Plant Catalog Porn: Baker Creek Seeds (and now I am on a complete plant/seed moratorium for the rest of the year)

Alright, kind of late jumping on this bandwagon here, but for a while I also had a slight moratorium on plant catalogs in addition to my not buying seeds from catalog  as I had so many seeds in backlog already and in effort to save money and support local groups/businesses.

But after my sister in law told me about the rareseeds.com catalog (which I didn't realize at the time was Baker's Creek Seeds which I often would drool online over) I decided I would finally order their free catalog.

Here's where I get teenage girl-y:
OMG!  It's so beautiful and awesome that I can't believe that give this catalog away for free.  GIANT, glossy paged (not so sure how environmentally friendly or cost effective that is), but I went through EVERY page lusting after all the heirloom, non-GMO seeds that I can later seed save from (!!!) and thus save money still yet in the long run!

This is literally what their catalog looks now in my hands.  DOG-EARED. Yep. I want every edible (and herb) available just about:

Not only are the featured pics lovely Many of their descriptions are humorous and informative and have background stories which make the seeds even more endearing.

The only annoyance about the size of the catalog is that because of its size, space is precious and basic helpful info such as height, width, growing conditions and etc. are left out (not like places like Gurney's don't do it either), so it's very forgivable and I tend to like to research my seeds prior to purchase ahead anyways.

I did end up purchasing something (guilt) because I have never seen it anywhere else: Hibiscus sabdariffa seeds, aka at Baker Creek 'Red Thai Roselle.'  THESE are the seeds/plants I've  been looking for everywhere.  It is the source of the red hibiscus tea that my husband and I so love and I've been on an edible hibiscus (the Haight-Ashbury being the closest to this roselle and note almost all hibiscus are edible) collecting spree due to this one plant.

The seeds came very quickly (so hurray on that fast shipping thing!) but I was once again somewhat annoyed by lack of information once again on the packet as to expected size/height and etc.  Granted I understand that growing conditions can cause many differences in plant size, it's nice to be able to provide that. 

Either way, splendid experience thus far and I'd like to add that their website has a "wish list" section... one that is filling up very quickly for me!

I would also like to anonunce that am putting myself on a COMPLETE MORATORIUM for the REST OF THE YEAR for plant/seed/pot/garden accessory purchases unless it's a dying vegetable plant that must be replaced emergency (aka tomatoes) or a need to treat plants for a disease/pest scenario. UPDATE: or for supplies (seed/soil) needed for food for next year's crop or a covercrop for the winter/spring.

After all the wonderful plant sales in the area and local stores have seed sales up the wazoo, AND now these Baker Creek Seeds being purchased (because I apparently couldn't help myself in this one case) I feel like I am full up on good plants/seeds and need to work with what I have (so early on in the year too! Kind of sad)

So, no new clearance plants, even if the price is amazing, no seeds, despite sales.  Only trading or propagating (which I always do anyways) here on out!  Wish me luck (I hope I don't go crazy).


LINKS OF INTEREST:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roselle_(plant)
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/roselle.html
http://www.suagcenter.com/documents/HibiscusTea.pdf
http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Hibiscus+sabdariffa
http://rareseeds.com/cart/products/Thai_Red_Roselle-719-0.html
http://www.southernexposure.com/productlist/prods/71301.html