LADY BUG: NEW GARDEN CATALOGS OFFER WINTER RESPITE, LOOK AHEAD TO SPRING

Are you eager to chase winter and cold away?

The new garden catalogs, those wonderful horticultural supermarkets at your fingertips, have arrived, like the harbingers of spring.

Let's see what Mr. Park has to offer. For the past 127 years, this company has been run by a family of gardeners in Greenwood, S.C. This year it is offering 160 new items, many in themed spreads, such as "The Finer Country Kitchen," "The Effortless Flower Garden," "Americana," "Our Country Garden Revisited" and "Our Champion High Yield Vegetables."

Now, let's look at Mr. George J. Ball Jr., president of Burpee's. Since 1876 Burpee has bred more flowers and vegetables than all other seed companies combined, from marigolds to melons, tomatoes, sweet peas and zinnias that have achieved worldwide fame. In this catalog there are 35 new and exclusive introductions. Leading new varieties include impatient Rose Parade, a shower of rose-like, fully double flowered impatiens in exceptional colors against dark foliage; a 15-foot-tall sunflower, Paul Bunyan, with spectacular height and shading to screen the garden and provide seeds for song birds; and Super Tasty Hybrid Tomato, the best they say in the company's history.

For more than 75 years no company has had as deep a commitment to the discovery and development of plants as The Wayside Co. New offerings this year include Clematis Alba Plena; the highly acclaimed white flowered white Japanese apricot, Rosemary Clark; and a pink flowered Peggy Clark. From France comes forsythia Gold Tide, and Canna Pretoria, Bengal Tiger.

There's a Silene Longwood, a neat little plant for a front of the border, covered with masses of deep pink flowers in late spring and early summer. Foliage is attractive and evergreen on spreading plants that remain 2 inches tall and spread up to 8 inches.

Johnny's Selected Seeds trials everything in their catalog. There is no other seed catalog quite like Johnny's. It's a garden manual, packed with growing techniques and gardening know-how. At their Albion, Maine, farm, all the seeds are planted and all tools are tested. You get the information that has evaluated more than 2,000 varieties of vegetables, flower, herbs and farm seeds.

New this year are Heirloom Dry Corn, Alamo-Navajo Blue, which came from the Navajo of New Mexico; Pumpkin Rough VIF 'Etamps, scarlet red pumpkins from France; Heirloom tomatoes, Yellow Brandywine; Pole wax beans, Goldmarie, Sweet Pepper, Apple; and Broccoli Arcadia, Lemon Queen, Sunflower.

Gurney's Seeds and Nursery of Yankton, S.D., say they give you the widest choice of varieties if you have the time and space to start seeds indoors or if the weather for planting them directly into the garden is almost worry free. Today's durable packaging keeps them safe on their journey to you through the mail. Frost resistant plants like rhubarb come early while tender plants like tomatoes and peppers are shipped when the time is right for planting.

Larger seed quantities are offered on some vegetable seeds from Henry Field's of Shenandoah, Iowa, and when ordering the larger size, the customer will benefit from a hefty discount. Customers have asked for the 2- to 3-foot fruit trees that used to be offered for sale. These smaller fruit trees are once again offered to the public. Fields are also proud of their phrase "Guaranteed to Grow" to describe their product guarantee. The bottom line is: If you have a problem with something ordered within one full year of the date shipped, Fields will take care of it. You will get new merchandise, a credit or a refund of full price.

Spring Hill Nurseries Co., Peoria, Ill., catalog features 55 hybrid roses, grandiflora, climbing and tree roses. All are No. 1 grade roses that have passed field trials throughout the United States and have been passed field trials through the United States and have been favorites in home gardening.

J.W. Jung Seed Co. of Randolph, Wis., has been operating a family business since 1907. For gardeners interested in "old time" open pollinated vegetables, watch for the Jung "Heritage" symbol that has proven to be superior in their test gardens. Many of the superb varieties were developed on their farms and have appeared in their catalogs for years. The 1955 All-America floribunda rose offer includes one each of "Brass Band" and "Singin' In The Rain."

Regal lilies, gladiolus, dahlia, hybrid daylilies, amaryllis, calla lilies, tuber roses, freesia Peruvian Daffodils, aneomes, and Dutch Iris are just some of the many bulbs pictured in the Netherlands Bulb Co.'s recent catalog from Easton, Pa., that is recently on the market with bulbs for all seasons.

A unique catalog is Seeds Blum of Boise, Idaho, which is different from any other seed companies. It offers heirloom varieties and shares information about how to save your own seeds. Many of the seeds have been handed down from generation to generation. For instance, Dave Niswonger, who shared with me his catalog, which reads like a novel with clever and realistic illustrations, had a variety of garden peas that grows in their garden each spring and has been in their family for more than 100 years.

These books reviewed here are just a few of the hundreds of seed catalogs on today's market. Although many plants are listed here, they also will be available locally on our market this spring at garden centers, nurseries, and florists, as well as in the catalogs.

~Mary Blue is a resident of Cape girardeau and an avid gardener.