Is it hot where you are? I am in 7b and we are rarely above 100 for more than, oh, 4 days in a summer. If you are looking at heirlooms, etc., watch out for days to maturation. Some of the heirloom ones can be long. I would stick with varieties you know will produce well and quickly in your location, rather than trying something new. I have planted starts of tomatoes in mid-June and had a crop. It was 25 years ago, so I can't remember how BIG a crop, but I remember being happy with it. We don't get frost till mid-November, though.

If your last frost date is May 15, you're still at 4 wks before. Thats a little later than optimum but not undo-able. I think as far as seedlings go, much better a little late than far to early. If you start them right away, give them some heat to get them germinated quickly. Most of mine germinated in 2-6 days with a heating mat. I would not do any varieties this year that you know take longer to germinate. (Black Cherry took nearly 2 weeks, next year I'll plant it a week before others) Since the weather is alread starting to warm you should be able to get them out into sunlight while they are young. I would not wait for them to catch up in size with ones that were planted weeks earlier, I would get the young plants out when you think the weather is safe (when you would have put them out if you had started them a few weeks earlier). They will probably catch up and then pass plants that were planted too early, got spindly and then planted out. Good luck and good gardening, Mary

NO! Get to it!

Well, bad news today, Amazon is sold out of the Opalkas.. I will call Laurel later today and see if she has any. What I would do is do a search for "Tomato Plants for Sale, Bay are, or your city or a big city nearby. Why do I suggest that? Well I did a search for Tomato Plants "Orange County Calif". I didn't turn up any nursery that had the kind of maters I wanted, so I found Laurel and ordered them all from her. I had a dentist appointment Tuesday, and on the way home, I stopped at a local Nursery, (about 10 miles from Home). They had every mater I wanted, and nice size and price too!, GRRRRRR. I did not find that nursery when I did my search because it was in LA County!!!!! With Me, I want "Instant Gratification" with my maters, and had I done a better search, they would be in my garden now!!! I'm 70 and don't have the patience, time, or wish to take the chance on something going wrong trying to plant seeds, caring for them, light heat, water, etc, transplanting them a couple times, hardening off etc etc, so I always buy live plants. Hope you find your maters! Gary