Gardening: Seed catalogs offer visions of spring

As soon as the flood of Christmas cards slowed to a dribble, an avalanche of garden catalogs filled up my mailbox. Mixed into the usual list of big catalogs like Johnny’s Select Seeds, Territorial Seed and Burpee were several tempting offerings from smaller seed companies that specialize in unusual or hard to find vegetables, herbs and fruit. I am especially excited to check them out because my kids cleared some of their stuff out of the basement and I actually have space to start my own seeds. I’ll talk about seed starting in another column in a few weeks.

The graphics of the R.H. Shumway catalog is a throwback to the seed catalogs our grandparents ordered from and that’s just what it is. A catalog filled with heirloom varieties of vegetables, flowers and farm seed. Many of the vegetable flower varieties date from the turn of the 1900s while the farm seed (heirloom field corn and forage crops) dates from the 1940s and 50. The farm seed varieties are some of the earliest hybrids farmers started using after World War II. Many of the seed descriptions include a short bit of the history of the variety along with the growing information.

The J.W. Jung Seed Co.’s catalog is jampacked with vegetable, fruit, perennials, annuals, herbs, bulbs, roses and landscaping plants with a good selection of gardening and harvesting supplies thrown in for good measure. Jung Seed has been in business since 1909 and specializes in cold tolerant and short season varieties grown in their Wisconsin production fields.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds is a newcomer to the garden seed market. Started 1997 when then 17-year-old Jere Gettle printed his first catalog of heirloom seeds, the catalog offers over 2000 varieties of heirloom vegetables, flowers and herbs from all over the world. If you want to try something really unusual, this is your catalog. Check out the selection of squash and gourds that come in every imaginable color and shape. All their seed is GMO-free.

John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seed catalog is full of vegetable and flower varieties reminiscent of our grandmothers’ gardens right out the back door and within easy reach of the cook in the kitchen. There are hard-to-find varieties of beans, greens, tomatoes, peppers and herbs as well as old fashion flowers varieties for arrangements and garnishing a salad. They even offer craft beer makers several varieties of hops.

Irish Eyes Seed Co. specializes in organically grown, short season varieties of seed potatoes, vegetable seed, garlic, onions, shallots, strawberry and asparagus roots as well as tools, booklets, soil preparation products, and organic and natural fertilizers. Best of all they grow most of their seed just down the road in Ellensburg. They are best known for their dozens of varieties of seed potatoes and garlic including the Ellensburg Blue garlic and Ozette Fingerling potatoes. The Ozette potato was brought to Washington’s Olympic Peninsula from South America by Spanish explorers in the late 1700s and grown on by the local native tribes.