Albert's Greenhouse

It's winter. It's cold outside. Time to sit by the fire, and see what the mailman brought us this year... This is part of a series of short looks at some of the plant catalogs that arrived in January.

Catalog: Thompson and Morgan
Cover Plant: Calendula "Sherbet Fizz" $2.45/80 seeds.
Paper: Thin, semi-glossy, small format, 204 pgs
Pictures: Color Throughout

Selling Ice to Eskimos: Eschscholzia californica $2.95/200 seeds. Living in Northern California, the california poppy grows alongside most country roads. But even I had no idea that there were so many color forms and cultivars available.
Cost of the Black Colocasia: ( not available ) but check out Coleus scutellarioides "Palisandra" at $2.95 / 15 seeds.
Cost of the Beefsteak Tomato: Brandywine $2.25/30 seeds
Best Bet: Primula auricula "Douglas Prize Mixed" $5.45/90 seeds - what other mainstream catalog sells something so beautiful, uncommon, and British?

Thompson and Morgan, being the US arm of a British company has a seed catalog which is, if nothing else, different. They are also a little more adventurous than most, offering strange things which may or may not actually germinate. For instance they offer two taccas ( p. 43, $4.95 and $5.95 ), which are notoriously difficult from anything but the freshest seed.

Prices have a bit larger standard deviation than some other catalogs, centered around about $3.00 for a packet of around 30 seeds, but rising to $5.25 for 5 individual seeds of something like Arisaema ciliatum. That's $1.05 per seed, and though I don't know if its the case for Arisaema, most aroid seeds don't survive dessication well.

Last time I ordered, the seeds arrived quickly, shipped from their US warehouse, and with a couple extra seed samples thrown in.

Drawing from a somewhat different set of seed suppliers than most, this catalog has a lot of unusual varieties, and shows no fear when it comes to selling seeds of tropicals and exotics. There's enough surprises to keep me turning the pages.