It’s a truth universally acknowledged that one of the delights of gardening is browsing seed and plant catalogues. I have a handful of vendors I usually buy from, but this year I decided to do a fairly comprehensive survey of vendors and their catalogues. I know it’s late in the season for this, but I think there is still value in comparing the catalogues, if only for preparing for the fall batch (though I still have some spring ordering to do). In subsequent posts I’ll discuss many in detail. For now, here’s a gallery of the covers, together with the location of the vendor, the trim size of the catalogue, and its length. Stay tuned for more (list of vendors below the gallery).

The catalogues:

  • Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Missouri, 9 x 10.75 in., 148 pp.
  • Bluestone Perennials, Ohio, 8 x 10 in., 92 pp.
  • Botanical Interests, Colorado, 8.5 x 10.75 in., 72 pp.
  • Bountiful Gardens, California, 8.25 x 10.25 in., 72 pp.
  • Grow Organic: Fruit Trees, California, 7.75 x 10 in., 68 pp.
  • Grow Organic: Gardening Essentials, California, 7.75 x 10 in., 68 pp.
  • Grow Organic: Quality Tools, California, 7.75 x 10 in., 68 pp.
  • Grow Organic: Seeds, California, 7.75 x 10 in., 68 pp.
  • Growers Supply, Connecticut, 7.75 x 10 in., 138 pp.
  • Gurney’s, Indiana, 9.25 x 13 in., 68 pp.
  • Harris Seeds: Garden Trends, New York, 7.25 x 10.25, 124 pp.
  • J. L. Hudson, Seedsman, California, 5.5 x 8.5 in., 96 pp.
  • Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Maine, 7.75 x 10.25 in., 244 pp.
  • Kitazawa Seed Co., California, 8.5 x 11 in., 48 pp.
  • Park Seed, South Carolina, 8 x 10 in., 148 pp.
  • Pepper Joe’s, Maryland, 5.5 x 8.5 in., 34 pp.
  • Pinetree, Maine, 8 x 10 in., 132 pages
  • Raintree Nursery, Washington, 8.5 x 10.75 in., 96 pp.
  • Richters, Ontario, 6 x 9.5 in., 96 pp.
  • Seed Savers Exchange, Iowa, 8.5 x 10.25 in., 116 pp.
  • Seeds from Italy, Kansas, 5.5 x 8.5 in., 64 pp.
  • Seeds of Change, Minnesota, 7.75 x 10 in., 68 pp.
  • Select Seeds, Connecticut, 8 x 10 in., 68 pp.
  • Territorial Seeds Co., Oregon, 7.25 x 10.25 in., 164 pp.
  • Wayside Gardens, South Carolina, 8 x 10.5 in., 104 pp.
  • White Flower Farm, Connecticut, 8 x 10 in., 140 pp.

Trim size is approximate (the edges of some catalogues are rather imprecisely  trimmed). Some catalogues have self covers and others have a cover stock around the inside pages. Most number the cover as page 1, but some omit the covers from the page counts. (One, Pinetree, actually numbers the inside front cover as 1, so that their versos are odd and their rectos are even. That’s dumb, and someone should have a word with them.) I have tallied up the pages as best I can, including the cover pages in the count.