"Jim Lewis" wrote in news:bvn06t$lh5$1
@news.utelfla.com:

In the mail today comes an epistle from the National Home
Gardening Club. It contained a small packet of red poppy seeds
and a second packet containing about one tsp. of "all purpose"
timed-release plant food (14-14-14). If I join, they, promise
I'll get more loot and get to "test" garden goodies -- starting
with what looks to be a knock-off of a Feclo pruner -- on a
monthly basis (and I can even KEEP the goodies!). All this for
(apparently) $1.00 a month.

Dunno what the kicker is, but I'm gonna pass. But I will enjoy
the poppies ;-) and use the fertilizer in a pot somewhere. No
micronutrients in the fertilizer, though, so it's probably not
too good as a pot fertilizer on a regular basis.

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - The end of
the human race will be that it will eventually die of
civilization -- Ralph Waldo Emerson


I signed up for one year around 1999. I wasn't too bad of a deal. I
didn't renew because they jacked up the membership fee to $15 IIRC. The
introductory book they send you (unsolicited??) "Gardening Essentials" is
not bad for ~$13 for people who don't know manure from manola and it was
easy enough to cancel further shipments of books (which cost considerably
more ~$25). They also sent me a product to test (even though you were
supposed to sign up first). It was a ooh ah wow! packet of coleus
seeds with absolutely no planting instructions and a germination rate of
5% (or I could just be really bad at planting coleus, which is entirely
possible). The pruners weren't too bad either (although mine was a
freebee and not for test), but I busted it cutting up too thick wood
after a hurricane. I didn't get any plant food, though I might have
gotten something else instead. I did get the poppy seeds, baby's breath
and maybe cornflowers or something else but I didn't bother to grow any
of it. Magazine only comes like 10x per year, though (some months are
combined).

BUT THEN GUIDO CAME OVER TO MY HOME AND DEMANDED THAT I SIGN UP FOR
ANOTHER YEAR.

j/k (about Guido)