Catalogs sprout like weeds
All it takes is one
– just one – purchase through a mail-order garden catalog to be
swamped with more and more catalogs. This is because the catalog
people share, or sell, their mailing lists to others. So, one buy
brings in a ton of similar catalogs.
Catalogs sprout like weeds
All it takes is one – just one – purchase through a mail-order garden catalog to be swamped with more and more catalogs. This is because the catalog people share, or sell, their mailing lists to others. So, one buy brings in a ton of similar catalogs.
As tempting as some of those offerings appear, use your catalogs as wish books, but do your purchasing locally at area garden centers and nurseries.
I was reminded of this “Joanie Rule” once again when a reader asked about a type of lawn grass she had purchased through a mail-order catalog. “It’s called Canadian grass, and was guaranteed to grow in two weeks,” she said. “Sounded like a good idea and I could use it to fill in a large bare spot in my lawn area. Well, it did grow through winter and formed a nice green mat. But now it’s turned brown in the heat. As much as I water and fertilize I can’t get it to green up again. What do you think?”
What I think is that what grows well in Canada does not necessarily grow well in San Benito County. There is a Canadian Green Lawn Grass – which may or may not be the grass seed used in this particular case – that is both hot and cold tolerant, and drought tolerant as well. At least that is what the advertisers claim.
My advice to this reader to to continue to water and fertilize the area. In fall, around October, go down to the nearest garden center and buy a grass seed formulated for this region. Use it to overseed the mystery grass with the Canadian name.
But this focuses on the bigger problem of mail-order or online buying for the garden. You might have luck, but then again, you might not.
Wildflower mixes are a good example. Wildflowers are curious plants. They grow like weeds in the right setting but totally fail in the wrong environment. Prairie wildflowers thrive in the prairie, but there is no prairie in Hollister. Texas bluebonnets are beautiful, but this is not Texas. Wildflower mixes that you find on seed racks in our area are formulated to grow in our area. Why fuss around with something that is not suited to our growing conditions?
Fruit trees are another example. The apple tree that grows in Wisconsin or Maryland is not necessarily the apple tree that produces well in San Benito County. Apples need a certain amount of chill time (low temperatures) to set fruit. Cold in Wisconsin is a far cry from cold in Hollister. The fruit trees sold as bare-root stock at our local nurseries and garden centers are the ones most suited for best production in our own back yard orchards.
The same thing applies to numerous trees, shrubs, plants and seeds that are readily found in catalogs. Great pictures, wonderful descriptions. But will they grow here, and will they meet their full growth protential? It’s chancey at best.
There are, of course, exceptions, and the best example are rose bushes offered through mail-order catalogs and the Internet. Roses are proven producers and it is safe to buy roses this way.
A couple of caveats: Be careful about things that are guaranteed to grow, or guaranteed to produce bumper crops. Please! Guarantees like this are worthless because nothing is for certain, least of all in the garden.
Beware of drawings of plants in place of actual photos. If the bumper crop is so terrific, why is there no photo?
I have seen beautiful renditions of perennial garden layouts, all illustrated with lovely flower drawings. “You can grow a perennial garden like this” the text says. But what it doesn’t say is those perennials probably do not bloom at the same time and you will be sorely disappointed.
Mail-order garden catalogs are big, lucrative business. All also have on-line options. Before you fill out the mail-in order form, or sit at your keyboard and order these fabulous-sounding plants, check their suitability for the California garden in Sunset Western Garden Book. Factor in the shipping costs.
Then, drift through your neighborhood garden center and check their prices and their offerings.
Enjoy looking at the garden catalogs. But “buy local” is a good motto for the backyard gardener.
