LADYBUG: SEED CATALOGS INFORM ABOUT NEW PRODUCTS

Cold, wintry, blustery days have one advantage. There is more time to stay home and do some of the things the rush of the holiday season has not allowed. Days are getting noticeably longer and there are thoughts of spring.

With your favorite seed catalog in hand, you can look over all of the exciting new varieties for 1996 and all those old favorites your family has enjoyed for years. Why not expand your horizons this year and be adventurous and try a few new and unusual flowers and vegetables?

It should be noted that most, if not all, of the seeds and plants mentioned here will be available at local and area garden centers.

Seed catalogs offer more than just seeds. Some gardeners spend nearly as much time poring over the seed catalogs and planning the ideal garden as they do actually working the soil.

Most seed catalogs offer the home gardener convenience, variety, guarantee of quality and backing of reputable companies. In addition they are good reference books packed with useful information, making them well worth saving. Most contain valuable planting and cultural information, some contain instructions for specific varieties. Others offer garden layouts and plans for successive plantings.

Many companies have charged for catalogs in the past. Now, however, there are few who still charge, and if they do the amount may be deducted on the first order.

The newest one (and the oldest) is Ferry-Morse of Fulton, Ky., publishing its first mail order catalog since the 1950s. Dexter M. Ferry began this business in 1856. They have provided high quality seeds and garden products for more than 140 years, longer than any other major U.S. seed company.

This new catalog offers seeds, bulbs, lawn mats, American gifts, greeting cards, calendars and garden plans in the neatest little book. Just a little larger than Reader's Digest and about a third as thick, it is ideal to tuck into your purse. Welcome back Ferry-Morse.

One of my all-time favorites since it came on the market 14 years ago is Shepherd's Garden Seeds of Torrington, Conn., published by Renee Shepherd.

This company works closely with small, specific American, French, Dutch, Italian, British, Chinese, Thai and Japanese seed houses, selecting easy to grow, disease resistant vegetables and herbs with fine flavor, tenderness and excellent texture.

One of the neat features of this catalog is the stories of each of the seed packet varieties and the recipes that accompany them. It makes for fascinating reading.

Thompson & Morgan of Jackson, N.J., also publishes a small book, this being the 141st consecutive issue. Fleuroselect, the European seed trial organization, equivalent to our All-America Selections, awarded several of their prestigious Quality Marks to T&M breeding efforts, the annuals Poppy Angel's Choir and marigold Mr. Majestic, and perennial selection Knautia macedonica Melton Pastels.

This company offers a trip for two to visit some of the best-known gardens and horticultural exhibits in the world in historic England, plus a trip to the Chelsea Flower Show. The winner will be drawn on registration.

White Flower Farm, Litchfield, Conn., has the largest catalog it has produced -- 144 pages, including 700 varieties of plants with 115 new productions. This year marks their first plunge into the world of water gardening.

Steven A. Frowine is vice president of Horticulture at White Flower Farms. For many years he was associated with Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis.

In leafing through the beautiful new spring book, this comment came to my attention: "The very first yellow clivia. We thought the soft, warm shade made an already attractive and durable plant an absolute knockout." Sir John Thornton clivia, price $950. No, the figure is not a typographical error. Wonder how many gardeners found a yellow clivia under the Christmas tree?

Geo. W. Park Seed Co., Greenwood, S.C., offers free bonus seed, free shipping for orders more than $20, 150 all new vegetables and flowers, 140 flower varieties, 400 vegetable varieties and a new plant and bulb section. The book offers three new portulaca Sundial Hybrids, and petunia Heavenly Lavender, Improved Park Whopper tomato, Red Fairy rose, Petunia Fantasy, new all-season Burpless, seedless cucumbers and many other new plants.

There also are Henry Fields of Shenandoah, Iowa; Spring Hill Select Roses, Tipp City, Ohio; Gurney's Seed and Nursery Co., Yankton, S.D.; Dutch Gardens, Adelphia, N.J.; Ronninger's Seed Potatoes, Moyie Springs, Idaho; and Sakata Seed Corp., Yokohama, Japan.

Petoseed, the Hybrid Vegetable Seed Co., which supplies seeds to major seed companies, has introduced Healthmaster carrot with huge roots promising more beta carotene and Florence bean, of European quality, dark green pods and early harvest.

Here are other new introductions available from at least 20 major seed companies in the upcoming spring growing season:

Senorita pepper, a super jalapeno flavor with very little heat; Brocoverde cauliflower has sweet heads and looks like broccoli and cauliflower crossed; Sunmaster tomato, which sets fruit in high temperatures when others will not, and Thai Dragon pepper, a spicy little red pepper that produces like mad.

Husky Cherry Gold tomato, a healthy looking plant producing gourmet cherry tomatoes; Discovery cabbage, absolutely the sweetest of all; Correnta spinach with darker green, thicker leaves and tolerance to warm conditions, are also available.

Touchdown cantaloupe that looks like a football, but tastes like a dream; Red Beauty pepper, our No. 1 recommendation for big, blocky red bells; Inferno pepper, which will double your production with its large fruited hot banana pepper are other choices.

Spacemiser squash, a compact bush plant that produces oodles of baby zucchinis, and Miracle Sweet tomato, which is reported to be most likely the best tasting tomato you have ever eaten, are other items available.

All of these new introductions will be available from at least 20 major seed companies this spring season.

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