Please let me have whatever you can send, except for the hot pepper plants, within reasonable limits. If you let me know how much postage is, I will be glad to mail it to you in advance, or if I have anything such as white hedychium coronarium (white butterfly ginger lilies, boysenberries, or mints (chocolate, spearmint, peppermint,) I will be glad to send that as well as postage or whatever way you will send them. Thank you in advance.

Clovers is a good bet for heirloom vegetables and annuals - they're not a brick and mortar establishment. They're located around Chicagoland in portable greenhouse tents oftentimes located in and around shopping centers and closeup after Halloween. But their prices are reasonable with friendly staff and they take very good care of their stock throughout the entire season. For free heirlooms there is also Lindalana's big plant swap in Skokie every Memorial Day weekend. Check out the winter sowing forum for more information. Between Clovers and lindalana's that's where I got most of my heirloom vegetables this year.

Hope you have found some good heirlooms to try this year. You had a pretty good selection last year. Cherokee Purple is one of my favorites. Sun Gold is the only hybrid I grow. A really neat cherry is Black Cherry. Looks like a mini Cherokee Purple and more prolific for me than Sun Gold. Black Cherry is not an heirloom, but an open pollinated variety. You can save seed from it. It will grow true. For future reference, look at Sandhill Preservation, a family run seed catalogue in Iowa. They are on-line. Don't remember their exact url, but you won't have trouble finding it. Huge tomato section, including some very rare and interesting ones. Do not let anyone tell you we can't grow delicious tomatoes here. We can, but it takes some planning. You need to start your own seed. I start mine in February or March. But I have a mini greenhouse to put them in later in the spring, and not everyone does. Choose the sunniest spots in your garden for the plants. I have large trees around me, so I have to plant in the same places yearly. By all means experiment with walls of water, hoop houses, cloches, wrapping tomato cages with clear plastic, planting near walls or driveways or in pots and hanging baskets. All can be effective. And one of the most important ways to get a big and delicious tomato is to grow one that consistently grows big and delicious. I've traded for some terrific ones in the tomato seed exchange forum here on garden web. Neves Azorean Red grows huge and yummy tomatoes, but I don't think too many catalogues have it yet. This is the latest grower in my collection. Probably over 90 days from transplant. Even with my limited sunshine, my biggest tomato grew over 2 pounds. One that is easier to find and grows around a pound and more for me is Aker's West Virginia. And the stems are huge on this one. Very sturdy plant. You've already tried Cherokee Purple. I have grown it for years because of the taste. A really nifty book with excellent tomato info is Dr. Carolyn J. Male's, "100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden." She is also a valued contributor here on garden web, mostly in the tomato forum, but sometimes elsewhere. The book has terrific pictures and history of the tomato variety when known. Although I love and appreciate Territorial and Nichol's, I do not rely on them for interesting tomato varieties. I did buy the Beaverlodge Series and Orange King from Territorial this year, just to try them, but they don't have that many interesting tomatoes. That said, I love them for most other seeds and their excellent growers info. Tomato Growers is excellent and so is Baker Heirloom Seeds. I did not care for Siletz and I have not grown Willamette. Most folks in the northwest seem to be under the impression that we can't grow delicious tomatoes, but must grow only the boring earlies. Untrue! (Although it's a lot harder around Seattle and the Pudget sound area.) If I recall correctly, the Delta Farms folks retired. All the best to you for your 2006 garden. Mary

Not a Florida grower so not sure how much help this will be but from reading all the past discussions here (search 'Florida') on growing tomatoes there it seems the planting time is what is crucial, not the variety. In other words you can grow just about any kind you want if you get them planted out by late February to early March to beat the onset of the heat. It appears from what the other Florida growers have said that middle to late May puts an end to your production if the weather follows its normal patterns. Then you have a second fall growing season starting in September. In that season it seems to be the so-called "early" varieties (60 day) that work the best. Have to talked with your local county extension service about planting times? They can be a wealth of info on both when to plant and which ones work best. And check out the Florida Gardening forum here too for info on which varieties grow best for your neighbors. They have lots of tomato discussions going over there. I linked one past discussion from here below that offers some variety suggestions. Dave Here is a link that might be useful: Choosing Tomatoes for Florida