The English-Gardener

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A BLOOMING RISK...DIRECT MAIL SALES.

Don't Get Fooled by Pretty Pictures
Fall and Spring catalogues have been arriving in the mail these days, and many make use of beautiful photos of daffs and tulips to entice us.

As we caution our customers each year, please don't fall victim to these marketing ploys. While it is important to know what certain flowers look like, many photos are touched up for advertising purposes. Good catalogues will provide solid details on their products at the expense of pretty pictures. A reliable catalogue should tell you the basics, of course. Basics include heights, colors, times of blooms, numbers of blooms, and prices.

The hallmark of a reputable company, however, will be in their descriptions of bulbs.

Do the bulbs perennialize well?

Will flowers appear as large and in great a quantity in the third year as in the first?

Does the company guarantee the bulbs?

Also, make wise choices. For example, if you want reliable tulips that will return year after year, don't buy fancy hybrids that will revert after two or three years. Trial and error sometimes works the best.

Remeber those pictures are the finest example of that plant the seller could find. Even us experts rarely grow the finest specimen, as much as we like to think we do....we don't.

These sellers work on the numbers principle and count on the fact that you will not return damaged plants, less than 3% do. In fact a wise shopper can often find many of those plants and flowers locally for less than the catalog people want to charge you for the shiping.

Happy hunting.

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