Catalog Season

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Alpinejs

I got Johnny's a couple days ago and Totally Tomatoes. I stared out all the
tomato pics in both and gave Johnny's to my wife to pick out the lesser
products. I tore out the okra pictures so she couldn't make any fatal
mistakes. Yankees don't do slime.

Those are fighting words on the okra slime as I've learned the hard way, but I'm with you on that. And when I say that someone will say have you tried them fried, have you tried them this way or that way and aren't the blossoms beautiful, etc. I stand pat but would certainly eat some excellent Cajun Gumbo given the chance.

I e-mailed Adam last night so should hear back soon on where he's at with uploading new varieties for 2012. I remember that last year it wasn't until about mid Dec when I looked at my older saved e-mails.

I also got an e-mail from Ken at Southern Exposure Seed Exchange telling me he was putting one of their 2012 catalogs in the mail I think today, so those should be out soon. The reason that I think he's doing this is b'c I noticed that several varieties I'd sent to Jeff McCormack when he owned SESE had had their names changed and when I saw those wrong names at other sites I got concerned and told him about it. It was also Ken who told me my book was out of print when he tried to buy more for SESE. Workman Press had told me nothing.

Ken explained what changes they made to go back to the variety names I had originally sent in all those years ago and they must have been good ones since they still list them.

I already listed what I've received to date, not that much, but also got Millers from W NYS where in the past I ordered lots of stuff as to strawberries, fruit trees, ornamental shrubs, blueberries, etc., all excellent stock, and I can't get over the price of lilacs these days. Many that I got and planted are still at the old farm unless that's been torn down and I don't know about it. But I have to tell you that the most fragrant lilacs were the simple lavender and white ones that were planted around the barns and along the long driveway to the farmhouse. Some of those were probably 20 ft tall and were either planted by my grandmother or by the Shakers, from whom my grandfather bought the land back in 1905. I ordered new ones for here where I now live but the deer love to eat the blossoms and the bushes are still quite small, but there is ONE older lavender one here that was planted by the folks who had the house built back in 1978.

As an aside, I've found that Johnny's, Stokes and Territorial have had the best cultural information in their catalogs and often mention that to folks who want to buy books as a cheaper alternative.