We're back from a wonderful trip to Germany & Italy!  Had a lovely visit with our family there and saw lots of interesting things.  I'll try to get some of it into article form and put it on the website soon.

     Coming back to reality (that is, leaving the kids and grandkids!) is always difficult, but at least on the flight home, I was already anticipating a mailbox filled with seed catalogs.  They always seem to arrive just before THanksgiving--those tempters, when one should be thinking about grocery shopping, cooking, baking and cleaning.  I wasn't disappointed.  Fourteen seed catalogs awaited me, and, yes, I'm guilty of yielding to temptation.  I made a pot of tea, grabbed the nearest pen, my clipboard, and started flipping pages.

     I have a system for going through catalogs.  First I study the "new offerings" to see if there are any introductions that I should mark with a "*."  Then I go through the entire catalog page by page, folding down the corners of pages with varieties that interest me.  I mark varieties I must have with a "*"; varieties I might want with a "?"' and varieties that I need to research more with a circle.  I do this with each catalog, and by the time I'm finished I have a pretty good idea of what's available, how many companies are offering it, and what the "trends" are.  Then I set them all aside and let the information waft around in my head for a few days.

     This "wafting" period is necessary, because I can't afford to order everything I've marked.  First of all, it's not in the budget.  Secondly, we wouldn't have the space to grow them all, and thirdly, I don't have the time or energy.  I do have to be reasonable, which is often difficult.  So, I mentally group them into catagories.  A category might be grouped by color....for instance one year we did a display based on "Provence" which featured plants with blue or yellow blooms.  Some years, I want to broaden our offerings of fragrant plants, or deer resistant plants, or native plants.  I have to think in terms of what our customers want, what I want to grow for my own gardens, and how they will fit into proposed displays and events at the farm.  I only allow myself 6 plants that do not fit in a category.  Even at that, we generally add over 100 new varieties each year!

     Once I've picked my categories, I open the spreadsheet in my laptop and go through the catalogs again.  The spreadsheet already contains info for the seed orders sent in August, some of which are already planted in seedling flats. This time, I enter into the columns the plant name, company name, amount, price, category, and a short note about color, size, or any other special quality.  Then I go through the next catalog, doing the same task.  If more than one company offers a selected variety, I highlight the least expensive one.  When all the catalogs are completed, I can sort by category.  If there are not enough plants to do a good display (adding the ones we already grow) I know I need to delete the entire category, or rethink it.  If there are way too many in one category, I need to edit that list, or see if come of the entries will fit into another category.   Next, I sort by company.  Obviously, if there are only 1 or 2 packets listed, the shipping costs would be too dear.  Eventually, I whittle it down to five or six orders.

     Right now, I'm in the "wafting" stage, which could also be termed the "dreaming" stage.  Everything seems possible, all the displays in my mind are beautiful and effective, and all the promises in the seed catalogs seem absolutely true!  It's a wonderful way to spend the holidays!