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New Plant Releases...Frustrated?

© Wesley Ford

So you want or need a plant for a particular location this season and as you peruse catalogs and magazines, what can you reasonably expect to obtain. I have no sure fire answers in that vein. When you see that jagged yellow bubble that says NEW in catalogs its often hard to discern what is truly new to the trade and what is new to the company. To a certain extent your past experience with the company can answer this question. Also some where in the front, or the back or the middle of the catalog there may be a description of what all the catalog symbols mean. I wouldn't count on "NEW" being in that list as some genius thinks we all should know what "NEW" means.

Sometimes you may see the term "New Release". This is a little more descriptive and should tell you that this is the first year this selection is available. The question still remains...At this nursery or in the trade? Sometimes you will see "Exclusive" in the bubble. Now this should tell you that that particular selection can only be obtained through that catalog supplier. None of these terms tells us just how "available" a plant is, just that that marketer purports to carry the item.

So are the catalogs lying? Probably not, by far the vast majority of mail order firms do carry or have the intent to carry that which they list. It is not really good business practice to list items you don't have. Frustrating customers is not a profitable venture. So what happens? First of all we need to remember that catalogs are produced many months in advance of their release. The logistics of organizing, checking and rechecking content, proofing, printing, and mailing take time. So when the decision to list a "new" plant was made the current supply situation may well have indicated that the plant would be available in sufficient volume to reasonably expect the marketer to be able to ship it to customers. Then unforeseen circumstances, which all us gardeners have learned to contend with, has resulted in a vastly reduced supply or even a total crop failure. To be honest sometimes, unavailability caused by such circumstances may very well benefit us as gardeners. The very glitch that resulted in reduced supply, may very well result in more and better information becoming available that will help us be more successful with the plant in question when we do obtain it.