Ordering Plants By Mail

A selection of print catalogs from years past

As the new year begins, piles of garden catalogs stuffed with all manner of flowers, veggies, seeds and bulbs start deluging our mailboxes. Those glossy photos look so tempting as we flip the pages and sip our tea. Whether we’re in a buying mood or not, it’s exciting to peruse new varieties and ponder others we still haven’t gotten around to acquiring but keep thinking about.

So you circle one here, dog-ear a page there… Finally you decide to commit your choices to the order form and hit send.

Or maybe not.

Maybe you just don’t trust mail order. Or you had a bad experience years ago and swore Never again. But mail ordering living plant material has come a long way. Let me lay out the pros and cons of gardening by mail.