How to Read a Seed Catalog
By Kathy Anderson

Long before the first daffodils of the year come into bloom, seed catalogs are delivered to our mailboxes to herald the arrival of Spring. A good seed catalog contains so much information, it can sometimes be overwhelming for a novice gardener to decide which seeds to buy for their garden. Today I’ll explain how to interpret catalog descriptions for vegetable, herb and flower seeds.

Let’s start with vegetable and herb seed descriptions, since they’re fairly straightforward. A typical catalog listing for these seeds will look something like this description for lettuce seeds:

“Black Seeded Simpson (45 Day) Crisp, tender and sweet. Heat resistant. Pkt. $1.25”

In this description, “Black Seeded Simpson” is the name of the lettuce variety. “45 Day” refers to the average length of time from when the seeds germinate until the plant matures and is ready to harvest. Keep in mind that this number should be used only as an estimation. The actual maturity time will vary slightly with your particular growing conditions and the weather. This number is a rough guide and should be used mostly as a comparison with other varieties and when planning when to plant successive crops.

That’s pretty simple, right? But catalog descriptions aren’t that cut and dried for every vegetable.

Take sweet corn, for instance. The catalog description may indicate the length you can expect each ear to be at maturity, and even how many rows of kernels to expect on each ear. But you may also see some odd letters after the names of the corn varieties offered in some catalogs. EH, se, sh2, su…it’s like a secret code. Actually, these letters tell you a little about the flavor you can expect long before you ever bite into the first sweet, tender ear.

First of all, when you see any of these designations after the variety name, you’ll know you’re looking at a hybrid corn variety. These hybrids have been developed for certain desirable characteristics, such as flavor, tenderness, or durability for shipping.