I truly like going through the catalogues in January. With a broad group of catalogues you have the opportunity to be variety specific. For instance, bush beans almost demand that you crawl through your garden to pick them. There is a variety called Purple Teepee that presents its beans right up o n top of the plant. Additionally, the bugs that make filigree of your first true leaves don't seem to care for Purple beans.

These beans are quite good too. They turn green, once cooked. But the point is, Parks is the only place I know of where you can get these string beans. I wouldn't have discovered these beans without their catalogue. I still hate crawling for the beans, but with them growing on top like that, the burden is more than halved.

You could hit every nursery in town and probably never be exposed to the diversity of varieties available in a Gurneys catalogue. Gurney's is especially neat because they are local, relatively speaking. The other companies, not mentioned last month are Vermont Bean Seed Company, Ferry-Morse Seeds, Jung Quality Seeds, Henry Field's, Jung Quality Seeds and Seymour's Selected Seeds. All of these companies mentioned have broad selections and varieties of vegetables. Well, all of them but Seymour's. Piedmont Plant Company will supply you with plants. Plants can give you a month or better of growth. There are many catalogue sources that I have not mentioned. I have not found those not mentioned to be particularly good in my garden. My focus is vegetables for my table and both the County and State Fairs.

There is one specialty catalogue that I must mention here. Select Seeds Antique Flowers, lists twelve Edible flowers. Edible Flowers have been coming on stronger and stronger the past few years. Look at the shelf space allocated to these small containers your next time through the produce section of your market.

The addresses of the catalogues mentioned are: