Heirloom and Vintage are two of the best, with Heirloom having beautiful pictures of every rose in the catalogue and Vintage having great information on many, many roses. But I'm a pushover for catalogues. I like the Nor'East and Bridges catalogues of minis, even J&P for the fun of reading it. Back when the J&P catalogue was saturated with rose perfume it was almost sinful to read while inhaling that great fragrance.

You are welcome georgia! I was also thinking that maybe you could check the rate and review vendor forum for sites that deal in heirloom seeds. I also seem to recall their being a thread on the seed exchange conversation side about vendors and I'm pretty sure that one of them sold lots of heirloom veggies. Check this thread and see if you find a good site: Here is a link that might be useful: Name those favorite garden catalogs

OK, here's a few to get you started. Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (www.rareseeds.com) has some of the old standbys that tolerate our widely changeable weather. Seeds they offer include a lot of the annuals commonly grown from seed like zinnias, asters, cosmos, datura, love-in-a-mist, castor beans, etc. Select Seeds offers seeds of many varieties of heirlooms, and sells some plants as well. A lot of the seeds they offer can be found in other places, but some of them I've never seen offered anywhere else. They have an especially nice selection of seeds for moon gardens (white and light-colored flowers and foliage, and many night bloomers). Their website is www.selectseeds.com. Wildseed Farms is one of my favorite seed suppliers. It carries not only prairie-type grasses and wildflowers, but several of the cultivated varieties of flowers that grow so well in our climate. In their 2008 Wildflower Reference Guide and Seed Catalog (which arrived last week), for example, they have 10 varieties of zinnias, 10 varieties of hybrid sunflowers, and 14 varieties of cosmos, including the dwarf Ladybird line. They also carry a few herbs, and many, many "wildflowers" including yarrow, winecup, lance-leaved coreopsis, sweet alyssum, sweet william, red corn poppy, larkspur, purple coneflower, Mexican hat, Laura Bush Petunia (the only petunias I've ever grown that are able to keep blooming even when the temperatures start exceeding 100 degrees), clasping coneflower, butterfly weed, Texas bluebonnet, Indian paintbrush, and Alamo Fire (red-flowered) bluebonnet. They also have "wildflower mixes" that include a Texas/Oklahoma Wildflower Mix, a butterfly/hummingbird blend, a cut flower mix, and a pack of poppies mix. Another good source for native-type flowers that will thrive in our climate is Seeds of Change. Among other things, they have some really gorgeous amaranths and sunflowers. Their website is www.seedsofchange.com. Seed Savers Exchange (www.seedsavers.org) offers a public catalog that offers a nice selection of heirloom flowers. If you join their organization (for which their is an annual fee) you have access, via their membership, to many, many other varieties of heirloom flowers, some of which are quite rare and obscure. Two of the major players in the seed catalog world are Burpee and Park Seed, which can be accessed via www.burpee.com and www.parkseed.com. They invest big dollars in breeding new plants and each one offers many of the common varieties of annuals and perennials as well as their own exclusive varieties. They are, however, more expensive than most other suppliers. They do, however, always offer "new and improved" varieties virtually every year, and some of them are quite successful. (New hybrid varieties, even AAS winners, have a surprisingly short life in the commercial seed world.....very few stick around for more than a handful of years.) Pinetree Garden Seeds (www.superseeds.com) offers smaller seed packets at smaller prices, which can make it easy to try a larger variety of flowers. Their service is top-notch too. Johnny's Selected Seeds (www.johnnnyseeds.com) offers a huge variety of seeds, although they seem to be more of a vegetable seed company. Their products are top quality. They do breed some of their own veggies, but I can't remember if they breed their own flower seeds as well. If you are interested in plants that are more rare and obscure, including many natives, J. L. Hudson, Seedman, is a small operation out of Californaia that offers a huge variety of seeds of hard-to-find plants. His website is www.jlhudsonseeds.net. Horticultural Products and Services is based in Randolph, Wisconsin, along with Totally Tomatoes and Vermont Bean Seed Company (I think they are all owned by the same company). You can visit it at www.hpsseed.com. They offer an amazing variety of bedding-type flowers and always seem to be among the first to have the newest varieties on the market. For example, in the catalog that arrived last week, they have the new Zahara line of zinnias (in Coral Rose, Scarlet, White, Yellow and a Mix) which just happened to be chosen for some of the landscaping at the 2008 Olympics. Other "new" seeds they are offering in the 2008-2009 HPS Catalog include The Toucan Hybrid series of Portulaca, Ruellia Southern Star Series (hybrid dward Mexican petunias), Profusion Zinnias new knee-high varieties, which are about a 8"to 12" taller than the originial Profusion Zinnia line, and a new Hollyhock, Blackberry Ripple. I often find out from their catalog what the new AAS winners are. One of the 2009 winners in their new catalog is an eggplant called Gretel that produces long, glossy, white-skinned eggplants that are only 3" to 4" long, and I bet it would you great tucked into a border of flowers! This firm does sell seeds of perennial flowers, herbs and veggies too. Thompson and Morgan is a British company with a branch here in the U.S. They offer an amazing array of seeds in their catalog and often have varieties seldom seen elsewhere. They also offer seeds of some trees, like mimosa and banana. Their website is www.tmseeds.com. I could go on forever, but I'll stop now so others can list their favorite seed catalogs as well. All of these firms offer both full-service websites and print catalogs, as far as I know. Well, I'm not certain if J.L. Hudson still has a catalog/pricelist or if he just has a website at this point. Most of them have places on their website where you can fill in a few lines and request a hard copy of the catalog.

There are so many out there, and I like different ones for different types of seeds or other gardening supplies. Here's a few, not listed in any particular order: Renee's Garden: www.reneesgarden.com Renee often has mixed packets of several varieties, and uses a non-toxic food coloring type dye to distinguish one variety within a packet from another J. W. Jung Seed Co.: www.jungseed.com Great selection of flower and vegetable seeds. Pinetree Garden Seeds: www.superseeds.com Offers smaller seed packets at a lower cost so you can try more varieties at less expense. Baker Creek Heiroom Seeds: www.rareseeds.com A wonderful source for heirlooms. Based in Missouri. Seed Savers Exchange: www.seedsavers.org The original heirloom seed source. Pretty much every current company selling heirloom seeds owes their success to SSE's long mission of saving heirloom seeds and passing them along. There is a public SSE catalog and, with membership in the organization, you have access to thousands of varieties of rare heirloom seeds. Southern Exposure Seed Exchange: www.southernexposure.com Another terrific source for heirlooms, especially those that are suited to the southern climate. Sandhill Preservation Center: www.sandhillpreservation.com A one-family operation that has an amazing variety of heirloom seeds. Nothing they sell is old--I think all their seed is less than 2 years old, which is very rare in the seed world. Also a great source for heirloom poultry and sweet potatoes. Johnny's Selected Seeds: www.johnnyseeds.com Wonderful company. Great seeds and great customer service. Select Seed: www.selectseeds.com Aside from SSE, this is THE source for heirloom flowers. Victory Seeds: www.victoryseeds.com Outstanding source for heirloom varieties. Fantastic customer service. Very careful to provide an completely accurate history of each variety they sell, if the history is known. Source for Livingston tomatoes. Tomato Growers Supply Company: www.tomatogrowers.com One of my favorite tomato seed companies. Wildseed Farms: wwww.wildseedfarms.com Based in Texas, this is the go-to supplier of wildflower seeds. Willhite Seed: www.willhiteseed.com Based in Texas, they have a wide variety of both heirlooms and hybrids that grow well in this part of the country. Outstanding selection of watermelons, which are their specialty. Seeds of Change: www.seedsofchange.com Heirloom veggies and flowers and more. Native Seeds/SEARCH: www.nativeseeds.org Similar to SSE, but their focus is on crops raised by native people in the US and Mexico. If you garden in a dry climate, this is a great source because many of these varieties can handle heat and drought. Marianna's Heirloom Seeds: www.mariseeds.com A small heirloom tomato (and pepper) seed company. Some unique seeds that you can't find anywhere else. Territorial Seed: www.territorialseed.com Based in the Pacific Northwest. Excellent selection and one of the few companies that offers specific varieties for winter gardening in milder climates. Harris Seed: www.harrisseeds.com Great selection of vegetable and flower seed and seed-starting supplies. Peaceful Valley Farm Supply: www.groworganic.com Everything you need to garden organically. Great supply of cover crop seed. Thompson and Morgan: www.thompson-morgan.com Offers seeds of many unique varieties. One of my favorite sources for datura and brugmansia seed. Vermont Bean Seed Company: www.vermontbean.com Lots and lots of bean seeds but other stuff as well. Totally Tomatoes: www.totallytomato.com I like Tomato Growers Supply Co. a little better, but Totally Tomatoes has a few varieties you can only get from them. Seeds From Italy: www.growitalian.com As far as I know, this is the only US source for the European seeds offered by Franchi Simenti Seed. Co. I love the seeds they offer, but you have to read the descriptions carefully to find the ones that are "unique". Some of them are the same seeds sold here in the US under American names. I tend to stay away from the big companies with their very slick catalogs and fancier hybrids and higher prices, and buy more from smaller companies that offer heirloom varieties (including some heirloom hybrids) or more unusual seed.