You don’t have to be a herb enthusiast to revel in Richters’ offerings. Both vegetable and perennial gardeners will find this catalog fascinating, as will annual flower growers. Nor need indoor plant specialist feel ignored; there is plenty for them also. And if any or all are tempted along the way to grow some additional herb seeds, all to the good as far as Richters is concerned.
Seeds of the Chaste Tree (Vitex agnus-castus) are on offer as are various Bee Balms (Monarda), Sacred Fig or Bo Tree (Ficus religiosa) and the Richters exclusive Envigor™ Basil, the first disease resistant Genovese basil.
Richters is also famed as a source of hard-to-find ethnic offerings. Seeds and the plants themselves from around the world are to be found within these pages. Better-known Chinese, Japanese and European herbs are joined by those from India, Vietnam, Thailand, West and East Africa, the Middle East as well as Latin America, to name but a few.
While the big box stores and super-duper markets, despite many a pious protest, have yet to catch on to the natural way of life, Richters has practiced what they preach for many a long year. Discover in these pages or on their website Neem Oil and Pyrethrum pesticides, Natural Rooting Powder, Lakefish Fertilizer and Maxicrop Seaweed. Or order here your Ladybugs and Predatory Nematodes for noshing on many a nasty invasive pest.
Then there are books – more and more and more books on every conceivable herbal topic as well as those well, simply unconceivable. It is somewhat rare for a book Making Herbal Dream Pillows to be rubbing shoulders with Marijuana Success Indoors, followed closely by Medical and Aromatic Crops and then The Medicine Wheel Garden.
Those in south-central Ontario can shop in person at greenhouses and gift shop a short distance northeast of Toronto on Highway 47, a kilometre east of the community of Goodwood, east again of Highway 48. Open 7 days a week, check 905:640:667, ext.240 for exact times or online at
richters.com
McFayden Seed Co. Ltd.
100 Parker Boulevard,
Brandon, Manitoba R7A 6N4
Phone: 1:800:205:7111
Fax: 1:877:625:1888
Website:
mcfayden.com
A wonderful combination of the old and the new will keep one and all visitors to these pages positively delighted. The banner below McFayden’s name proclaims “seeds, perennials, bulbs & more.” In truth it is the reverse: the catalogue opens with bulbs and perennials, then follows with fruit before offering flower and vegetable seed. All are depicted with enticing colour illustrations, enough to have gardeners old and new fairly salivating.
In fact, for new gardeners intending to join the homegrown vegetable and fruit movement, this catalogue is essential. These pages only emphasize the pitiful selection of seeds offered at the local big box store, filled with pathetic quantities although not with a matching low price.
Try beans ‘Purple Teepee’ and ‘Royal Burgundy’ to delight the kids and which turn green when boiled – the pods, that is. Or keeping with purple, how about carrot ‘Purple Haze,’ purple outside, orange within? Want to try for the world’s biggest pumpkin? Here you can find seeds of ‘Dill’s Atlantic Giant’ the progeny of which have reached over 1,000 lbs. Heirloom veggies offered include tomato ‘Rainbow’ and lettuce ‘Yugoslavian Red Butterhead,’ along with many other old favourites.
But why stop at vegetables? Berried fruit is easier to grow and, once established, produce year after year. McFayden’s offers a mouthwatering collection, with varieties selected for rougher, tougher climates. Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries may be familiar fruit but how about adding tayberries, gooseberries, bilberries, elderberries or saskatoons?
Then there is the flower garden from McFayden’s with shrubs, trees, roses, bulbs, dormant roots and seeds to beautify the garden and turn neighbours green with envy.
This is a catalogue for Canadians to while away the balance of the dismal winter. A dream of things to come, promises for the future, this is McFayden’s Spring ’09 catalogue.
