The holidays are over, and while I’m looking forward to hibernating just a bit, my gardener’s mind never truly shuts off. I’m already thinking ahead to seed-starting season. The seed catalogs began rolling in last month, and by now you probably have a tantalizing pile of them yourself. This is the perfect time to curl up on the couch with a cup of tea, a marker, and dive right in.
Here are a few tips for mail-order seed shopping, which, let’s be honest, can get out of hand in the blink of an eye.
1. Be realistic about what you can handle.
Most of us have limited space for an indoor seed-starting setup, so choose wisely. Skip seeds for plants you can easily buy as inexpensive starts at your local nursery. I love starting unusual tomato and pumpkin varieties from seed because I can’t find the most interesting ones locally, but unless you’re a serious broccoli aficionado, the varieties at the garden center are usually just fine. And do you really have room in your garden for those ultimately jumbo broccoli plants?
Would you be just as satisfied with a head of organic broccoli from the supermarket? Something to ponder.
2. Consider the size of your garden—and the plant’s mature size.
This goes hand in hand with the first tip. It’s surprising how quickly you can fill your available space and end up with far more seedlings than you can use. A half-dozen seedlings of each variety, rather than half a flat, is usually plenty. If you simply can’t help yourself, plan to gift your extras to time-strapped gardener friends who never quite got around to starting seeds.
3. Know which seeds prefer indoor sowing and which should be direct-sown.
Tomatoes and peppers need the extra time, warmth, and coddling that indoor seed-starting provides. On the other hand, carrots, beets, lettuces, and beans prefer to be sown directly into garden beds, where they germinate quickly and thrive without disturbance.
The same applies to flowers: foxgloves, hollyhocks, and nicotiana like an indoor start, while nasturtiums, zinnias, and sunflowers are happiest sown outdoors.
4. Pay attention to prices and quantities.
Some seed companies may appear cheaper at first glance, but check how many seeds are actually included in each packet to see if you’re truly getting a good deal. That said, be realistic. Do you really need 50 seeds of one tomato variety? Just a couple of plants of each variety will have you swimming in tomatoes, and leftover seeds, unless stored under ideal conditions, typically only last two to three years before germination rates begin to decline.
5. Be mindful of shipping costs.
This might be the first thing to check as you work your way through your catalog pile. Seed companies’ shipping rates can be surprisingly high, but there’s a good reason for it. Padded mailers are expensive, the packets themselves cost money to produce, and shipping and handling cover labor, materials, and the tedious work of counting and packaging the seeds and pulling orders. Try to consolidate orders whenever possible so you’re paying less for shipping. And in this age of Amazon instant gratification, be gentle with seed companies—many are small, family-run businesses that truly care about what they do and are simply trying to survive.
And now for the fun part…
6. Order poppies!
They love to be sown outdoors now. You can even scatter them over snow! Poppy seeds need the natural cold stratification that winter and early spring provide. As snow melts and refreezes, the seeds settle into the soil and wake up at exactly the right time in spring to grow and thrive.
7. Try something you’ve never grown before.
Chinese noodle beans are delicious and a hoot to grow. Groundcherries are sweet, addictive, and unlike anything you’ve ever tasted. Garden huckleberries, while inedible raw, make an utterly delicious pie. All three are incredibly easy to grow. Some of my favorite unusual ornamentals include swan plant, tassel flower, and ‘Glass Gem’ ornamental corn.
Happy shopping!
By Michelle Gervais
—
Michelle Gervais is a horticulturist from northwestern Connecticut by way of southwestern Virginia, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in horticulture from Virginia Tech. She spent 15 years traveling the country and learning from incredibly talented gardeners as a senior editor at Fine Gardening magazine, followed by a decade marketing flower bulbs and seeds for a trio of mail-order companies. She is the author of The Design-Your-Garden Toolkit (Storey Publishing) and currently serves as Public Programs & Outreach Manager at Innisfree Garden in Millbrook, New York—and is a huge fan of Womanswork.
