(If you don't have a fox, you order the urine from fancy garden catalogs.)

When "nursery propagated" cypripedium popped up in a garden catalog, I decided to investigate further.

The exact origin of its English common name is unknown, but first appears in 1596 in botanist John Gerard's garden catalog.

It doesn't appear in most garden catalogs but is offered for sale by some Hudson Valley farmers.

I've been pawing through the garden catalogs this month, ordering too many vegetable and flower seeds for my kitchen garden, where, because it's January, anything is possible.

By 1829, rhubarb seeds were being sold in garden catalogs.

Garden centers and many garden catalogs carry tubers of named dahlia varieties.

So why aren't martagons on the cover of garden catalogs?

All of this is encouraging, and yet the garden catalogs still lie in an undisturbed heap.

PEOPLE who think that there is nothing new under the sun obviously do not receive garden catalogs.