In keeping with the theme of catalogs this month, here are a few that contain useful information. I’m not saying most catalogs are lacking in useful information. In fact, you can learn something from almost any gardening catalog. It’s just that every now and then you come across information worth copying and keeping.

A good example is The Magic Garden’s Web site, magicgardenplants. com. You’ll find their collection of collections. What makes this useful is that you can see what plants do what. Some attract butterflies and hummingbirds, some are fragrant and others have blue flowers. Having these sorts of lists on hand make planning a garden — and plan you should — much easier and certainly more effective.

Jung Quality Seeds, www.jung seed.com — celebrating its 100th anniversary — also has good collections and lists the plants used. Plant groupings are important. Learning them is a skill you will use for as long as you garden and make you a better gardener.

Several readers have pointed out the need to list St. Lawrence Nurseries, www.sln.potsdam.ny.us, in upstate New York. This is an extremely useful and interesting source and lists very cold-hardy fruit trees. It’s worth the exploration on the Web, and the hard copy is useful to fruit growers or those who dream of being one.

There are several comprehensive lists of garden catalogs and nurseries with Web sites. The mother of them all is Cyndi Johnson’s gardenlist.com. More than 2,000 catalogs are listed. What’s great is that they’re cataloged by specialty when possible so you can zero in on exactly what you’re looking for without wading through the entire list. Note, too, that the list contains Canadian catalogs that should be of interest to Alaskans.

Another option is gardenscape. com. It lists new catalogs as well as past catalogs. The list is alphabetical, so you have to dig around a bit to find the category of plants or seeds you might be looking for.

Dave’s Garden maintains an extensive list, The Garden Watchdog Guide to Gardening by Mail, at davesgarden. com. People who deal with mail-order nurseries are asked to rate companies, explaining the service received and the plants as well. While it’s easy to have a great-looking catalog or Web site, appearance is not always a good reflection of the service and plant quality. If you don’t want to wade through the whole list, Dave’s “Watchdog 30″ list consists of the best companies, according to those who use the site.

If you are a library type or a history buff, you should take a look at the Smithsonian Institution’s “History of the American Seed and Nursery Industry and Their Trade Catalogs” at www.sil.si.edu/SILPublications/seeds/bibseednur.html#J. The catalogs are not provided, but there’s enough neat stuff explaining the listings for you to spend a bit of time looking. Presumably, you can look at some of the real stuff next time you’re in Washington, D.C. The same folks bring you biographies of many American seed people at www.sil.si.edu/SILPublications/seeds/seedsmanbios.html.

OK, that’s it. A whole month of catalog stuff. I hope you follow up on some of these. And, of course, if you have a favorite that you want others to know about, let me know. [www.adn.com]