Seed catalogs out; spring gardens not far behind

The last frost date looms 72 days ahead, and the catalogs are coming.

It’s time to salivate over seeds and daydream of spring.

“When you go through a catalog, it opens a world of gardening to you — hundreds of kinds of flowers and vegetables,” said Sam Scarcella, a La Marque Master Gardener known for his skills with tomatoes.

Scarcella said he starts his plants from seeds after Christmas, nurturing them in indoor greenhouse areas. By the average last frost date of March 15, he already has plants in the ground.

Dr. William Johnson, Galveston County extension agent, also pores over seed catalogs in the winter.

“For an enthusiastic gardener, a well-designed seed catalog is better than a Neiman Marcus catalog,” he said, speaking by phone from his Dickinson office.

Scarcella said he remembers the days when seeds were sold from door to door. He was around 10 years old when he first ordered seed packets from companies advertising in the backs of magazines, then set about selling them to neighbors in Dickinson.

“I remember most of the people who bought them were the ladies of the household,” said Scarcella, now into his 80s, but still planting and teaching about gardening. “We sold a lot of flower seeds.”

Johnson’s father also would tell tales of selling seed packets, taking orders from teachers and students at his Virginia school.

Seed catalogs date back to the late 1800s. W. Atlee Burpee’s first catalogs featured hand-drawn illustrations and numbered around 40 pages.

The 1891 catalog featured engravings made from photographs. The 1915 catalogs were delivered to more than 1 million customers and included 200 pages of pictures, descriptions and testimonials from growers.

Today’s catalogs include photographs and detailed descriptions.

“If you’re a gardener, you’re fascinated just going through them,” Scarcella said. “They’re bigger, brighter, more colorful and with better descriptions and more varieties than there used to be.”

The two men listed several rewards to using catalogs, including:

• Access to a wider variety of flowers and vegetables. “It just kinds of stirs your need for experimenting,” Scarcella said.

• Access to detailed information on seeds and plants, with many varieties developed on research farms.

• A pathway to starting plants from seeds, with better control of the timing and variety of your spring garden than if you waited to purchase plants from nurseries, with less chance of plant diseases and insects that might be hidden in bought plants.

• An opportunity to participate in worldwide seed exchanges coordinated through seed catalog companies.

• Links to more online information from companies producing seeds and testimonials from growers.

Scarcella searches the Internet for seed catalog websites to study pictures and descriptions in more detail. But he still relies on the paper version as a starting point, as does Johnson.

“I think there will always be catalogs,” Johnson said. “Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I think the sight of the catalog, the touch of the catalog is important.

“It’s like a book; there may be an electronic form, but I still think the touch is important, especially to the older generation.”

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Catalogs

• Sam Scarcella, a La Marque Master Gardener known for his skills with tomatoes, recommends “Tomato Growers Supply” for tomatoes, tomatogrowers.com; “Stokes Seeds” for pelletized vegetable seeds, stokeseed.com; “Johnny’s Selected Seeds” for seeds and gardening supplies, johnnyseeds.com; and “Territorial Seed Co.” for garlic and vegetable seeds, territorialseed.com. Dr. William Johnson, Galveston County extension agent, utilizes catalogs from Burpee, burpee.com; and Park Seed Co., parkseed.com.

• For seed-starting supplies, Scarcella recommends “Charley’s Greenhouse,” charleysgreenhouse.com, as well as local garden centers.

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Details To Note

Upcoming classes led by Master Gardeners at the Galveston County Extension Office include:

• Grow Great Tomatoes, led by Sam Scarcella, Saturday from 9 to 11:30 a.m.

• Growing Peaches, led by Herman Auer, Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m.

• Homegrown Peppers: The Sweetest to the Hottest, led by Gene Speller, Jan. 15 from 9 to 11 a.m.

• Spring Vegetable Gardening, led by Luke Stripling, Jan. 15, from 1 to 3:30 p.m.

• Anyone Can Grow Roses, led by John Jons, Jan. 22, from 9 to 11 a.m.

• Growing Citrus in Your Own Backyard, led by Herman Auer, Jan. 22 from 1 to 3 p.m.

• Minimize Tomato Stress Factors to Maximize Yields, led by Sam Scarcella, Jan. 29, from 9 to 11:30 a.m.

• Growing Blueberries, led by Dr. David Cohen, Jan. 29 from 1 to 3 p.m.

Classes are at 5115 state Highway 3, Dickinson. Call Laura at 281- 534-3413, Ext. 1-2 or e-mail galv3(at)wt.net to register.

For information, including free downloads of several publications, visit http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/galveston.

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History

For information on seed catalog history, visit the Smithsonian Institution Libraries’ website http://www.sil.si.edu/digitalcollections/seednurserycatalogs/intro.htm.