How many garden catalogs have you received?

I get alot of seeds catalogs past few weeks ago...

I don't believe that I've received them all, so it may be too soon to count. I know that I have more than 10 already. I have my favs, but those I'd already viewed online. The company I ordered my veggie seeds from was viewed online. They haven't sent me a catalog, yet! It was my first time to order from this company. The "garden watchdog" helps me decide more than the pretty catalog. Dave's review helped me make my final decision. : )

With all this snow and cold It is nice to have something to help me dream of spring.
I am still waiting in a few catalogs, some of my favorites haven't gotten here yet.

Not doing vegetables this year, growing season here toooo short and still too frigid, may do some cukes, liked them the best and if any of the heirloom small tomatoes come back from seed will keep them...rest will buy...
Want to do roses and re-landscape garden at church...so am going into more flowers especially the hardy ones that come back from roots and very disease resistant!

I try to get off as many catalog lists as possible, and just bookmark the website instead. Then when I feel like shopping I do so online. I do admit it is nice to sit on the couch and flip through a catalog, but I'm doing my best to wean myself off that. Some companies are more difficult than others, although most will give you the option to receive weekly or monthly email promotions (which are sometimes just as annoying as receiving a whole pile of catalogs). I stick to my favorites, and try to shop locally whenever possible.

Only one really, but I only spend a few minutes looking at it.

I rarely buy from online or catalogs. Most of my yard full of plants have come from local sales and DG round-ups.

This message was edited Jan 11, 2010 9:36 AM

Seems like I've been getting at least one a day for the past month! Seeds, bulbs, plants, supplies....aaaak! Temptation, get thee behind!

We don't get that many yet - colder climate = later spring :-(
Looking forward to looking through them, but likely won't buy anything that way.
I like to look at what I'm buying, in person.

I would rather look at online catalogs. I don't like all the paper that's wasted on the printed catalogs. My favorites are sites that allow buyers to rate varieties and post comments about their experience with plants. I think that offers a lot more information than the company's description.

I have received all my seed catalogs from the companies that I have ordered from in the past (about 10) in December. Now the others are starting to arrive...not sure where they got my mailing info from. The Spring Bulbs & Perennials catalogs are now starting to arrive.

I voted for none. I like to look at seed catalogs but most are inappropriate for my area. I used to buy wonderful seeds from various catalogs and wind up disappointed so I learned the hard way. I buy locally or from one or two on-line sources.

Several catalogs and, as you said Katlian, I prefer to go look online. I especially don't like the catalogs from companies I have never done business with that don't have a single plant in stock that I would buy and most of which would not grow well here. I don't like the waste. I wish the companies that participated in the list-selling would include a check-box for "Do you want to receive catalogs?" as some people want catalogs and some immediately throw them away or put them in the compost pile.

I get too many of them and rarely read them. Most of my purchases are made online. Where I can, I ask the companies not to send them.

Catalogs, almost without exception, go into the paper recycling bin on the way into the house. There are a couple of rare exceptions, but I do all my ordering online.

I'm trying to get the seeds I already HAVE organized before I buy any more. In the past SOMEONE in our house has apparently ordered multiples of the same "Gotta have that" at different times....sigh....can't imagine who that could have been....

I still look at many catalogues. Sometimes browsing paper is easier than browsing online. And the photography is better. FWIW. Catalogues received so far include:

High Country Gardens
White Flower Garden
Edmunds' Roses
Antique Rose Emporium
Dutch Gardens
VBG Wholesale
Sheepers/Van Engelen
Johnny's Seeds
Territorial Seed
Wildseed Farms
Select Seed
HPS
Burpee

Waiting for
Bluestone

I need to start feeding them to worms when I'm done with them. It will make us both feel better.

When you live in the Michigan upper peninsula you really can't get too many seed catalogs to remind you about warm weather when plants can actually grow! I have a lot of them right now, although I'm still waiting to get my Park's catalog... I do, however, try to limit my ordering to the fewest catalogs possible, because the shipping will kill you (okay, maybe not kill, but bankrupt!). Still working on my orders, what to buy, what to buy?

Edited to say: Although I agree in principle with the waste of paper that just looking at the web sites would eliminate, I really like having the catalogs to look at side-by-side. (Besides, our town is suppored by a paper mill)

;-)

Sandy

This message was edited Jan 11, 2010 6:59 PM

More than ten and less than 20 in the last 11 days. - and they all went to the garbage because I know I'll get the same ones again next mo. I don't order anything now because I had companies send me the plants before the soil thaws here in NY, then the plants suffer and most don't make it or are seriously set back for the rest of the year.

i saved each catalog that came last year, regardless of what it was selling, and piled them up by the phone. each week i'd go through the pile and look for the info inside that tells you how to get off the mailing list. some you can do online, others you have to call and there are a very few that have to be notified by mail. i kept a list of who was notified and shredded/mulched or recycled the catalogs. i only receive a handful of catalogs all year now (the ones i really want) and it has been wonderful..... so much less temptation to buy and better for the environment too.

as a side note, i have found it virtually impossible to get removed from jackson & perkins. i hate them for this very reason. lol

I love to look at these and keep them until the next arrives. So far this year I have only received my Bluestone. They keep me dreaming....

Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! I LUV catalogues and looking at the stacks makes me feel good. I do agree with the waste of paper but I like to clip the pics out of the catalogue to put in my plant binder cuz yes sigh I have a manual inventory of the plants in my garden mostly cuz I make less penos than typos. I also like to have them about for new gardeners when they come visit or for workshops to show what's available and where. Also good for congabs on group orders. I do order from all the suppliers that I get catalogues from although I do order everything on line. I do recycle them after they have been snipped and replaced. O and I recycle our toilet paper rolls too. We have more toilet paper rolls then catalogues so maybe I'm not so bad ^_^

I flip thru the catalogs and make an inexcusable huge wish list. This takes days or weeks, since there are so many. Then I take enter my list on a spread sheet (excel). I use the previous year's & update the pricing, supplier, seed pkg count, price, item no. Then I figure out, using the catalogs, what the best deal is, using the catalogs. Then I figure out what I have left over from last year. Then I order on-line and hope nothing extra catches my eye. Nuts Eh! The catalogs are a bit tattered when I'm done

Wow, Joanna, That's a lot of work, but probably saves you $. I do the same thing but off of websites and jot the prices in a small notebook. I save a lot, especially on bulb this way.

Since the catalogs arrive before Christmas, it really curves the Christmas shopping... LOL. My family thinks I have become a little cheap for the presents over the last few years, but thank goodness they haven't figured it out. The seeds don't arrive until January & February so I think I'm safe.

Used to get dozens but I've narrowed it down to only a couple or so catalogs, only for those moments I just want to relax with a "good book" and daydream. I haven't ordered from a catalog in years though, all my purchasing is online. I probably do have 100's of gardening catalog links bookmarked for online browsing though.

5,but only early yet,.spring cats will start to roll in soon

I do most of my shopping online. I think we should all communicate to the companies and tell them we'll take free shipping on their merchandise instead of the catalog.

I understand it costs a lot to design, create, and mail out catalogs....I'd much rather look online and get free shipping or say a 20% discount on their products.

I definitely see a trend here -- the farther north we live, the more we seem to love our seed catalogs!

Can't have to many cataloques. So much information to be gleened from them. Makes wonderful Winter reading material.
dahilanut, I like your idea of clipping pictures, great idea.
I recycle mine when I am through with them. My favorite for actual reading is Plant Delights. Lots of interesting things to read, ideas to put to use, etc.

I love my seed and plant catalogues. They are pretty to look at and I can sometimes get ideas from looking through them. On the other hand, I have bought some pretty miserable looking and even dead plants and half rotten bulbs that were replaced with even more dead plants and half rotten bulbs along with customer service from Mars on a few occasions.

This is a satirical comedy I made up to illustrate one of my past dilemmas. We will never forget the boxes of dead roses from a company who`s name will remain unanimous but is notorious for negative feedback on Garden Watchdog.

Customer service:"I hope you are having a wonderful day how may I help you?

Me: "The problem is I ordered some roses and they are brown all over,dry and crumbled to nothing in the bag...you know dead. I`d like to receive some live roses.

customer service: "Are you sure the roses are dead?"

Me: " Well,I`m a experienced gardener and I have seen door nails more alive than these roses."

Customer service: "Excuse me. (She yells to someone in the back.) "Do we sell door nails? They yell back,"No!" Then without skipping a beat she says," We don`t carry a product named "door nails"You might have the wrong number."

Me: Is this bleep bleep company? My customer number is .... and could you please honor your guarantee and replace this order?

Customer service: Certainly but one of your products is on back order for 2020 but we can get your "Full of Life" roses right out to you ok?

Me: (Moment of silence) Okay thank you.

2 weeks later I get another box full of brown roses...I call them back.

Customer service: "Are you sure the roses are dead? Our Specialty Roses tend to have a brown stalk but I assure you just plant them and they will miraculously spring to life."

Me: (I suppress a desire to yell and scream into the phone) These Are dead alright."

Customer service: Well we only replace plants one time. We don`t give them out for free...click



So I tend to stick with looking at the pictures and buying seeds And I religiously check Garden Watchdog before I order no matter how pretty the pictures may be! Karen

LOL I think I too have talked to that same customer rep.^_^

I have more garden magazines and less product garden magazines. I have dg, what do I need them for?

I keep getting one a day.

good idea gardener 2005,we need more seed growers

I order online but I really need to have the paper catalogues to choose from and mark. Last year I tried ordering from Pinetree totally online because I somehow lost their catalogue. I went through their site and selected everything I wanted, but then had to go check something out away from the computer. When I got back my whole order had been lost; I had to recreate it from scratch. In so doing I left out one of my essential varieties, and of course couldn't reorder once I realized my omission because the postage would have been more than the seed packet! That was NOT a good experience. So paper, please!

We do recycle the previous year's catalogues, at least.

I'm not adventurous to order by catalog. I like to SEE and FEEL the quality of my plants first. However, I have ordered seeds and bulbs by mail and there is little to disappoint in that purchase.

So no, consider catalogs junk mail here. Unless you use them as weed barriers :)

I'm getting one to two a day here, with at least 40 newish ones piled up on various shelves, so I checked the "piles of catalogs" option--even though I don't agree with "the more the merrier." Definitely more than I need! Though I do enjoy the thumbing-through, page-turning-down experience in the dead of a cold January. I do almost all of my plant-seeds-bulbs ordering on-line (checking the Garden Watchdog each time) but the printed catalog photos do get me going, which is probably why the companies bother with the expense of producing and sending them out! The pictures somehow look much more lush on the printed page.

so what are some of the "must-have" catalogs? I'm afraid to sign up to have one sent to me. The last time I did that, I think my address got on some list and we got a ton of junk mail not even pertaining to gardening.

Territorial and Pinetree are two of my favorites to actually order from. I also like Thompson & Morgan. Some of the catalogs I just like to have for the pictures----White Flower Farm is one. They're too expensive for me, but I've gotten some good ideas from their photos. High Country Gardens is another one I like, but now I only order from them when they offer me free shipping as a repeat customer, which is one good reason to get on their lists.

If you sign up online to receive a catalog, you can often check a box asking the vendor not to share your name with other companies. If they're reputable, they'll respect that. DO check Garden Watchdog before signing up with anyone---it may save you a lot of trouble and money!!

I'd agree completely with Territorial and Pinetree, and would add Johnny's Selected Seeds as one I always order from, also Totally Tomatoes.