Hopefully by now you've accrued a pile of well-thumbed garden catalogs, some already marked with sticky tabs and yellow highlighter, or at least a couple turned-down pages. I'm still hoping for a little more quality time with my catalogs and some hot chocolate. Maybe you've just been glued to the computer screen, dazzled by the bright colors and earnest promises of the seed and plant companies.
You'll see some catalogs have widened their offerings to include more vegetable seeds after the explosion of interest in growing food this year. Seed companies were one of the few businesses to see growth (is that a pun?) after the economic downturn. And yet another trend has emerged and spread in scope; pollinators are finally getting their time in the spotlight.
Bee on Coneflower by The Garden Buzz
A few catalogs have always been kind enough to connote the attraction of certain plants for particular pollinators like hummingbirds and butterflies. But this year some catalogs have given a shout-out to the hardworking and humble bee. It's about time.
Like a horticultural Oscars ceremony, I wanted to give an award for the best catalogs in a pollinator-supporting role, and maybe a few honorable mentions. Please note there might be some that I missed, if so let me know, I'm always up for a good garden read. And as always, these plugs are totally unsolicited.
High Country Gardens comes in first with a bee on the cover and directly inside a moving message about bees as the "spark of life", responsible for every third bite of food we eat. High Country Gardens specializes in xeric and native plants, mostly for the western half of the US, however there are quite a few selections that are suitable for the rest of us. Plants for the western states are marked with a cowboy hat icon; I always get sad when I see the cowboy hat, so many cool plants I'll never grow again. But this year something that makes me smile with every page; joining the butterfly and hummingbird icons is a buzzing bumblebee to showcase bee-friendly plants. Kudos to High Country Gardens and its founder, David Salman.
John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds is a close second with delightful drawings of birds and ladybugs, and now with golden bumblebees buzzing around the seed selections and tasty recipes on every page. In addition the back cover features a collection of collections for growing habitat gardens for butterflies, hummingbirds, songbirds and now, ta-da...bumblebees!
In third place, Select Seeds, whose specialty is antique flowers, so often preferred by pollinators, uses an icon to specify plants for hummingbirds and butterflies while also mentioning them in individual plant descriptions when appropriate. They sell habitat seed collections as well.
Thompson and Morgan gets an honorable mention for selling 'The Natural Garden", a grouping of traditional British wildflower seeds suitable for the US, for planting a wildlife habitat.
Beyond that Richter's, the herb catalog, Seed Savers Exchange, the heirloom seed source, and Blustem Perennials, along with White Flower Farm and Roots and Rhizomes give occasional mention of the pollinator attracting charactersistics of certain plants.
I'm sure there are more catalogs adding this crucial onformation to their products...let me know and I'll list them in an additional post. Please consider planting for pollinators this year. Climate change, habitat loss, invasive species and disease are some of the greatest threats facing these valuable creatures. Every little bit helps!
