Along with the holiday greeting mail came the onslaught of the annual seed catalogs.

Now that the greetings have been read and reread and tucked away for another year, there is time to devote to the new wish books.

If you are tired of Big Boytomatoes and Heavenly Blue morning glories, maybe you would like to try something different. Perhaps it could be the rose champion your greatgrandmother grew, a tomato from Russia, shiitke mushrooms or the latest F-1 super sweet corn, so new that it goes by number rather than a name?

There is a real selection in garden seeds, heilooms, hybrids and more, made possible by mail order companies like the 80 outstanding seed houses described in the January issue of Harrowsmith Country Life's Annual Guide.

Seed companies are as different as the seeds they sell, ranging from corporate supermarkets with giant inventories of flowers, vegetables and herbs to tiny family businesses, such as Alfrey Seeds where Evelyn Alfrey still packages her chili peppers on the kitchen table.

In addition to annual seeds of flowers, vegetables and herbs, there are companies that sell seeds for perennial flowers, grasses, native plants, wildflowers, vines, shrubs and trees; firms such as Seeds West that cater to geographic regions; or companies like Seeds of Change that handle only organic, open-pollinated seeds. There is Ronninger's specializing in potatoes_more than 150 varieties; the Gourmet Gardener in vegetables with a French accent; The Fragrant Path in flowers one can smell; the KUSA Society in grains; and Evergreen Y.H. Enterprises in Asian vegetables.

Eighty companies in all. Surely there is one to meet your need.

Most gardeners have familiar catalogs which they use regularly, such as Burpee,

Parks, Wayside Gardens, Stokes, Thompson & Morgan, Sakata of Japan, Jackson & Perkins, Johnnys, Sheperds, Goldsmiths and others. The following new varieties are from some of them.

These companies are constantly testing and experimenting in an effort to come up with new and different varieties. It can take six to eight years and thousands of cross pollinations of plants with different genetic traits, to get a hybrid through the testing stages and to the market. (more)

An outstanding introduction in the flower world is Lavender Lady, an improved perennial aromatic lavender and a 1991 All-America Selections Winner. It blooms reliably the first season and grows eight to ten inches.

There are several pansy introductions. Bingo pansies are a large-flowered hybrid that has short sturdy flower stems, bred to "look up" better than other pansies. Fanta True Blue and Fanta Silver Blue add on to the many colors of F-1 hybrids in this group.

Premium Blue Beacon offers enormous four-inch blooms with thick heavy petals_an excellent choice for pots, basket and containers. Skypansies were bred for improved garden performance_flowering until heavy frost and surviving severe winters.

It seems that each company has many petunias to introduce. Multifloras Celebrity Desert Sky Mixand Celebrity Niagara Mixhave been added to this group. They are made up of warm colors of red and salmon, and four cool shades of blue and lavender. Freedom Pink Morning, Horizon Flame and Madness Plum Crazy, as well as Primetime RoseFrost, are multifloras offering compact and uniform plants.

Begonias, one of the most popular flowering garden flowers, have several new introductions, including the Atlanta Serieswith four clear colors_red, rose, pink and white.

Fortune, a tuber florabunda, is similar to the Nonstop type. It has medium sized double flowers on dwarf, compact plants, with an excellent branching habit. Its colors also feature cream, yellow and white. Garland Illumination Orange is a second new pendant begonia series for hanging baskets. The Prelude Series has been improved for more landscape and mass plantings.

Impatiens also have many new introductions, including Blitz 2000with extra large (up to two-inches) blooms. It stands taller, covers more area and offers a choice of six colors. Cherry Flairis the 1 6th member of the Showstopper Series. It has a new color combination _creamy white flowers with a vivid carmine rose streak down each petal.

In addition to that, the Deco Bronze Leaf has six colors with bronze leaves. The Spectra Series is a New Guinea variety for mass plantings. Also, Sun and Shade Sea Shellfeatures a salmon pink color with a dark salmon eye and dark green foliage.

Lisianthus has two new introductions in the Bridal Series. Bridal Pink, Lavenderand Violetall have long stems that make excellent long-lasting cut flowers. There is also the Mermaid Seriesthat has two new selections in pink and white. This series is extra "dwarf" and makes excellent border plantings.

The introductions presented above are not all! Look out for more 1994 new flowers and vegetables in upcoming articles of "Ladybug Says." Have a happy new gardening year!