Earlier this month, during a surprisingly warm week, Susan Harris, Scott Beuerlein and I represented GardenRant and joined 10,900 horticultural professionals in Baltimore for this year’s Mid Atlantic Nursery and Trade Show (MANTS). MANTS attracts vendors from all over the States and abroad to showcase new plants, nursery stock, equipment, and the innovative new products that might be on your nursery shelves next year. Some fraction of GardenRant is usually in attendance.
This year.
Three years ago!
For garden media, it’s a mecca of information – and for this particular garden writer and podcaster, that means picking up print catalogs PACKED with updated plant information and charts, good photos and detailed cultivation requirements. I remember the very first time I ever saw a wholesale catalog on the dining room table of a nursery friend putting in an annuals order 20 years ago, and it was an eye-popping revelation.
Due to the cost effectiveness of putting this information online, there aren’t as many print catalogs as there used to be; but many of the companies that still offer them are producing something that, in terms of information (and sometimes design), equals or bests many new books flooding the market.
In a complex world of patented plants, cultivar names that start to run together, and web pages that scrape and regurgitate info from top ten search results – or increasingly, AI – I am incredibly grateful for them.
Why Print Catalogs, You Crazy Luddite?
For someone like me who has long since passed the point of terminal screen fatigue, and is actively trying to limit screens sucking any more of my life essence like a Dark Crystal muppet – these browse-worthy books are a welcome resource.
I don’t want them all, just certain ones that I know and trust. And they don’t represent every plant out there – particularly pass-along plants no longer in the trade; or plants without press; or plants which don’t present well on shelves at the right time (unless they are native).
I also don’t tend to grab catalogs from annual breeders more than once every few years, because the series change so fast, and availability is so unpredictable for home gardeners that it doesn’t make much sense. But for perennials, shrubs and trees? Fantastic.
Which Catalogs?
Some of the best and most diverse guides are by growers for growers (such as Hoffman Nursery, Saunders Bros., or J Frank Schmidt & Son) as they don’t necessarily own the patent or brand on a plant and have less ‘skin in the game’. These companies may have a breeding team and make new introductions, but if an established plant is a good doer, and people want it, they’re probably going to carry it if they can.
As an example, Hoffman Nursery is a second-generation family run wholesale nursery in Rougemont, NC that is well known for their grasses. They also carry a wide range of perennials and carry both patented and non-patented plants from big name breeders and distributors all over the US and abroad. Hoffman sells baby plants (called ‘liners’) to your nursery, who then finish growing them in bigger pots, and sell them on to you.
Open up their 8×6” catalog and you aren’t just looking at plants. YEARS of research is presented in easily digested charts that make choosing the right cultivar or species for varied needs extremely easy.
Plants for covering the ground…native plants for stormwater management…drought tolerant…wet tolerant…plants that are good for green roofs…etc. Their plant directory not only carries a good photo of the plant, but showcases important genera with additional information, and picks a few ‘favorites’.
And seriously — how helpful is this?!?!?!? (Mt. Cuba also has an excellent research guide on Carex for all you Carex lovers. It sits on my shelf too.)
Some Catalogs Share Audiences
Retail/wholesale guides produced by breeders, brokers and distributers such as David Austin, or Proven Winners, which do have more skin in the game and can also sell direct to the public, can also be extremely helpful in seeing what is available within the brand and what (ideally) a specific plant should look like.
Yes, they are occasionally guilty of exaggeration and understandably focus on plants for which they hold patents or have the exclusive right to carry. But there are a lot of great plants under big brands; and a little parental/patental favoritism can be forgiven if you calibrate it with a certain degree of industry knowledge and experience. There is no better way of seeing all the plants available in a certain series; or getting a great idea of ultimate shape or form; or hearing about the nuanced differences and maintenance needs in a certain genus by breeders who specialize in that genus.
Some catalogs may even dish parentage info, so you can make connections you might not make otherwise. I am thrilled this year to pick up a beautiful print copy of Heuger’s Helleborus Gold Collection of Hellebores which will now replace the cruddy black and white copies I printed off the internet and stuffed into Cole Burrell’s book on Hellebores (pub. 2006!) for reference.
I’d love to have comprehensive new book on the subject, but sadly, it doesn’t seem to be a priority for any publisher when there are 28 new books on growing vegetables or growing wild that need immediate attention. My catalogs from Heuger and Pacific Plug and Liner (Frost Kiss Series) will have to do. Beautifully.
And of course we cannot forget the seed companies, like Jelitto or Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, who know well that customers may want to order on the internet, but they want to browse in print.
I have tome-sized print catalogs on my shelves of Baker Creek/RareSeeds that stretch back years, and regularly get pulled for reference when I want to make an internet search but need to remember what variety I am searching for. Michael Morphy, Nursery Manager at Great Dixter once showed me a worn copy of a Jelitto catalog in the Dixter potting shed and called the detailed seed sowing instructions for difficult seed categories in the back of it “his Bible.” The internet connection is not always brilliant at Dixter. Print wins the day.
This year, new to me, a copy of Ernst Seeds catalog, which not only has photos and descriptions of many native and ‘naturalized’ plants used for bioremediation purposes, but incredibly detailed instructions on everything from meadow establishment to streambank stabilization.
Home gardeners are not out of luck
Many if not most of these resources are online, which is good news for gardeners who want to learn from them but can’t go to a professional tradeshow to pick them up. I’ve listed the ones I mentioned here below, but there were many more.
Thank you to the companies who continue to print them for those of us who enjoy curling up in bed and learning something new without navigating internet rabbit holes that lead to sleep deprivation. If you know one of these companies, please pass this post on with my sincere gratitude – and no doubt, the gratitude of many. -MW
The other great part of MANTS. The evenings.
Helleborus Gold Collection (Heuger)
Thanks for providing links to all those growers! And kudos to those who provide great print catalogs. What’s the difference between a liner and a plug?
And how fortunate this show dodged the storm!
Traditionally, plugs are seed grown baby plants — liners are vegetatively propagated. But I wonder if those trade designations are becoming blurred with the advent of plugs offered to retail customers, (particularly in the native plant movement). Possibly. Perhaps one of our readers with more knowledge of this could weigh in. And yes — we were thrilled to have MANTS happen over a decent week of weather. There have been some pretty dodgy years! –MW
May I also recommend West Coast Seeds from British Columbia
lots of good information there
Thank you for the addition – very helpful — MW
What about Plants Delight Nursery?? A wonderful source of plants and information.
Yes — I absolutely love the PD catalogs! –MW
I would add Prairie Moon, both online and in print. The detailed propagation instructions rival those of Jelitto.
Thank you Joe – MW
Loved the MANTS shows. Went many times working the American Boxwood Society booth when I was a young member…now just an old member and don’t live close by. Thanks for the info on the catalogs.
I still have the last few editions of Heronswood catalogues to consult. Information galore. But dispiriting in that I can no longer have my annual plant lust get together with friends. We had to each order something we had never heard of or had dreamed of having. I’m sure Dan Hinkley would have plenty to add now. Thanks for the heads up on some new catalogues!