ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 8, 1996 TAG: 9603080003
SECTION: LAWN & GARDEN PAGE: LG-15 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARTY HAIR KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
To have and to hold - that's the enduring winter allure of garden catalogs.
Even if you order nary a seed packet, you can savor the pages, the prose, the heady photos, whenever and wherever it's convenient. By the fire. In the car. At a bar.
Now, however, the catalog world is turning in different directions. Schizophrenic.
On the one hand, they're in your hand, same as always. On the other, some catalogs are available to download via computer, for those with the access and the inclination.
Internet sites list hundreds of catalogs including specialties and addresses, E-mail and otherwise. At GardenNet http://www. olympus.net/gardens/home.htm, the Guide to Garden Catalogs has more than 500 listings and a pending update will bring that number close to 1,000, according to author Cheryl Trine. GardenNet, which went on-line about a year ago, also has an Internet Resource Guide that includes other catalog sites.
On Mertus' Gardening page, http://www.cog.brown.edu/gardening/cat.html, you can use a search tool to find sites about gardening, which are spreading on the World Wide Web faster than kudzu vine.
The Mailorder Gardening Association's Gardenscape at http://www.gardenscape.com lists direct marketing member firms.
Some plant sellers display home pages on the Net where catalogs can be downloaded. To see what the Roseraie at Bayfields offers in hardy roses from ``Practical Roses for Hard Places 1996,'' type: http://www.olympus.net/gardens.rosebay.htm. Many sites have E-mail addresses so you can order a printed catalog to arrive by mail.
Meanwhile, the on-line services, either at their garden hobbyist sites or on gardening bulletin boards, also offer catalog information.
While the realm of computer access is stunning, it can be overwhelming, particularly for those of us who are easily distracted.
LENGTH: Short : 44 linesby CNB