| A Seed Catalog Gardeners Will Love |
Master gardener Maureen Gilmer, host of Weekend Gardening, extols the virtues of an invaluable resource for gardeners.
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By Maureen Gilmer
Feb. 18, 2008 — I have finally come to terms with my obsessive-compulsive personality. Call it a one-track mind, tunnel vision or maybe it's just a drive that's all out of proportion with reality. Whatever it is, the Select Seeds catalog reached out and snagged my OCD brain bigtime. It's because these pages are packed with favorite plants, all from a single source. My typical buying fiasco is to order from a variety of different specialty catalogs to find all the oddball weird obsessions I love to grow. Invariably some get overlooked in this annual snafu. Now I can make one transaction and they're all taken care of. Select Seeds is subtitled "Heirloom treasures for modern gardens." So what seed treasures from its gorgeous color pages light my fire? First off, the annual double purple Datura metal with its huge b-colored trumpets is sold here as "Black Currant Swirl." These fast-growing native annuals of the American Southwest reach three feet and bloom like crazy in one season. They make killer garden plants, but beware: all are intensely poisonous. Maybe that beauty and danger combo is what makes me obsess on an improved native white form, "Belle Blanche" and "Evening Fragrance." Grow this one to impress high-horti friends and neighbors. Amaranth is an ancient grain that preceded corn by centuries. Fast from seed and resilient, it's a great plant for every summer garden. Love Lies Bleeding is the old red Victorian favorite that can be found here and there in seed catalogs. Flower arrangers covet their dangling blood red tresses. I've hunted many colorful varieties from far-flung sources, but the "Coral Fountain" form offers a rich apricot hue that's far more versatile in garden palettes. You can also try their "Magic Fountains" mix to test out the full range of amaranth colors. Years ago a friend brought a garden-grown bouquet of pincushion flowers that just knocked my socks off. It was the deepest purple red bloom, dense as a pincushion topped with snow-white flecks that look like pin heads. Unlike the perennials, Scabiosa atropurpurea "Black Knight" is well worth the effort to sow around your garden. Cornflowers seem to have fallen out of favor, probably because they are rarely grown as commercial seedlings and thus are rare in garden centers. This wonderful annual is as old-fashioned as it can get. The Centaurea cyanus loves a cool climate and can be sown right into the soil early in the season. They grow into taller bushy plants that produce a wealth of beautiful flowers. Here you can choose from "Black Gem" for dark maroon coloring or the more traditional "Jubilee Gem" that was all the rage when it won big lauds back in 1937. If you plant generously, you'll enjoy some of the most charming of all single-flowered bouquets right out of an old-fashioned country wedding. For the culinary lover, you just can't find a better selection of nasturtium varieties anywhere. This is the signature flower of the Arts and Crafts movement and belongs in the Craftsman-style bungalow cottage garden. Its pinwheel-shaped leaves are fabulous in their own right, but when you add choices in all the hot colors as well as vivid mixtures, you can plant them in every bed and border. Edible and spicy flowered plants are an exceptional garnish and chopped to add color in green salads. I think the folks at Select Seeds and I are both on the same page because I totally dig everything in this catalog. If you're not a seed person, you'll be happy to know that they also sell plants by mail. That's a great way to stock up on unique varieties of foxgloves, columbine, hollyhock and rose campion. You can shop online at www.selectseeds.com or ask for their beautiful full color catalog. (Maureen Gilmer is a horticulturist and host of Weekend Gardening. E-mail her at mo@moplants.com. For more information, visit: www.moplants.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.) | Get DIY On Your TV. Just follow the instructions to see if DIY Network is available through your cable or satellite provider. |
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