Magic in the mailbox
Stopping to smell the flowers
Arlene Marturano

Arlene Marturano is a master gardener, writer, and educator. As an advocate of gardening as a tool for learning, she helped develop the Carolina Children's Garden at the Sandhill Research and Education Center. She is an education consultant with T.E.A.C.H. marturano@yahoo.com

For months mail- order seed catalogs arrived in my mailbox. I've been reading these since childhood, and they still offer magic, suspense, excitement, and anticipation.

While each catalog has a unique focus and feature, it links gardeners to the history of horticulture in America and encourages participation in the history.

The D. Landreth Seed Company, founded in 1784 in Philadelphia, is the nation's oldest seed company. Among the earliest customers were the City of Philadelphia, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Joseph Bonaparte.

Commodore Perry's 1852 expedition to Japan carried thousands of pounds of Landreth seeds to the orient. Landreth introduced the first zinnias from Mexico to American gardeners in 1798. Bloomsdale spinach was introduced in 1826.

In modern times the company faced financial difficulties partly due to competition from other seed companies. Since 2003, the company has been owned by Barbara and Peter Melera. They plan to resurrect the company to the philosophy of its founder. The 2007 catalog has three mainfocuses: heirloom plants, container plants, and gardens for children.

The Park Seed Company originated in Pennsylvania in 1868 before moving to Greenwood, SC. It's one of the oldest and largest family owned mail- order seed companies in the US. The trial gardens are open to the public year- round. They are especially beautiful during the S.C. Festival of Flowers , which will be Sat., June 23, 2007.

Their seed grows throughout the world and has taken experimental flights with NASA in efforts to test the viability of growing plants in space.

The bright colorful catalog photographs tempt even the doubtful grower with the Easter egg plant, the Penguin gourds, and Big Moon pumpkins.

The Park Bio Dome seed starter kit guarantees success even for beginners.

Park Seed Company opened an online subsidiary dollar store for seed. DollarSeedStore.com should appeal to the no frills thrifty.

Marigolds in the Burpee catalog have always mesmorized me; I planted as many varieties as possible. Burpee continues to hybridize marigolds and introduced Snowman in 2006.

The family- owned Burpee Seed Company, born in Philadelphia in 1876, was sold to horticulturist George Ball in 1991.

The Ball Seed Company in West Chicago began a close working relationship with Burpee in the 1970s. The 2007 catalog cover introduces the porterhouse beefsteak tomato, an extra- large, weighing two to four pounds.

Select Seeds specializes in heirloom flowers, which are plants that originated over 50 years ago and are open- pollinated by insects, birds, and wind.

Flowers of romance like love- in- a- puff, love- -in- a- mist, forget- me- not, and kiss- me- over- the- garden gate are offered. So are perfumed sweet peas, flowering tobaccos, heliotrope, lavender, citrus- scented gas plant, and Napoleon's gift to Josephine, the mignonette.

An evening garden can be created with night blooming Jessamine, phlox, and moonflower. Offspring from the seeds are similar to both parents. Gardeners can save the seed for next year and pass some along to other gardeners.

Vegetable seed sources are catalogs from Nichol's, Territorial, and Twinleaf. Nichol's and Territorial are appreciated for their herbs, oriental salad greens and vegetables, colorful popcorn, and runner beans. Twinleaf celebrates the gardening treasures of Thomas Jefferson and includes selections from Monticello.

To select, transfer, and trial seed from a catalog to a garden is participating in the shaping of the history of horticulture.

Photos by Arlene Marturano