I have been growing and grafting fruit trees since I was in my early teens and workin after school and in the summers at Green Brothers Nurseries.Know many of the folks around the south such as Lee Calhoun and Jim Lawson who are experts in the field. Have met with the USDA Fruit and Nut tree folks down in Byron, traveled to Long Ashton in England to see the research center there, and regularly obtained scion wood from Cornell. Even this year grafted many a fine pears onto flowering pear seedlings that were plentiful around the yard. Used to be a NAFEX member. Would love to start some figs, but with my various health issues, cannot really justify a new ten year venture. Most of my work is now tending to my large mixed fruit orchard and developing the life in the soil of my garden as I slowly convert to raised beds. What started the tomato exploration was my interest in growing two each of the best 100 to see what will thrive, produce, and deliver plenty of quality tomatoes. After growing them, I will have good idea of what does best in GA. Towards this end, I have included Creole, Goose Creek and Tropic.Before beginning I took recommendations for seed from around the U.S. and the world back in January from the "experts" in the field. These I began in my Florida room and have been tending and repotting ever since. With my own theory of developing life in the soil, evene my seedlings were started with the best organic seed starting soil to which I added soil micro-organism to enhance root production and disease resistance early own. This assures that a very broad range of organisms go into the soil along with the plants. Meanwhile, I have been consistently adding large amounts of humus, home produced manure compost, and far more to the soil. Now, I would just love to have these 100 varieties get out into the region to educate and provide new taste experiences..as well as a broadly available base of Georgia seed stocks as most who visit are fascinated with saving their own. Each visit takes an hour or two as we just talk tomatoes to match their interests and uses. We should be developing a base of info as to who has what seed. I now have a rather huge collection, but will be growing far fewer next year. Thats why I only planted two of each variety...to add their new seed to my selection, though I will only grow 20 next year. My seed comes from growers across the U.S. and Canada, Russia, Mexico, Europe and the Slavic nations. With many later arrivals, I still have many flats yet to be potted of varieties that will be perfect for later planting as well as the original 100 varieties. Most HAVE to have Green Zebra, SunGold, and the Cherokee strains as those are what they seem to have seen and experienced the most, but there are over 5000 varieties and I was seeking those recomeended by the experts as the best in FLAVOR and had to stop somewhere. Few have any concept of how much work is involved inacquring the rare seeds, much less the starting of seed, mutilple transplants, and moving them in and out for proper hardening, display, daily watering and protection from sun and storms...and I still have at least five hundred new seedlings to pot. Expensive, quality potting soil with large cups to provide adequate root mass adds up quickly.

cloverdale7, what kind of heirlooms are you interested in - vegetables or flowers? I'm not from Georgia, but I have a suggestion, if flowers are what you want. Go to your local library and pick up a copy of a book entitled "Passalong Plants" by by Steve Bender and Felder Rushing. It's a very funny volume all about traditional Southern plants. I lent my copy to my sister-in-law in SC, and she didn't return it to me for two years! Here is a link that might be useful: Passalong Plants

Cross County is a positively fabulous place for heirloom tomatoes (and peppers!) - my first few years, I would actually visit when they first opened up each April to the public - but as someone has mentioned above, they would sometime's already be sold out of certain varieties. These past few years, I place orders on-line in January, so I can be guaranteed that I'll get what I want. . .and with gas prices now, postage will be cheaper! Besides, the actual "farm" might be a disappointment to most: it consists of several "hoop houses", an office and a Port-a-Potty, all sitting in a pasture. . .their web-site, however, is dynamite. . . Here is a link that might be useful: Cross County Nurseries

First of all, I had just placed a large order with Willhite for a lot of common veggies, so I really didn't need to buy a lot more things. It's my husband's fault...... Beans - Aquadulce (fava) My husband picked these and I am still unsure if I want to bother with this one. Dragon Tonque Contender Roma II bush Red Rice Bean Mayflower Missouri Wonder Pole Rattlesnake Pole Old Homestead Kentucky Wonder Pole Chinese Green Noodle Chinese Mosaic Thai White Seeded Long Corn Stowells Evergreen True Gold Yellow Hickory King Dent Peas Sugar Snap Oregon Sugar Pod II Alaska Wando Lincoln Pepper Quadrato d'Asti Rosso Purple Beauty Golden Marconi Quadrato D"Asti Giallo Colan Red Pimento Anaheim (which was free) Okra Clemson Spineless Thai Grandfather Kurtz Cowhorn (a small cowhorn, I think) Lettuce Red Romaine Lolla Rossa Squash Baby Blue Hubbard Golden Hubbard Jumbo Pink Banana Herbs Oregano Vulgare Catnip Thai Green Cucumber New Zealand Spinach Shanghai Green Pak Choy American Top Rutabaga Elephant Head Amaranth And then there are the tomatoes. I have tomatoes on hand plus I sent a list to Jay that he could choose from to send to me, and I didn't know what I would get from him, etc. Some I based on what I could remember that the Tomato Man's Daughter says are her top choices. So I bought: Carbon Black Krim Black Cherry Hawaiin Pinapple Cherokee Purple Dr Carolyn Sioux Tess's Land Race Now about that garlic.....I don't know. I bought it from a vendor and didn't ask what it was. She had several plates of garlic all cleaned and pretty on plates on her table which I was looking at. A man was trying to choose some and she told him if he was planting it she had some others (not cleaned) and if he wanted those she would throw in some extra. He chose the clean ones. After he left, I told her I wanted some to plant. She pulled out a big bunch and asked me how many I wanted. I said "I'll take what you have in your hand." She counted them and told me the price, then threw in two more. I didn't even think to ask what kind it was because I thought if she could grow it in the Ozarks, then I could grow it here. I asked her if she planted in Sept and harvested in June. She said, "Exactly". A younger lady in the same booth said, "We plant in September or October, and we harvest when it has 3 dead leaves." She also said that they use the small cloves and plant the large ones. I came home and separated all of the cloves. I picked about 4 dozen of the largest cloves and put the rest in a bowl to use in the kitchen. Now the kicker....I paid $4 for the whole thing. Back to the seeds...When we walked in they had a special price for over 25 packs. It was a great price, but I am not going to post it here because they don't post it on their website. Also, I don't know if it was an end of season thing or if this was routine. I thought it was an end of season special, but when I looked at my seeds they were a few mixed in that said for the 2010 season, so now I don't know. I am going back in about a month because one of my friends is having a "fit" because she didn't get to go. LOL We wanted to go back anyway, so taking her back gives us a good excuse. Besides that, I didn't even look at melons, and I've got to buy Collective Farm Women. LOL I admire this company for what they are doing, and for the success of Jere for starting a company when he was 17 and staying with it until it was a big success. On the other side of the coin, he is a bit over the top for my taste. LOL He was walking around the area dressed in a garb that wouldn't have even been considered stylish in the 70's, (but was that old) and was just downright ugly. I thought some of the outfits I had seen him photographed in were bad, but this was too much. Guess if you have money you can "have it your way", but gosh. Anyway, he has a nice place and it is drawing people in, so you have to consider that a success. Oh - and one more thing. They are not open on Saturday. My guess was that it could be their Sabbath, but I didn't ask. Another bonus of the trip was that we went through Seymore and saw three different Amish individuals and couples traveling in their buggy. It was Saturday night. I picked the tomatoes, peppers, lettuce and squash and a few other things, but I made the mistake of telling my DH that I wanted to be sure to look at beans. I didn't. He just went over and bought one of everything that was there...then he hit the peas and okra. He buys big.