We seem to be dormant, but the Garden Granny is celebrating the Best Gift of the Season…: Seed catalogs in her mailbox.

Her homespun cheerful blog design is worth a look in itself on this gray, sleety day.

There are some links, many more at this megalist. Don't forget Seed Savers Exchange, a nonprofit organization that saves and shares -- and sells -- heirloom seeds.

The catalogs seem to have come too soon this year. I'm still getting the outdoor plants happy indoors. One pot of tuberoses, planted in a pot in May, still hadn't bloomed when frost loomed. It's still trying in a south window.

Inspired by Pat, I did rescue a $1 prepotted amaryllis from Stop & Shop's discount plant cart. It had somehow contacted enough moisture to grow, and green leaves were pushing through the hole in its box. I have it in a sunny window, rewatered, optimistically expecting it to bloom soon, since it got the early stage out of the way in the store. (But somebody must have decided it wouldn't sell.)

Maybe you'd rather look at historic seed catalogs to work up to all this.

258 historical Seed Catalogs at the Smithsonian.