I've had great success with ohioheirloomseeds. Its a small company so the variety is a little limited but has all the variety's I was interested in and I always like to support good local business. Prices were really good and they have an ebay store that they have auctions for even better value. So far great germination rates and every seed was correct to description. Ive had good success with johnnies, there was a mix up on an order last year but was corrected unfortunatly too late for the season but it was corrected. Their variety is great and always had good germination rates. Burpee has been the least favorite mail order ive used as year after year they get my order wrong and respond very slowly to issues. The in store seeds at HD or lowes are good but are pricy and who knows what treatment the packs have had. I like my local garden centers for a lot of things but seeds. Unfortunately it seems like I have the worst germination rates from them.

I do want to just mention that some colors are not as unusual as we tend to think of them. Just because the eggplants in the grocery stores are all dark purple and exactly the same size and shape doesn't mean they define the "right" color for eggplant. The varieties in the store are the descendants of the ones best suited to truck and plane shipping and mass agriculture, so they've become the iconic images in the minds of those of us who utilize grocery stores. Most of the so-called unusual colors are simply heirlooms; few have been bred recently. But I suspect plant breeders are currently actively working on more -- it's a hot trend in gardening. Just as some heirlooms are superior while others are forgotten for good reason, I would guess any new colored varieties will have to stand on their own two roots to pass the test of time.

i would post this question on the "trees" forum. there are some professionals who visit that one regularly that should be able to answer this and it gets a lot more traffic than this forum. good luck with your inquiry.

Genetics of a well maintained open-pollinated self-breeding crops, like tomatoes, change little in a given environment. This is because there is little heterogeniety within these populations compared to out-breeding crops (like corn). A properly maintained OP line will be mostly homogenous. Changes to a self breeding crop come from intentional crossing, rare random mutations, outcrossing and selection pressure (mostly human) that select for those small variations (~large enough populations which pick up on any heterogeniety left in a population. The fewer plants one is saving from a population the less likely one will be saving that heterogeniety (inherit genetic diversity), This is why seed collected of at least 10 plants, true to type, kept more than 10ft apart (100ft is better dependent on flower type/insect populations and other environment factors) should be kept to ensure that diversity is held. But saving diversity is a different issue. Here we are talking about keeping something reasonably uniform. Conversely even with small populations, if one happens to select (inadverently) a plant(s) with heterogeniety and then saves that line, one can get drift (a change) from the original variety. That may have been what happened with the CP. Hard to say exactly because one doesn't know how carefully they selected to maintain a variety. If one works with a large enough population and is observant, differences even within a well grown variety can be noticed but as Carolyn mentioned some of the genetic differences may not be things "seen" and the change not readily noticeable. This just emphasizes why it is important to maintain lines with proper isolation distances, a large enough group of plants for a representative sample in case something odd does show up and generally selection by the same person(s). These factors contribute to why open-pollinated/"heirlooms" are not as static/stable as it is often believed they are. SO depending on the amount of genetic heterogeniety, if tomato seed is grown out in a different region, over time, there could be some selection pressure shift for environmental adaptation. Most of it depends on the continuity of who and how the selection is done and again the amount of inherent genetic diversity was present within that population. There is another wild card that might play a role if not influence what, in some instances, may effect perception as an environmental adaptation. This would be transposable elements, also called transposons. These are parts of the DNA that can move around and/or change the phenotypic expression (how something looks) but they do not physically alter genes in of themselves. I won't go into too much detail. I'll try to simplify this down in a way it may be better understood instead of those big words. (there is more to it than this but it helps get the "general" idea). Think of the genetic material of an organism being a whole poem or song. The DNA being the details to the whole poem/song and genes would be the words or even in more complex situations sentences. DNA has a built in "reader/listener". As It reads (transcribes) segments of DNA, it is able to decode individual words/sentences it reads to say 'ah the DNA says this''. Transposons role may be thought of like influences to that reader of a poem or listener to a song, So think of a Bob Dylan song. What one may listen or interrupt from a verse at one time may be different from what they interrupt at another. The words (genes) did not change but rather the way they were read/heard changed based upon the the current biases, personal experience and mindset (transposable elements) at that point in time. So transponsons don't actually change the genes but rather they influence their expression (phenotype) based on their presence. What triggers transposons to "show up" can be trickier to access. They seem to be combinations of environmental events/exposures both immediate and influences from the generations past (epigenetic effects). Back to the analogy, if one was drunk, stoned (environmental influence) and/or had learned experiences from their past including say parent/grandparents viewpoints that caused them to interrupt things different (epigenetic influences), that would be like the influence of the transposable elements understanding what the DNA meant relative to the way one might interrupt a song/poem different from same another reader or even a different time in their life (next season) that they hear it.. So in some cases of saving a seed population transposons might be influencing how something expresses in a given environment at a given point in time. Over time, it might be possible that such a difference could effect/skew selection IF there was enough heterogeniety present that may contribute to a shift (just as it did mentioned way above). So what does all that mean? 1) If a self pollinating variety is adapted to your area anyway and if a seed source/grower is doing a proper job at maintaining and selecting the true to type form of that variety of tomato, it probably should not matter that much where the seed was sourced. 2) "Adapations", unless viewed in the wrong run, may not exactly be what people think they are. What should I concern myself with from a tomato seed source? Well there are more details like ethics, but in general: does it germinate well? is it true to type? does it seem disease free? Someone who knows what they are looking at and doing could adapt a self breeding crop for an environment. There would have to be some kind of inherent genetic diversity present to exploit. It would be best to work with larger populations to find something and it would take several years time to know what one is seeing is an actual change. A person who speaks to this, and is doing this kind of thing with another self-breeding crop, is Frank Morton of Wild Garden Seed. There are several youtubes of him speaking on these issue (to seeds in general not tomatoes alone) in a manner I think most can understand. If interested seek a video out.