Despite the warm winter here in Pittsburgh, I—like many gardeners—have cabin fever. I’ve hit the problem head on with some retail therapy: my annual seed order.

I’m determined to grow fantastic onions this summer so I bought Walla Walla onion seeds from a local garden center. Sure, I’ve grown nice onions before by purchasing ‘onion sets’ and plugging them into the garden. The resulting onions were fine, but not fantastic. I’m going for fantastic.

I learned from fellow master gardener Paul Pietrowski to choose long day onion varieties for our climate. He’s had the most success starting them from seed, rather than sets. So today I sowed the Walla Walla seeds in moistened, sterile seed starting mix. I’ll plant the seedlings outside in the garden after 8-10 weeks.

I ordered Italian ‘San Marzano’ tomato seeds from Renee’s Garden. I’m excited to try those for making sauce, as well as a new red beet, ‘Sweet Merlin.’ I’ll turn a packet of ‘Roma Improved’ beans into jars of pickled dilly beans.

Three interesting flowers caught my eye in the Select Seeds catalog. I’m excited to try ‘Chinese Giant Orange’ amaranth, which gets 8 feet tall and provides lots of seeds for birds. There is also a cool Queen Anne’s lace I’ll grow called ‘Dara.’ The blooms start out white, like regular Queen Anne’s lace, but turn pink and purple as they age. It’s a great plant for pollinators too. I saw the curious corkscrew vine on a visit to Bartram’s Garden in Philadelphia last summer. This fragrant climber is in the bean family and hails from South America.

How about you? Have you ordered seeds yet? What are you excited to try this year? !