Thanks! Hyssopus does bloom the first year and is semi-evergreen depending on how cold the winter is. Wish I would have had better luck with Bunnytail Grass germination, but only got a few to plant in mixed containers. They would make a nice border I think. My Gaillardia aristata 'Burgundy' is much taller and lankier than Gaillardia x grandiflora 'Burgundy, but if you plant other stuff around it the long flowering stems have a place to weave in and about. All Basil I've ever grown are usually easy to grow, but this year the ones planted in the ground are just bait for earwigs so they haven't had a fighting chance to gain much ground. Even though I do everything I can to make make my garden not so habitable there seems to have been another population explosion...it got better for a few years DANG!!! I have to move my container grown plants every few days around otherwise the earwigs set up camp and have little earwig children LOL! Peppers are doing great!! So far I've got fruiting on all the Jalapeno, Bolivian Rainbow and Turkish Cayenne. Still waiting on the Pinnochio's Nose and my 2nd year Habanero to start.

Costoluto Catanese is said to date from the 16th century! Can anyone name another tomato variety that old? ***** I doubt that the Costolutos or any other LARGER varieties date from the 16th cnetury since the Spanish took them from Mexico earlier in that same century and then spread them around to Spain, the Phillipines, the Caribbean and many other places where they had a presence at that time. The first tomatoes to be described in Italy were yellow and that's been documented. Allegedly priests from Spain introduced red ones shortly thereafter. it took years and years to upsize fruit size through mutations and selection from crosses, so I doubt that the Costolutos are that old. Another variety called Borgo Cellano is also said to be that old, but I doubt the alleged age on that one as well. If I had time this AM, which I don't, I'd pull out the best book on tomato history I know of which was written by someone I know, Andrew Smith, now also in paperback, I think, bc Andy traces tomato history from the absolute get go starting with how tomatoes might have gotten to Mexico from the place where all of the species of tomatoes originated from, which is the highlands of Chile and Peru. As I recall, even our word tomato originated with the name the Aztecs used to describe them. But I'd better shut up now and check my dates and words from Andy's book if I wanted to post more. LOL Carolyn. aha, just spied the book on the floor to my left and it's called The Tomato in America; Early History, Culture and Cookery by Andrew F. Smith, but as I said, Andy takes it from S America to Mexico to all the other places I mentioned and then comes back to tomato history in America and how tomatoes got to America. And I had to peek to see if my memory was still intact and that Aztec word is tomatl.

HighlanderNorth, where are you located? I'll be right over to eat that ugly tomato for you! I'll save you from it! Seriously, that tomato sounds just right, and I would not have hesitated to eat it. The first slice would have been nekkid, the second salted, and the 3rd in a luscious BLT! Dang! I made myself hungry for a nice ripe warm tomato from the garden and all I have are greenies! (And that doesn't mean green when ripe.) **Betsy sternly points herself back to task at hand.** There is some variation in color on Cherokee Purple, largely due to where they are grown. It seems if they get more sun in a hotter area, they tend to be darker in color, or more "purple." I get variation between tomatoes in the same season, but seem to have more variation from season to season, just like we do with flavor. Southern CPs are generally darker than northern ones. (The same tends to hold true for other "black" and "purple" tomatoes. I've included a Google image search link below so you can see the variations in colors. Betsy Here is a link that might be useful: Images for Cherokee Purple

Mine look just like that before they ripen, I think, but they ripen to a dark purpley red. So see how they ripen up first. I would post photos but I ate the last ripe CP yesterday. I will have to wait to more on my counter to ripen. Unless I am mixing up my varieties. German Johnson, Cherokee Purple and Early girl are the only "large" ones that have ripened to eating stage for me yet. Sue