It’s getting to be a lot like catalog time. I just received my first one of the year! I have so many decisions to make: whether to keep my old catalogs and add in the new, or throw the old ones out. They are all chock full of information; I would be stupid to get rid of them. Scientists are creating new plants every day, therefore I may want to check back and see some of the old ones. That is how you and I getting into space issues. I want to help you in my muddled, disorganized way to get a real handle on the plant ordering mess YOU have gotten yourself into.  First, look around your house. Do you have plant catalogs everywhere you look? Do you have no space left to put a drink down anymore? Common areas for catalogs to accumulate to dangerous levels are on top of other books. The bathroom is a very easy spot for catalogs to migrate to. They seem to like the damp and warmth of this room. You will see that bedrooms also are good areas to find extra catalogs. The dark of night helps them grow and multiply. It’s time to get ordering and stop thinking about ordering! If you are like me, you will have a wish list of plants you would like in your garden. These lists can be millions of plants long. 
You may have several index boxes full of plant wishes, or just drawers full of scraps of paper and torn out magazine pages of lovely plant pictures you want in your garden. Great! You are well on your way to being perfectly organized. I salute you and your lists! Good job! If you do not have lists, you need to get busy making them.  Now that you have the wish lists, we will organize them. Make sure you have plenty of loose-leaf paper, and assign one plant per page. Subdivide them into piles like these: <!--[if !supportLists]--> Will Grow with Help<!--[if !supportLists]--> Will Not Grow<!--[if !supportLists]--><!--[if !supportLists]--> Easily Killed- Dies with Shipping
- <!--[if !supportLists]--> Don't Know What This Is
Many subdivided piles will make your list easy to refer to later on when your plants start arriving! Create loose leaf binders with the groups suggested below. (You may add more; you can never have too few categories.) <!--[if !supportLists]--> - Bibliographies
- Autobiographies
- Cross-indexing (to nowhere in particular)
- Species references
- Finger-pointing accusations
- Asides
- Cross-postings (like number 3 above, but kind of like somewhere else)
- Addendums (I think these are things you add)
- Subtractums (I don't know what this is; I made it up)
<!--[if !supportLists]--> 
You will need a lot of binders so it is a good idea to purchase more than you might ever need. Be sure also to purchase ring protectors that glue onto each little hole of your loose-leaf paper so you don't have ripped holes and papers coming loose. Plan on a thousand boxes of them; each hole at 3 holes per page will have to be glued on. This is very time-consuming and tedious. If you plan on talking on the phone during this task, you will miss many holes. Now it’s time to go through the lists you have of plants and put them into the binders under their correct areas. For instance, I would place 'Bonica' rose under Tools. This is because I know the 'Bonica' rose will die, and therefore I will have to dig it up and put it in the trash. I have to use a shovel to do this, as my hand trowel is not strong enough to dig in my clay dirt. So, hence, the rose will be placed in the Tools section, under shovel. See? Easy and clear!  As you are creating the lists, analyze the plant and its possible growth patterns. It’s like buying a puppy: will the plant be really nice in the spot you are thinking of? We have all seen the corner tree that has lifted up the corner of the house. Or the lovely yew in front of a window that has grown taller than a ten-story building? Popular catalogs will list a plant in flowery lingo. "Be the first on your block to grow this amazing 12-variety prune tree, " or "Those loud neighbors won't bother you anymore with our amazing, super-thick guaranteed to grow 19 feet high, lush to the ground, never needs pruning, food or watering!" Having some good information books that weigh over 10 pounds apiece, with completely obscure language and indecipherable hints, are the greatest addition to your plant ordering supplies. One of my favorite books lists the needs of each plant and the care you should provide in an easy-to-remember style. Here is an example: CIS123LHOFBNDMW, also see International Code Of Botanical Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants [Utrecht 1958]. Don’t forget your pens, scissors, and pencils with erasers (that you won't mind the tops chewed off). Some of the writing in these books is small, so having a pair of reader glasses or a magnifying glass is important.   
Get your calculator out, your envelopes, and checkbook.  
Don’t make the common mistake of pulling out the ordering forms from the catalogs; you will be going back and forth between all of them to make sure you are getting the very best price per leaf or seed that you can. You need to figure base shipping charges and additional freight for those heavier 5-gallon plants. I wouldn't worry about a budget at this point, as these computations are only a test of the national budget of the U.S. I like to use pre-pasted envelopes, but of course your preferences may vary. Don't even bother stamping them now; just take all the thousands of envelopes to your post office. It’s easier to bring them there and let them check each one for weight and correct postage. A good time to do this is on a Saturday morning. You will see everyone you know in town behind you in line. Waiting.   After a few hours of sitting and trying to make sense of the botanical names and varieties, the unnamed common names, the nameless and the blameless, you will need some aspirin. We keep many brands around for each type of headache we get from organizing. Make sure you have a large area to arrange all your work. A 6- by 8-foot drafting table will allow you to spread out comfortably. These 300-pound tables fit well in the middle of a living room. At this point, I like to loosen up with a cocktail or two. It allows me to see my future garden with clarity. Plants that are all grown up and waving in the breeze. I make my way down my lists, happily sealing up envelopes with the filled out forms, and forgetting to put the checks inside. Hey, no one can be perfect, can they? 
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