On Sun, 02 Jan 2005 17:22:34 GMT, Dawn
wrote:
Now that I'm being inundated with seed catalogs, I find myself wondering if
there is a difference between the seeds I can buy at the local drugstore
and the seeds from these catalogs --other than the catalogs having a better
variety. Are the mail order seeds going to be more likely to germinate, or
to produce stronger plants?

We live in Phoenix AZ where we get some pretty extreme high temperatures
and low
humidity (often reported as "trace"). Many garden centers display their
seeds,
usually under a roof but otherwise exposed to the environment. Most of the
major catalog seed companies can store their seed in a temperature-humidity
controlled ambient and for some like Johnny's, Park, Burpee, I get nearly
100
percent germination. Some of the seed companies will double the a seed
order at
no extra cost when they know the germination rate is low. I would say
generally the mail order seeds re better in our case but that would not
necessarily apply in other regions.

Olin