One thing I like about this company is that you can see a genus list and order from that.  Another neat aspect is that they have cultural instructions for spring flowering, summer flowering and perennial bulbs – very useful info.  There’s also a pdf for caring for indoor potted bulbs as well as one for forcing bulbs.

I also like this – you can buy combination gardens, which are groupings of bulbs with appropriate colors, heights, etc.  AND (this is useful) they have a “BulbFinder” , where you put in your zone, the color you want, sun vs shade and several other things to find just the right bulb for that spot in your garden.  Nice catalog.   Click on the photo to go there.

Next is Easy to Grow Bulbs, for the warmer zones (7 -11).   A loooong list of bulbs, though I must admit that my favorite section is “Weird and wonderful”, where you can buy things like Black Elephants Ears and the Voodoo Lily.

Happiness Farms.  Nice name, hunh?   “HAPPINESS FARMS, INC is the world’s largest commercial caladium farm.”  Enough said.  If you’re looking for caladiums, this is the place.

Cates Family Glads (as in Gladiolas).   This is a family business, and this year’s catalogs have all been shipped (you could apply for next year’s), but you can still order on line – they have a pdf of the catalog.  There’s a fairly good variety.  I like the heirloom section especially.   Lots of photos, but then any flower catalog that doesn’t have lots of photos is ….. (fill in the blank).  You do have to go to the photo gallery to see them, though. I think they should also be linked to the bulb names in the general list, which they aren’t. Maybe as a rollover or pop-up.  AND not all of the varieties have a photo.  I’d bet the don’t sell as many of those.   But all in all, a good selection.

The next couple of postings will also be about bulbs.  I’ll mostly be listing catalogs that specialize in certain types of bulbs.  Stay tuned.

Filed under: Catalogs