Winner Announced: Seed Catalogs, Weapons of Mass Distraction (Part V)

So here we are at the last and final posting in this series that evaluates five of the top seed catalog companies. In the prior posts, I evaluated in detail how each company performs on three criteria:

Evaluation Criteria:

• Varieties -The number of varieties offered and the presence of unusual varieties you can't get elsewhere
• Product Information - plant descriptions, planting and care instructions, presence of photos that help customers choose varieties from within the catalog, ease of shopping.
• Entertainment Value - engaging descriptions, beautiful photos that go beyond mere illustration, and catalog print quality.

 

Scoring Procedure:

Before presenting the final scores, I want to mention that I will provide you with both raw scores and weighted scores for these criteria. I hear you asking "What do you mean weighted score? What's with that?" 

I do not believe that each of the above criteria are of equal value to gardeners and have adjusted my final ratings of the catalogs to reflect this fact.   Specifically, I believe that the reason we go to catalogs is to buy products, so having a large selection of unique varieties is very important.  Therefore, I have assigned a weight of 60% of a total 100% to the Varieties criteria. 

The remaining weights are divided up with 25% assigned to Product Information, and 15% to Entertainment Value.

I would be the first to admit that this reflects my bias, so I'm attaching a spreadsheet that you can download if you want to play with the weightings to match your personal preferences. 

If you decide to play with the numbers, just remember that the weights need to add to 100%.

 

The 2010 Best Seed Catalog Winner

And whose the winner?  The Oscar goes to......Johnny's Selected Seeds.  Johnny's delivers consistently solid performance against all the criteria I use to evaluate a seed catalog company -- variety, product information and entertainment value.  Kudo's to Johnny's!

Detailed scoring follows this photo.

 

Below are the raw scores for each of the catalogs on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest score.

BC=Baker Creek, TS=Territorial Seed, B=Burpee, SOC=Seeds of Change, J=Johnny's

 

Below are the raw scores weighted as stated above.  The maximum total score is 10, with 10 being the highest score.

Conclusions

So Johnny's came out on top, narrowly edging out Baker Creek. 

Actually, the scores all fall into a fairly narrow range, indicating that each of the companies produces a good catalog, but they get there in different ways.

So what catalog is right for you?  Look below and see which statement best describes your gardening interests.

 

As I mentioned, I'm attaching a spreadsheet below that you can download if you would like to play with the ratings.

Download Seed Catalog Review PlanterTomato.com

If you have comments or suggestions about these reviews, please leave a comment below by clicking on the word "Comments" below this post.

Comments

[Tuirgin]

Thank you for this series of posts. I'm just starting out with a square foot type garden and was looking for sources for seeds. Very helpful.

[H. Mark Delman]

Hi Tuirgin:

Thanks for you comment and good luck with your garden this year. If you have questions about veggie gardening, dont hesitate to ask. Im happy to help.

-PlanterTomato (Mark)