Hunker Down And Dream On

If you had your druthers, where would you rather be today - stuck in traffic, fighting crowds or curled up in a warm blanket with a cup of hot whatever, planning for spring color and tasty treats from the garden?

That’s right. It time for our annual look at garden catalogs. I am delighted with the number that have already arrived - Stokes, Thompson Morgan, Cook’s, Park’s, Bear Creek and more. My daily trip to the mailbox has become a much-anticipated excursion.

The catalogs are filled with new and old varieties of colorful flowers and home-grown produce. The pages assure us that to bring this plethora of plant material into

our gardens, all we have to do is give a description of the plant, jot down a few numbers and send them a check. What could be easier or more fun? So grab your note pad, pencil, and if need be, your calculator, and let’s go to work.

When ordering seeds, there are a few considerations to keep in mind:

Are you planning to start the seeds indoors or to sow them directly into the soil outdoors? If you are planning to prestart the seeds indoors, can you provide the needed germination requirements - sterile soil, containers, heat/cold, light/darkness. Once they’re up and growing, can you give them the required light and warmth? And most important, do you have the time to care for these tiny gems?

Seed packages can contain anywhere from a few seeds to literally hundreds of seeds. We can always find room for flats of annuals, but what do we do with 50 Shasta daisies?

Before ordering, make sure there’s a home in mind for each little plant. Many times, perennials are best ordered as plants or, better yet, purchased locally.

Before ordering vegetable seeds, it’s important to check for the maturity date, especially on warm-season crops like that scrumptious huge tomato you’re coveting. Many warm-season crops are lucky to receive 90 days’ growing time in our region before they’re hit by frost.

Ordering plants through catalogs is more risky than seeds and can be very disappointing. Granted, we don’t expect to receive a full-grown plant in bloom, but we do expect to find something that resembles a plant.

It’s not uncommon to receive a 6-by-4-inch box filled with 50 bare twigs and instructions that say, “Plant when you can work the soil.” That’s fine, but which end is up?

When ordering plants, make sure you know where they have been grown. Plants that are normally hardy for our region may not be if they were grown in the South.

Also, you may find that some catalogs have restrictions on sending plants to Washington state. This is due to the fact we are still under quarantine for the Japanese beetle.

In view of these problems, unless a plant is rare or unusual, I prefer to buy from local nurseries.

Here are a few highlights of the 1998 All-American winners that you may wish to look for: Impatiens Victorian Rose is touted as a 10- to 12-inch high plant with double and semidouble free-blooming rose blossoms.

Petunia Prism Sunshine is a non-fading, pure yellow, single grandiflora. It would be a treat to have a yellow petunia that wouldn’t wash out.

Only one vegetable made the list, a Swiss chard called Bright Lights. The young leaves can be harvested four to five weeks after planting.

It will adapt to air temperatures from 50 to 100 degrees, and it will retain its color even when microwaved.

Lemon basil Sweet Dani also made the list. It has a very strong lemon scent when the leaves are crushed and can be harvested 20 to 30 days after planting.

Companies offering all four of these winners are Park Seed Co., 1 Parkton Ave., Greenwood, SC 28647-0002; R.H. Shumway’s, P.O. Box 1, Graniteville, SC 29829-0001; and White Rose Craft and Nurseries Sales Ltd., 4038 Highway No. 7, Unionville, ON, Canada L3R2L5.

If you would like this year’s list of garden catalogs, please send a business size, self-addressed stamped envelope to me in care of The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. Most catalogs are free, though some companies charge a small fee.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Phyllis Stephens The Spokesman-Review