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Garden catalogs are more than pages and pages of appealing pictures for casual enjoyment.</p><p> They inspire you to improve or reinvent your yard.</p><p> They describe each seed down to the number of petals on the flowers or how the leaves are arranged on stems.</p><p> They also present you to the latest and greatest in plant development, whether it's a new color in a coneflower or a bigger and beat tomato.</p><p> For 2012, Burpee's catalog introduces its Improve Collection of six nutrient-rich vegetables designed exclusively for core gardens. All were naturally bred by traditional hybridization, with no genetically modified organisms, or unwanted GMOs, according to a Burpee spokeswoman.</p><p> Burpee claims its Raise veggies provide higher levels of disease-fighting antioxidants. For model, a half cup of Cherry Punch tomatoes delivers 90 percent of the recommended everyday dose of Vitamin C, and Sweet Heat peppers produce 65 percent more Vitamin C than the mediocre garden pepper. Its Healing Hands salad mix with four greens - mustards, radicchio and lettuce - can be harvested every three weeks for several salads. Haven gardeners can purchase Boost via the print catalog or online at Burpee.com. The Gold Guide hybrid cucumber with five times the beta-carotene and Healing Hands Salad Mix are at one's fingertips as seeds only; the tomatoes and peppers in the collection come as seeds or plants.</p><p> Here are 5 more catalogs, all untrammelled, worth getting because they offer a wide selection of growing information for Zones 3-10 and they do double duty as educational material:</p><p> Brent and Becky's Bulbs</p><p> Always known for spectacular hop- and summer-flowering bulbs, Brent and Becky Heath have added a few perennials to their summer catalog. This year, Becky recommends a Veronica called Magnificent Candles with royal blue spikes that look showy in the full-sun summer wainscotting; it grows 10 to 15 inches tall and is cold vigorous Zones 4-9.</p><p> The catalog also includes a couple new Colocasias, or elephant ears that add a cover of the tropics to your warm-weather gardens no matter where you live. They propagate in the ground or look stunning in large pots on your patio or porch. One of the new ones is Bikini-Tini with bluish gray leaves with sombre purple veins and leaves that face upward and fill with water when it rains; they one's name to on sturdy stems in full sun or partial shade and are rated cold intrepid to Zone 6.</p><p> The Heaths, who live and garden in southeastern Virginia, also like Eucomis, nicknamed pineapple lily, because its untested and finished flowers give the garden beautiful structure. The Heaths inject the new Twinkle Stars with pink flowers that feature stamens that almost "glitter" with pollen; it grows 24 to 30 inches soaring and is cold hardy Zones 7-9. To get the free print catalog, pop in www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com or call toll free 877-661-2852.</p><p> High State Gardens</p><p> Brakelights red yucca, a plant known to be a hummingbird magnet, is a new introduction for this proprietorship which specializes in perennials, ornamental grasses and shrubs that require mini water. Cold hardy in Zones 5-10, the yucca produces demanding strips of foliage with dark-green, grassy non-spiny leaves that are packed and evergreen. Its nectar-rich flowers keep hummers coming all summer extensive.</p><p> High Country Gardens, located in Santa Fe, N.M., also unveils its Make Booster Perennial Collection with small- and medium-sized flowering perennials that, when planted into and around vegetable gardens and potted vegetables, attracts bees for pollination. The 12-vegetable selection is cold hardy in Zones 5-9 and includes Pink Pounce on beebalm, Select Blue cat mint, Blue Fortune agastache, purple coneflower, Small Lemon goldenrod and Rotkugel oregano.</p><p> If beneficial bees peerage high on your list, Peter's Purple beebalm is what you need, peculiarly if you want a species resistant to the powdery mildew that plagues most beebalms. Heatless hardy in Zones 6-10, it puts on a two-month display of lavender-purple flowers and requires mean water to keep the show going.</p><p> To get the free print catalog, drop in on www.highcountrygardens.com or call toll free 800-925-9387.</p><p> Logee's</p><p> The occupy of Logee's new catalog showcases what it does best - offers rare and pitiless-to-find plants like the container-grown Fukushu kumquat on the include. Inside, the catalog profiles 68 new plants, including staghorn fern on volcanic scarp, Bienvenue hibiscus with 6-inch, pink-swirl blooms, variegated Chinese violet with incandescent pink-lavender blooms and orange lipstick plant.</p><p> Located in Connecticut, Logee's celebrates 120 years of donation tropical and hardy fruiting plants and an assortment of fragrant and tropical plants for containers. The followers rounds out its catalog with hardy jasmine, red passion flowers, mandevilla, bamboo and angel's trumpet. Some of its oddities catalogue chenille plant with furry-red catkins, lollipop flower with spires of yellow climb-shaped lollipops and Chinese perfume plant with scented yellow blooms you can from several times a year.</p><p> When you order, you get 2 1/2- or 4-inch potted plants that can go in containers or in the inform.</p><p> To get the free print catalog, visit www.logees.com or call chime free 888-330-8038.</p><p> Niche Gardens</p><p> Position Gardens is a retail and mail-order nursery that has found its niche in nursery-propagated wildflowers and aboriginal perennials, ornamental grasses, and unusual trees and shrubs. Located in Chapel Hill, N.C., the nursery's catalog is on the campagna side with mostly listings of tried-and-true specimens like wild columbine glacial hardy in Zones 3-8, artemisia cold hardy in Zones 3-10 and asters for Zones 4-8. New weed offerings include two dwarf conifers - Chamaecyparis Snow and Nana Gracillis - that are unpretentious enough for almost any garden and also add a touch of living art as they grow.</p><p> Since deer are such problems for gardeners everywhere, the catalog features symbols indicating deer resisters, relying on the gardens' own experience with deer, as well as published literature on the humble.</p><p> You'll also learn that native asters have new names, as described under Ampelaster carolinianus, or climbing aster, which produces loads of solidly, purplish-pink buds that open to reveal spidery rose-pink flowers that be one's age to lilac. At Niche Gardens, a mailbox covered in this vining aster blooms mid-October through November; the situate is cold hardy Zones 7-9 so it can be treated as a summer annual in colder climates.</p><p> To get the furlough print catalog, visit www.nichegardens.com or call 919-967-0078.</p><p> Tomato Growers</p><p> Everyone everywhere enjoys immature, juicy, home-grown tomato for summertime sandwiches and salads and this catalog is all about tomatoes. New varieties for 2012 classify Green Doctors and its cherry-sized green fruit and cherry cascade combination with cascading clusters of red cherry tomatoes - both perfect for popping in your gateway or on top of crisp salads. In all, there are 15 new tomatoes, one All-America Selections new scatter and a rare new eggplant called Pot Black.</p><p> You've got to be a seed-starting aficionado because all the tomatoes and all the other veggies are offered only by distribute. Therefore, the back of the catalog is devoted to seed-starting equipment and supplies like jiffy pot trays, starting mix, pollute warmers and tomato pens that are made of heavy galvanized wire that hug flat for easy storing and last for many years of fresh homegrown tomatoes.</p><p> To get the relieved of print catalog, visit www.tomatogrowers.com or call toll free 888-478-7333.</p><p> 5 ORDERING TIPS</p><p> On hardy plants. Select plants suitable for your climate, not well-grounded because they look pretty in pictures, especially when it comes to perennials, shrubs and trees that you have a yen for to keep around for a long time. Catalogs and online sites usually take precautions cold-hardy zones for each species; if you don't know your zone, look for a map that illustrates the divergent zones or contact your extension office. Also, make sure the bush is suitable for the site in your yard, such as sun or shade, wet or dry. Read catalogs carefully for transplant descriptions and tips that help you make good choices.</p><p> Excellent suitable seeds. Read descriptions carefully and pick varieties that will relinquish the best results, especially if you live where there is a shorter growing pep up for summer flowers, vegetables and fruits. Also, look for disease-unruly varieties.</p><p> Be ready. Avoid ordering plants that you can't hurriedly put in the ground or pots. Use mild winter days to till and prep beds before your undercover orders arrive. Instructions that come with the plants are your best guides.</p><p> Pecking order early. Plants and seeds are often available in limited quantities, so luck out a fitting your order early to avoid disappointment. If you don't want a substitution, formal so clearly on your order form.</p><p> Keep records. Make a transcribe of your order sheet so you have the names, item numbers, prices and dates to expropriate you communicate clearly with a company if you have questions about an order. Also, be familiar with the firm's guarantee policy before you order. - Direct Gardening Intimacy: www.directgardeningassociation.com for more catalog sources</p><p> 10 BEST ONLINE SITES</p><p> Because so many gardeners are environmentally wilful and want to avoid an avalanche of paper products in the mail, here are some passable sites for shopping online:</p><p> Bluestone Perennials with 100 percent biodegradable pots at www.bluestoneperennials.com.</p><p> Mould Box for growing, watering and seed-starting systems at www.earthbox.com.</p><p> Esculent Landscaping with berries, figs, persimmons, citrus and vegetables at www.ediblelandscaping.com.</p><p> The Gardener's Workshop with alcohol-friendly tools, flower and herb seeds and learning center at www.shoptgw.com.</p><p> Johnny's Selected Seeds with blossom, herb, and vegetable seeds, as well as tools and supplies, at www.johnnyseeds.com</p><p> Gardener's Contribute with indoor and outdoor gardening supplies, including greenhouses, at www.gardeners.com.</p><p> Gardens Alert to! with organic controls for pests, animals, diseases and weeds at www.gardensalive.com.</p><p> Despatch-Order Natives with coastal salt tolerant, palms, grasses, ferns and fruits at www.mailordernatives.com.</p><p> Sow Delights with native and unusual perennials at www.plantdelights.com.</p><p> Renee's Garden with vegetable and herb seeds at www.reneesgarden.com.</p><p> Kathy is gardening columnist for the Day after day Press in Newport News; contact her at kvanmullekom@aol or follow her blog at www.roomandyard.
Source: Kansas City Star