'd settle for a little more patience and expertise with indoor plants, which never seem to get the attention in our house that they deserve.
Would Seeds From Italy's Parsley Nano Ricciuto, a “good plant for indoor use,” survive my ministrations? Hey, I'm game. And I just might order the new dwarf Avocado Wurtz tree from Park Seed, which promises “masses” of six-to-12-ounce fruits within two years of planting. With all the winter optimism I can muster, I'd be ecstatic if it bore two or three.