To browse a gardening catalog is to be an eternal optimist. These catalogs fill page after page with delightfully sunny images of flowers, shrubs, trees, fruits and vegetables. No weeds, fungi or plundering insects intrude on this world. The harvest is in, and it's abundant. Life is good. Perhaps that's why we enjoy these catalogs. They're such good clean fun that they're much like gardening itself. Here are some old favorites and some that we've recently discovered. We hope our catalog selection helps you to get growing.

Harris Seeds
Harris has provided its customers seeds, bulbs and plants for the past 125 years. Because the company is located in upstate New York, you can be confident in its advice for plants that do well in Northern climates. Its 80-page catalog is marked by a refreshing absence of gardening bric-a-brac. Solid selections of vegetables, melons and flowers are offered. Its tomato plants are spread over three pages and include an heirloom selection of yellow, purple and pink varieties. Its corn selection takes up four pages and includes white, yellow and bicolor types. Flower seeds and bulbs occupy 17 pages and, especially important for Northern gardeners, seed-starting supplies take about the same space. Contact Harris Seeds, 355 Paul Rd., P.O. Box 24966, Rochester, NY 14624; 800-514-4441; www.harrisseeds.com.

Wayside Gardens
The Wayside Gardens rose catalog consists of 45 pages of exquisite explorers, climbers, new English, floribunda, generosa, hybrid tea, grandiflora, Meid-land, miniature, shrub, romantica and tree-form types. In all, approximately 210 roses are pictured. Per the requests of its customers, the company has expanded its offering of hybrid tea types. Included here is the stirring World War II Memorial rose and the Fragrant Plum, a new selection whose hue is a blend of pink, purple and blue. The Fragrant Plum grows in groups of three to four blooms per stem.

If your gardening tastes run more to the unusual, consider the company's Collector's Edition catalog--it is 39 pages of some of the most unusual plants and trees you can find. Consider its Elizabeth, a yellow-flowered magnolia, or a Calla lily named Black Pearl for its waxy, dark maroon blooms. Contact Wayside Gardens, Hodges, SC 29695; 800-845-1124; www.waysidegardens.com.

Mellinger's
Mellinger's, in business since 1927, manages to pack 4000 items into its 95-page catalog, and that includes everything from fruit trees to grass seed. Looking for those berries you picked when you were a kid? They're here, and more: elderberry, sad cherry, buffalo berry and wild black cherry. So many products are packed into this small catalog that descriptive text and photos are either absent or kept to a minimum. For example, in only three pages 180 different vegetable seeds are offered, including eight types of heirloom tomatoes and 22 types of corn (including sweet, popcorn and ornamental). Fruit trees from Europe, China, Japan and the former Soviet Union are offered if you're shopping for novelty. Contact Mellinger's, 2310 W. South Range Rd., P.O. Box 157, North Lima, OH 44452; 800-321-7444; www.mellingers.com.

Burpee
No other company photographs its flowers, fruits and vegetables as well as Burpee does. Although high-quality photography is enticing with vegetables, it's really a necessity when you're planning a flower garden. If you're a beginner, you might find the company's preselected garden packages helpful. For example, the Cutting Garden package includes seeds for 11 different annuals and a 9 x 20-ft. garden plan. The 114-page catalog is packed with annual and perennial flowers, hybrid and heirloom vegetables and remarkable innovations such as the Brandy Boy, a tomato that combines the flavor of the century-old heirloom Brandywine with the size and yield of the well-known Big Boy, a 1949 hybrid. Contact W. Atlee Burpee & Co., 300 Park Ave., Warminster, PA 18991; 800-333-5808; www.burpee.com.

Geo. W. Park Seed Co.
In the center of the 123-page catalog from Park Seed is the best index and germination/culture guide that we've seen. A plant's name and classification are given, along with its catalog page number, bloom season, germination time and its culture requirements. The company, in business since 1868, sells flower and vegetable seeds, but its strength is in flowers--such as its cherry-colored amaryllis, Madame Butterfly and a gorgeous selection of 11 different gladioluses in every color imaginable. Hunting through the catalog is fun because it turns up plants like the nematode-controlling Golden Guardian marigold, five different types of okra and the 4-leaf clover, Legendary Good Luck. Contact Geo. W. Park Seed Co.,1 Parkton Ave., Greenwood, SC 29647; 800-845-3369; www.parkseed.com.

Gardens Alive
Gardens Alive is not your typical garden catalog because it doesn't sell flower or vegetable seeds or plants (but there is grass seed). Its specialty is organic soil-improving products and organic controls for insects, fungi and diseases. This isn't a catalog for the timid. If a close look at a hornworm munching its way through a tomato isn't your cup of tea, better choose another catalog. But that's precisely what makes this catalog a gem. It identifies plant problems and shows you how to solve them organically. And problem solving is a big part of gardening. Contact Gardens Alive, 5100 Schenley Place, Lawrenceburg, IN 47025; www.gardensalive.com.

High Country Gardens
If your impression of arid-climate gardening is lots of cactuses and a few spindly plants, you're in for a treat when you look at the luscious plants in High Country Gardens, a 79-page catalog dedicated to low-maintenance, low-water-use plants ideally suited for Western climates or Eastern climates with poor growing conditions, such as hot spots next to a street. The emphasis throughout is on perennials. Offered here are herbs, ground covers, and a variety of flowering and ornamental grasses along with wildflowers that you are liable to recognize no matter where you live: coneflowers (echinacea), black-eyed Susans and chrysanthemums, to name a few. Special emphasis is placed on plants that attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Contact High Country Gardens, 2902 Rufina St., Santa Fe, NM 87507; 800-925-9387.

John Scheepers
No amount of description can do justice to the tulips, daffodils, narcissuses, hyacinths, crocuses, irises, and lilies available through Beauty From Bulbs. This catalog is a product of John Scheepers Inc., a name long intertwined with the flower bulb industry in Holland and the States. A quick word about the company's other two catalogs may be helpful. Van Engelen (not shown) is the wholesale division. If you want bulbs in quantities of 100 to 1000, this is where you shop. Next is the company's Kitchen Garden Seeds catalog, a unique blend that is one part vegetable seed catalog, one part gourmet cookbook. Contact John Scheepers Inc., 23 Tulip Dr., P.O. Box 638, Bantam, CT 06750. On the Web: www.kitchengardenseeds.com or www.johnscheepers.com.

Musser Forests
The Musser Forests catalog has become one of our favorites. Not only can you get anything from a Bur Oak to a Rheingold Arborvitae from it, you also get knowledgeable commentary on the plant's growth habits, its potential as a timber crop, as a windbreak or as a landscape ornament. Also, the company comments on a tree's ability to support wildlife and its capacity to withstand pollutants or harmful conditions such as flooding or high winds. Even tolerance for road salt is listed. Substantial quantity discounts make the company's plants attractive to rural landowners with big planting needs. Contact Musser Forests, Dept. S-03M, P.O. Box 340, Indiana, PA 15701; 800-643-8319; www.musserforests.com.

Seeds Of Change
If your interest is organic gardening, our advice is to get the Seeds of Change organic seed catalog or visit the company's Web site. You won't be disappointed. Take three recent examples from its Web site: the Supermane sunflower, the black-and-white heirloom Magpie snap bush bean and the Calville Blanc D'Hiver apple tree. The first is a Turkish polypetalous sunflower that forms a dome-shaped head about 1 ft. in diameter. The second is a French green bean (the seeds are black and white, like a magpie) from the early 1900s, and the third is an apple tree developed in 1598. You don't find fascinating plants and seeds like these just anywhere. Contact Seeds of Change, P.O. Box 15700, Santa Fe, NM 87506; 888-762-7333; www.seedsofchange.com.

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