Seed catalogs

[jmsieglaff]

Do you sign up to receive seed catalogs each year or do you just always get one when you sign up once? I sign up each year but I'm thinking that's not needed, I just like getting lots of catalogs.

[shelleybean]

I think if you've placed an order with a company before, or at least the last few years, you are automatically on their mailing list. And some companies will sell your personal info and that's how you end up on mailing lists for companies you've never heard of before. I, too, enjoy looking at what every one has to offer, even if I only order from a few selected sources. My husband jokes that normal people run to the mailbox in December to look for holiday cards, but I run to check for seed catalogs.

[peppero]

I have only signed up for a few but receive many. It is nice.

jon

[carolyn137]

For many years I was gettting a stack of seed catalogs maybe a foot high, yes, I had originally requested them. But when I fell in 2004 and could no longer grow my own tomatoes most of them stopped coming after a few years so I had to rerequest some of them to use as references when trying to answer questions online.

Shelley, I never received catalogs I didn't request initially, but I suppose it makes a difference in terms of which catalogs as to sharing info with other companies.

I want my seed catalogs so I can sit and read them in my recliner chair as the temps fall, the wind blows and the snows arrive.

I don't like sitting here at the computer and reading them online, maybe just me, but that's the way it is.

Carolyn

To me the arrival of the 1st seed catalog is the "official" start of the new gardening year! I love my catalogs. Each year I clip photos & info of everything I will be growing and paste them in a Journal. The next step that happens during the long cold winter is the making of plant markers. I use everything from popsicle sticks to plastic knives.

[JLJ_]

Originally Posted by jmsieglaff

Do you sign up to receive seed catalogs each year or do you just always get one when you sign up once? I sign up each year but I'm thinking that's not needed, I just like getting lots of catalogs.

If you want to be sure to get any particular catalog, it's probably wise to sign up, especially if that's what you've been doing in the past. Some sources say on their web site location something like "if you've ordered from us in the past year, past two years, etc." no need to sign up.

One thing that I do if I sign up for any catalog I've gotten before is to take the last catalog and enter my address info exactly as it is on the previous catalog's mailing label -- helps the sender avoid sending duplicates, if they already had you on the mailing list and you fill in a request.

I wonder sometimes whether sellers realize how much catalogs can boost online sales. I browse catalogs, but order online (except for Sandhill, of course). For items I already know I want, I'll find them and order them without a catalog, but virtually all my "that looks interesting" purchases come from catalog browsing -- some years not much of that, some years quite a lot.

[KarenO]

Virtually all catalogs are available online, for free and without any need for paper. Paper catalogs are colourful and make good bathroom reading I guess but you can save a tree and the company's postage and browse their equally beautiful and informative catalogs online instead.
KarenO