Sandhill catalog (Web site) updated as of Jan. 4

[Ruth_10]

The Sandhill catalog for 2009 is now updated on their web site. The print catalog is going out this week.

http://www.sandhillpreservation.com/...d_catalog.html

[shelleybean]

Thank you, Ruth! Glad to hear it.

[carolyn137]

And my Sandhill catalog came today, which I much prefer, since I cannot stand staring at the screen at ANY seed site.

[shelleybean]

Mine arrived today, as well. I think this is the earliest I've ever received one. Don't they usually come out in Feb.?

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by shelleybean

Mine arrived today, as well. I think this is the earliest I've ever received one. Don't they usually come out in Feb.?

No, early to middle to late January and a couple of years early February.

But I know Linda has been going full out to get everything updated as well as getting the catalog printed and sent out.

How they get everyting done with Glenn having a full time teaching job I simply can't imagine.

But starting last year they had more help processing seed requests sent in and the same will be true this year, so the wait time from years ago won't be nearly as long.

As soon as I order some more books and read the King Arthur Flour catalog to see how much the price of my fave dark bittersweet chocolate has gone up I'll pick up the catalog and start by reading thru the poultry section.

No, I'm not interested in buying any birdies but I get a kick out of reading about them and how Glenn breeds them and keeps the stock pure. I'd say a bit more complicated than keeping tomato varieties pure.

[tjg911]

hey carolyn guess what?

i got my sandhill catalog today and i went to the paste tomatoes and prue was not listed! dropped!

so before i came here and said that i started going thru all the tomatoes and they moved prue from paste to red! we'd both agree that is where prue belongs.

tom

[Polar_Lace]

Hmm... I checked out the web site last week (not for the first time mind you) the fact that the Tomato seed page is so long...... makes your eyes tired.

I've taken to just copying & pasting the page to a text editor & then make my selections from there by cutting out the ones I don't really like or don't want.

If they would only make the 'Blue Bar' on the left much shorter, they would have more space below for the text to expand fuller so the page length would be shorter. - IMHO

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Polar_Lace

Hmm... I checked out the web site last week (not for the first time mind you) the fact that the Tomato seed page is so long...... makes your eyes tired.

I've taken to just copying & pasting the page to a text editor & then make my selections from there by cutting out the ones I don't really like or don't want.

If they would only make the 'Blue Bar' on the left much shorter, they would have more space below for the text to expand fuller so the page length would be shorter. - IMHO

Robin, the page limitations I'm talking about refer to the catalog, not to the website which can be as long or as short as one wants.

But since the same blurbs are used for both it's the catalog page length that's the sticking point.

The new catalog is done first since there are deadlines to get it to the printer and then Linda transfers the data to the website.

As for me, I absolutely cannot stand looking at ANY website seed source and must have a catalog so I can sit in my recliner chair and be comfortable. I also find it easier to find stuff in a catalog than I do at a website where I'm constantly clicking here and there to find what I want.

[VGary]

I help Thieneman's Nursery each season in planning for heirloom tomatoes for germination. For the last several years we have placed large orders with Sandhill and have been extremely pleased with their service and their seed. While I was house bound this fall with health issues, I counted the surplus seed of each variety in planning for the 2009 season.
I will be adding some varieties I have grown the last several years and want to share; this is my ninth year as a volunteer there and I always look forward to seeing and talking with the folks who return; It is good to see folks who return each year and are able to share their experiences from the past season. The only hybrid variety we carry is Sungold Cherry.
This spring we will be growing a large number of Kentucky heirlooms (some in limited quantities) which my friend, Maria at blueribbontomatoes.com, has grown along with some of my more rare Kentucky varieties. She will be our guest on the day we begin our sales to talk with folks about her love of gardening old tomato varieties. Our sale day is usually the last Friday and Saturday in April.
Gary
"...a garden is like life: something is always doing well, something is struggling, something is being born anew, and something is dying."
~ Edith Reed

[carolyn137]

One more thing:
When did Rugose move from being a leaf form to being a plant form? which leads to...
****

It moved from being a leaf form to a plant form when Glenn added that for the 2009 Catalog and I didn't see it until today. At first I was skimming thru the varieties looking for a variety named Rugose b'c of what you wrote above.

I think Glenn was thinking of some way to describe what some of us would consider dwarf varieties, but many he lists are also noted as having rugose leaves. And of course dwarfs come in both RL and PL foliages as well.

*****
Why are the tomato characterizations that the USDA spent/enlisted so many resources developing just a few years ago not being more universally adopted, if only for consistency's sake?

****

Jennifer, I'm sorry but I really don't know what you're referring to in the above paragraph. I think what the USDA wants to adopt, whatever it is, would pertain to the PC-Grin listings. I don't think that our Federal Government is asking/suggesting/demanding that ALL private seed companies conform to what they might want to conform to themselves.

[PaulF]

Got my catalog last week and my order is in the mail. I've never had a problem with varieties being wrong and the prices and shipping costs are the best I know.

[cdntomato]

I hear you, Carolyn. With the Doucet stuff though, it's a bit different than the pedigrees and histories of the others. These are deliberate name changes of government released varieties. I've tried to get this information to Glenn with no luck, clearly. And so the domino effect marches on...

And Italabec should be Itabec.

One more thing:
When did Rugose move from being a leaf form to being a plant form? which leads to...

Why are the tomato characterizations that the USDA spent/enlisted so many resources developing just a few years ago not being more universally adopted, if only for consistency's sake?

Jennifer

[Woodchuck]

I think it's a shame that descriptions are compromised in favor of basic information that could easily be abbreviated by simple codes and such.

I deeply appreciate the work of Glenn and Linda, they've received the greater part of my seasonal seed order for the past few years...but there's always room for improvement.....better descriptions....and even pics online, at the very least, would benefit us all!

As stated...I order as much as possible from Glenn and Linda....secondly...from Victory....thirdly from Tomato Growers Supply.....Johnny's next...then Fedco.......then I'll suffer to order from others.......I'll only order from Baker Creek when it's impossible to find a variety somewhere else......they've got the most un-professional catalog in the industry...it's a painful read!!!!

Anyway...I suspect that much of what we're seeing in the poorly laid out catalogs is a symptom of the computer age....now...anyone can piece together a catalog...it's too bad...there are many previously well known fairly simple design techniques that would make most seed catalogs much more beneficial to everyone involved!!!!

I'm speaking from years of experience in newspaper layout.

<Woodchuck>

[carolyn137]

I think it's a shame that descriptions are compromised in favor of basic information that could easily be abbreviated by simple codes and such.

****

Glenn did introduce some code abbreviations for leaf form and plant habit and rough DTM in terms of early, midseason and late 2-3 years ago and that's b'c so many folks could not find the basic info about many varieties that he alone lists. But there's a lot more varieties that still need that basic info to be done.

So I don't think it's a matter of compromising descriptions/histories for each variety at the expense of basic info, that's still a goal, but will have to be done
as time allows.

*****

I deeply appreciate the work of Glenn and Linda, they've received the greater part of my seasonal seed order for the past few years...but there's always room for improvement.....better descriptions....and even pics online, at the very least, would benefit us all!

Yes, there's always room for improvements, no doubt about it, and Glenn has said that the next thing he really wants to do is to add pictures at the website, and he even got a camera, etc., but then the ever present demands for getting everything planted for a season, and tending to the birdies in general as well as to hatches and sending eggs is yet another issue to deal with, and so the picture part I'm sure won't be soon.

I don't think we'll ever see a Sandhill catalog that's a glossy, same for Victory Seeds, b'c many folks see such catalogs as being unnecessary duplications of websites. But there are still many folks who don't have computers and there are folks such as me who want to sit comfortably and thumb through a catalog as opposed to staring at a monitor.

[montanamato]

I, for one hope Sand Hill never goes the commercial glam route of most vendors...
I like to think of what they do as unrelated to most seed vendors...
If a person can't do a little research on a variety they haven't heard of, they don't want to grow it very bad...Most of what they offer is not "popular" and needs growers...Take a gamble once in awhile instead of following the crowds...
I have a stack of catalogs a foot high so far, and Sand Hill is my favorite by far...Six years of great service with incredible offerings, low prices, high seed numbers and never a back order or wrong variety...
With the poultry preservation and another job, I would be happy if they hand wrote the varities on a paper sack...Oh, and a few minor description "errors" or matters of opinion, wouldn't concern me when they are dealing with the volume of varities they offer...
Sand Hill is special for many reasons, and if they don't fit the mold thank heavens.

Jeanne