Hello,

I'm a southern coastal maine gardener; and I need lots of hostas and day lillies for a 44 foot diamter labyrinth in my back yard. Is anyone interested in doing a plant swap?

I have red rose campions, catnip, mint, eqyptain onion, yellow snowdrops, chives, southernwood, and oregano to trade.
I would be happy to trade with individuals or be part of a annual plant swap in southern Maine. Please contact me if interested at:
blaketaylore@yahoo.com

John:

I just planted 16 varieties of tomatoes (216 plants total) and will post how they're doing later this Summer. I planted mostly heirlooms and a couple of new hybrids.

Here's the list:

 Bi-Color Mortgage Lifter
 Carmello
 Chocolate Stripes
 Cuostralee
 Gary IbsenÂs Gold
 GoldmanÂs Italian American
 Grandfather Ashlock
 Granny CantrellÂs German Pink
 Italian Tree
 Neves Azorean Red
 Paul Robeson
 Porterhouse Beefsteak
 Razzle Dazzle Hybrid
 Solid Gold F1 Hybrid (new alternative to SunGold)
 Sweet Tangerine Hybrid
 Tangerine Mama Hybrid

I'll let you know which ones are doing the best in August.

John

Hi John

Thanks. That's an interesting list. I have grown many varieties over the years but only Cuostralee of those on your list. I will be interested in your results.

Here is my list. More varieties but only one or two plants of each.

Anna Russian
Applause
Aunt Ruby's German Green
Better Boy
Big Rainbow
Bonny Best
Box Car Willie
Budenovka
Bulgarian #7
Burpees Early Pick
Bush Early Girl
Celebrity
Cherokee Purple
Crnkovic
Ethiopian Black
German Johnson
Giant Belgium
Gregorie's Altai
Jaunee Flamee
Jet Star
Juliet Grape
Kellog's Breakfast
Kosovo
Margherita
Marianna's peace
Olena Ukrainian
Oregon Spring
Pineapple
Pruden's Purple
Rose de Berne
San Marzano 2
Silver Fir Tree
Soldacki
Stupice
Sungold
Svetlana Red
Taxi
Tuscany
Zogola

Interesting, those are all different varieites than what I've been growing as well.

Out of the many I've tried, I've only been able to count on Brandywine, Dafel, and a Russian variety called Wonderlight (yellow, lemon-shaped) as sure things. I grew Japanese Black Trifel (pear shaped with purplish tops) and Valencia (round, orange-colored) last year for the first time and they did really well, so they're back in the lineup this year.

New varieties I'm growing in addition to the ones above: Pantano Romanesco, Thessaloniki, Bloody Butcher, Red Pear, TC Jones, and Wapsipinicom Peach. All the aforementioned seeds, except for Red Pear, came from Baker Creek Heirloom.

Now let's just hope we don't have another rainy and cold August like last year so we can see what these babies look like!

Here's what I have this year:

Brandywine
Pruden's Purple
Sungold
Supersweet 100
Stupice
Mortgage Lifter
Opalka
Beefsteak
Amish Paste

New for me are the Sungold, Stupice, Beefsteak and Amish Paste. I have had great success with the Brandywine and it's by far my favorite for fresh eating. Prudens Purple was also good but not quite as productive for me as Brandywine. The Opalka have been truly awesome sauce tomatoes, very few seeds and quite fleshy. Last year Supersweet 100 went nuts, the cherries have been the most vigorous plants for me. I'm hopeful about Sungold as I really like the yellow cherries. The large reds are for my Mom, she calls them 'uglies' and really looks forward to the harvest. Mortgage Lifter gave her some real giants last year. I know it is a long time coming, but I can't wait to taste those garden fresh tomatoes again.

Fiedlermeister:

Just scanning your list, I'm willing to bet that you used Carolyn Male's Heirloom Tomato book as your guide. It almost reads like an index of the tomatoes in her book.

Many of the varieties I planted were from scanning the Tomato Fest website, or else just looked interesting in catalogs.

Let's compare notes at the end of the growing season.

John

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Fest

Hi John

Yes, many are from Carolyn's book. I used to participate in the tomato forum. Those I had grown before and knew I liked them. Most of the others are from a Serbian friend and then I threw in a few hybrids. Let's do compare. So far not much of a summer.

john

I'm growing Moskvich and San Marzano this year for the first time and they seem to be thriving. Since I can't find many people who have grown Moskvich to get an opinion on them I gave 3 plants away to different people so we can compare. I'm a new gardener so I will be interested to adding a different variety next year so I will be looking forward to hearing what other people grow around here. I'm particularly interested in a purple or chocolate variety.

Hi - Please report back on which heirlooms thrived from those gorgeous long heirloom lists!

John - lamb_abbey_orchards(5A / Midcoast Maine)

fiedlermeister(04/05)

lotsa_rocks

I imagine choosing a variety for early/short season is important. What else determines a successful variety in Maine? Humidity tolerance? Tolerance of the occasional dip below 55 on summer nights?

I want to get my mom some great heirlooms. I am a crazy tomato grower but my region is very different. The first four that seem like a good fit (for cold/humidity tolerance):

Purple Bumblebee

Eva Purple Ball

Carmello (sets fruit down to 42 degrees)

Japanese Black Trifel

I thought also maybe:

Jutland

Momotaro (a hybrid sold by many vendors who specialize in heirlooms)

Paul Robeson,

Marianna's Peace

Purple Cherokee

Amy's sugar Gem, Anna's Russian, Anna Banana Russian,

Chocolate Tasmanian

Pink Bumblebee and Sunrise Bumblebee

Sunset's Red Horizon

Sungold

Tati's Wedding

I'd love to hear which ones were winners and which were losers from your lists above.

Sungold and other cherries work well here and are prolific. I do grow other kinds, but find that many of the traditional heirlooms such as Brandywine just don't produce well.

To get some ideas of short season heirlooms, check out the list for Johnny's select seeds in Albion Maine. They carry several heirloom short season types from a range of sources.