As the snow drifts grew higher in January and mid-February, visions of summer's blossoms danced in our heads. The colorful flower illustrations found in those wish books that arrived after the first of the year reassured us that warm days would come again, melt away the snow, and awaken dormant plants from their long winter's nap.
Nettie and her brother Charles, who saved some of their gardening catalogs, must have carefully poured over each page, looking at the new cultivars offered each year and then sending orders off to Burpee, Lovett or Vaughan. Dates on these catalogs in the collection indicate that this horticulture fascination went back to earlier members of the Bullis family as well, even before Nettie and Charlie were old enough to wield a hoe and shovel.
For example, from 1896 there are copies of DREER'S AUTUMN CATALOGUE and LOVETT'S GUIDE TO HORTICULTURE. Vaughan's colorful 1933 GARDENING ILLUSTRATED is preserved in our file along with copies of Peter Henderson & Company's 1896, 1916, and 1933 publications, which offered "seeds, bulbs, plants, roots, implements, sundries," all illustrated in black and white as well as color. Burpee's 1917 publication offered similar stock to the public and even enclosed in their catalog an "Application for Domestic Money Order" for the customer's convenience in remitting the amount due.
Those of you who enjoyed Charlie's garden on Canandaigua Road for many, many years were privileged to see the results of his catalog purchases as well as his expertise in producing his own cultivars. Today, it's our responsibility to carry on the local tradition, started by the Bullis family and other Macedon pioneering families, of leafing through garden catalogs (or scanning online versions) and placing orders (using credit cards instead of money orders). Then, like Charlie and Nettie, we sit back and wait for Memorial Day weekend to begin the process of turning our wishes into reality.
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