Did you know that you can get free seed catalogs?
Many companies offer seed catalogs at no cost. They are a great resource to find rare, heirloom and unusual varieties of seeds.
Get Free Seed Catalogs
I pulled out as many seed catalogs as I could carry to take a look at them. These were the bulb catalogs featuring beautiful summer bulbs, rose and other specialty flower catalogs, and a few more gardening supply catalogs. (I’m not endorsing any of these catalogs, by the way, nor did anyone pay me anything to show them – this is simply what arrived in my mailbox since Christmas.)
It’s a far cry from the 1800s when the Shakers, a religious group in New England, began offering their seeds via mail order. The quality and innovative packaging of the seeds enabled gardeners to purchase seeds that otherwise wouldn’t be available in their local community.
In my own home town of Floral Park, Long Island, our town was literally built on the former seed and plant growing empire of John Lewis Childs, a businessman, and plantsman who started a profitable mail-order seed company in the late 1800s on the fertile soil of the Hempstead Plain. And while today Floral Park is better known as a great little community to grow a family, the soil underneath all those suburban houses remains rich and loamy, great for growing a garden.
You can see a pea seed between the two plants. Just stick it back into the ground.
How to Get Free Seed Catalogs
If you’re looking to get free seed catalogs, there are several ways to obtain them.
1. Search for Companies and Complete Forms
First, you can search on the internet for famous seed companies. Most have a form on their website to request a catalog. Fill it out and wait; it will arrive soon.
2. Gardening Magazines
If you subscribe to gardening magazines, chances are very good that the magazines have rented your name out to various companies for marketing purposes. This is a standard operating procedure and really, in the case of gardeners, most of us don’t object to receiving catalogs and other marketing materials filled with plants and garden supplies. Okay, you may object because it is so tempting, but it is fun to see what’s out there!
3. Previous Purchases
Lastly, if you buy from one seed company, chances are good that the others will start sending your catalogs, too. Why? Same reason as with the gardening magazines; companies sell or rent your contact information to similar companies. It doesn’t make intuitive sense at first glance, but as a direct marketer by profession, I can tell you it is true. I always wonder whether or not the profit they make from selling the list outweighs sharing their customer list with competitors, but I suppose it must because it is so commonplace in the industry.
One Last Tip: Host a Catalog Swap!
One last way that occurred to me after my Master Gardener class last week is to gather all your gardening friends together for tea and a catalog swap!
In the middle of February or January when you’re craving gardening fun and it’s either too cold or snowy, why not throw a little gardening get together at your home? Everyone should bring either some seed catalogs or gardening magazines they want to “swap”.
Provide tea and cookies or snacks and have a fun afternoon hanging out and flipping through the gardening periodicals, dreaming of the time to come when you can actually plant those wonderful seeds and plants. You may also want to organize some group orders too among your friends; if a package of 100 hollyhock seeds is way too many, maybe split four ways it’s better for your garden.
That gardening catalog/seed swap sounds like a lot of fun! Great idea!
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