Mail Order Gardening By Mail

Posted by
Barbara M. Martin
Jan 11, 2007

Shopping by mail has been a long time tradition in the plant world. Seed companies and plant nurseries and gardening tool and equipment suppliers offer a huge selection of garden products by mail order catalog. If you are on the mailing list for one plant catalog, soon enough you should be receiving multitudes of catalogs for everything garden-related under the sun. So many catalogs, so little time!

How to decide which catalog to order from? Here are a few references to help you get started locating the right catalog for what you are looking for and then winnowing down the list to reputable companies with good track records. You can also check to see if the catalog is available on-line for placing orders, or if the catalog itself can be ordered through a web site.

The Mailorder Gardening Association publishes a sorted list of member garden suppliers to help you find catalogs in your specific area of interest such as native plants, roses, perennials, or organic gardening.

Another place to check for specialty gardening catalogs is Cyndi's Catalog of Catalogs, an annotated list with contact information and observations about quality, price, and selection. She just updated it in December 2006.

Last but not least, be sure to check out the Garden Watchdog for reader's comments and ratings of many different plant and garden catalogs. If a garden catalog receives only negative comments, you might wonder if there is a problem. You will also find certain catalogs with consistently excellent reviews. For an example of red flags you might enjoy this Parody of A Plant Catalog.

When you shop by on-line or paper catalog, keep in mind that the catalog is a sales tool. It is meant to make you salivate over the offerings and it is intended to force you to order more than you ever anticipated. It is tough to fight the sirens' call in mid winter, and the gardening catalog designers and writers know it. Happy Shopping!