Seed Catalogs- A Sign of Spring

Well, it's getting warmer.  At least since this morning.  -1 and now it's up to 4 degrees!  The perfect time for this year's seed catalogs to start arriving in my mail box.  Many of which I don't ask for, they just show up and after I look at the beautiful pictures, they go in the recycle bin.  The ones I send for are the ones I can't wait to open and study every page. I open these catalogs and the cold disappears and the thoughts of starting seeds, digging in my garden and planting take over!  This is my "spring fix"!  The big question is always, which ones do I get? 

I have a few catalogs that I love and I would like to share them with you.
Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, Mansfield, MO  www.rareseeds.com    417-924-8917.  They have a great website.
Johnny's Selected Seeds, Winslow, ME  www.johnnyseeds.com  877-564-6697.  They offer seeds for vegetables, fruits, flowers, herbs.  Tools and supplies.
Seed Savers Exchange, Decorah, IA  www.seedsavers,org   563-382-5990.  Their catalog offers nearly 600 varieties of heirlooms seeds.
Tomato Growers Supply Company, Fort Myers, FL  www.tomatogrowers.com  888-478-7333.  Offers more variety of tomatoes than you ever knew existed! Both heirloom and hybrids plus a variety of peppers and eggplant.
So what are differences and benefits of heirloom and hybrids.  Below is an explanation given by Terri Reid, author of The Everything Guide to Living Off the Grid:

When you purchase heirloom seed, you are getting seed produced from plants that have been saved and grown fifty years or more, their seed passed down from generation to generation.
Hybrid seeds are created by plant breeders. These plant breeders select two similar plant varieties and crossbreed them to create a new plant variety that features traits from the two parent plants. For example, a plant breeder might select one plant that is frost resistant, and another that has a sweeter taste. The new plant—the offspring of the two varieties—is now a unique hybrid variety that is both frost resistant and has a sweeter flavor.

An heirloom is open-pollinated, which simply means the plant is capable of producing seeds that will grow a new plant identical to the parent plant the seed came from.

Hybrid seeds are not bad in any way. They have helped increase crop yield and made it easier for many gardeners to be successful. However, hybrid seeds are not open-pollinated. If you save their seeds, the forthcoming plant will not be identical to the parent plant. It might not be sweeter or frost resistant. Many hybrid seeds can be sterile and will not germinate. In order to have the same success you had with the initial offspring, you have to buy your seeds from the plant breeder again.
The beauty of an heirloom seed is the ability of the plant to change on its own. When you save heirloom seeds you select the one that ripened the fastest, was frost resistant, or was sweetest, and save its seeds. So, in time, the seed works through the same process as the hybrid, but it’s a natural process. The offspring of that open-pollinated seed will produce the same results, or better, over and over again.

There are hundreds of seed catalogs available out there.  These are just a few that I like because they are mostly heirloom and organic.  I grow organically and I do try to save my seed every year so using heirloom seeds allows me to grow the same great veggies, fruits and flowers from year to year.

 Regardless of which catalog you choose, I hope you experience the great "spring fix" I do.

Keep warm and enjoy the sunshine!  Cheers!