The first day of mail delivery after the long strike brought just two items. To my great delight, one of them was the 2025 catalogue from West Coast Seeds (WCS). Other catalogues will soon follow. Almost all of them have online versions as well.
I dove straight into the catalogue pages, looking for varieties marked NEW. On the company website, there is a “New for 2025” space to click on to see all the newly lists vegetables and flowers at once.
I was pleased to see back in the WCS listings one of the loveliest pansies I’ve ever grown. Fizzle Sizzle Lemonberry bears large, lemon yellow flowers, the ruffled petals edged in lavender. The bloom centres have feathery-edged, deep purple blotches.
Midnight is a striking Spencer type sweet pea in dark maroon. Burgundy is the name of a purple sprouting broccoli for growing from early spring through autumn. The plants can be grown from early spring through autumn. They produce bright purple florets for up to six weeks.
Also new this year is a Disease Resistance Chart, with common diseases listed for individual vegetables. Alongside the disease name, for example Powdery Mildew in the Peas section, is the code for the disease — PM. This allows a gardener whose peas have been afflicted with powdery mildew in the past to look among the pea varieties for ones with a “PM” noted with the listing. These will have some resistance to that disease.
More than a catalogue. If you, or someone you know, is a novice gardener, the WCS catalogue is the one to acquire. It is a manual to gardening in our climate, with a detailed guide to growing vegetables and flowers.
For each vegetable, there is a brief history of the plant. Under Lettuce, for instance, there is a note that the Roman author and naturalist Pliny described nine types of lettuce grown in the 1st century. Cultivation details include the timing for and method of planting, and tips on growing and harvesting.
The WCS catalogue offers a robust selection of seeds for sprouting and for growing as microgreens, alternatives to traditional lawns, and handy at-a-glance charts for vegetables, flowers, and herbs. The charts indicate when to start seeds indoors, when to direct sow and transplant, and when to cover plants for cold protection.
Interspersed through the catalogue are articles on such topics as creating a cut flower garden, adapting to climate change, and foodscaping (creating an edible landscape with “edimentals”).
Catalogues will be available at some garden centres, or acquire one through the website.
Gift plants. Over the course of winter’s dark days, keeping holiday gift plants and other house plants in as good a condition as possible is the goal. Most plants, including ones commonly acquired at this time in the year, do fine in bright indirect light with slightly cool room temperatures and minimal watering until winter’s end.
A few winter gift plants can be a bit cranky. African violets require warm room temperatures with nights not below 16 C, high levels of humidity and the brightest possible winter light for continuing bloom. Keep the soil just barely moist.
Cyclamens need cool temperatures. Warmth triggers dormancy. Placing these plants, at least for overnight, where temperatures go to around 10 C is helpful. Azaleas thrive in cool temperatures and high humidity with the soil kept moist. Kalanchoes are succulent plants. Wet soil conditions can cause rotting. Let a top layer of soil dry a little before watering.
Try something new. Planting a new or unusual kind of flower or vegetable each year turns home gardening into an adventure. Such experiments are usually worthwhile, even if they don’t work out.
It’s the time of year for choosing and acquiring seeds and perhaps trying something new. That thought came to mind when I recently came across this quote from William Vaugn, a 16th century writer: “The man around the corner keeps experimenting with new flowers every year, and now has quite an extensive list of things he can’t grow.”
GARDEN EVENT
Qualicum meeting. The Qualicum Beach Garden Club will meet on Tuesday, Jan. 14, at 7:30 p.m. in the QB Civic Centre, 747 Jones Ave. Master Gardener Stephanie Rose () will present “Coping with Heartache through Nature’s Cycles.” Guest fee $3. Yearly membership to the club $15.
