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Many people order their seeds from catalogs because they cannot find the types of seeds they need in their local area. If you are thinking of ordering your seeds from a catalog this year, then you should plan now to start getting the right ones ordered.
Step one is to order the catalogs you want. Check online for lists of gardening catalogs or ask your gardening friends. You also can look in gardening magazines for advertisements. Although there are scores of catalogs available, you should order only the ones that you think may be of interest. If you live in the Pacific Northwest, then Awesome Tropical Seeds will not do you any good. Stay away; it only will serve to give you too many choices.
Once the catalog arrives, you will need to pick out the plants. Now you probably will notice that these plants are fairly pricy. That is because they are special-order plants. You are paying for the fact that they are not in your local area and for the additional care that must be taken in shipping these plants. Still you can rest assured that the plants you order through the mail are well taken care of, so you do not need to worry about their quality as much as if you were purchasing cheap from a retailer.
When the plants arrive, you will need to take care to open them and get them started growing immediately. You should look at the amount of time the plants take to ship so that you can try to time your order with the time you will be able to plant the seeds or seedlings that you have ordered. If you end up with the plants too early, then you will need to purchase containers to put them in before you even open the box. Remember that the plants are very delicate but are protected while they are in the box. Keep them that way until you are ready to move them. This prep time should not take more than a day or so, however, as the plants are not intended to survive in the box for long.
When you are ready, remove the lid from the box carefully. A leaf or two may fall out, but the bulk of the plant should remain intact. In fact, you should find that each plant is in a separate container or hole in the box and that the plants all have labels on them. If they do not have labels, after saying mean things about the seed company, you sho