Although many of us start our heirloom tomato plants from seeds every year, some folks don't start from seed and still want to grow heirloom varieties which can be hard to find in local stores.

Here's a list of several local growers who sell heirloom tomato plants (and other plants too) in Oklahoma in the spring. If any of you see other sources of heirloom tomatoes when you're out and about, I hope you'll come back and post them here this spring to help other gardeners locate plants.

BIG BOX STORES:

First of all, you'll find a small (sometimes very small) selection of heirloom tomatoes at big box stores like Wal-Mart, Lowe's, Home Depot, etc. In general, you'll see a few of the heirloom types that are relatively well known and the selection is likely to include Brandywine, Arkansas Traveler, Bradley Pink, Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Porter, Pink Brandywine or Brandywine Sudduth's, Jaune Flammee, Yellow Pear, etc.

SUNRISE ACRES FARM:

If you are within driving distances of Sunrise Acres Farm, they offer a great selection of heirloom (and hybrid) tomatoes and also sell at the OKC Farmer's Market. They are a year-round, certified-organic operation so fall tomato plants are available from them for planting at mid-summer and harvesting in the fall. Sunrise Acres is north of Blanchard and there's a map on their website (sunriseacres.com.att.net/). They have extensive lists of the varieties they offer on their website, so I won't retype it here. If you want to visit the farm, they're open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily but advise you can call ahead to check the availability of specific varieties.

They also sell year-round at the OSU-OKC Farmer's Market and you can check their website to see what days/hours they are there. I looked at their website a couple of days ago and they had 27 heirloom tomatoes on their 2010 variety list and 59 hybrid and OP types (not all OPs are heirlooms). They also had a little over 60 types of peppers on their 2010 list, and cole crops, lettuce, collards, chard, kohlrabi, cantaloupe, eggplants, okra, summer squash, watermelon, and malabar spinach. They have herbs too and some ornamental plants. Their website also says that beginning in mid-Feb. they offer seed potatoes, onion sets, onion plants and vegetable seeds. Even if you start your own plants from seed, it is great to have a nice selection of locally-grown plants available in case your garden suffers a catastrophe like damage from a late freeze, hailstorm, etc.

THE TOMATOMAN'S DAUGHTER:

This is Lisa Merrell's business in the Tulsa/Jenks area and she is only open for a few weeks in the spring and then offers transplants for fall tomatoes during a brief period in the summer. You can see her extensive variety list at her website (tomatomansdaughter.com) where she also has a 'top ten' list in case you're new to growing heirloom varieties and don't know which ones you want to try. When I visited her website a couple of days ago, she was saying this year's heirloom tomato plants likely will sell for $3.50 each.

Her early bird sales will be from April 8th-14th and then she officially opens for the season April 15th and is open through May 29. Her tomato plants for summer transplanting and fall harvesting will be available from July 8th thru August 7th. Be sure to check her website for specific days and hours of operation. She is not open 7 days a week!

You can find directions to her place on her website, and she also sells pepper and eggplant transplants too.

DUCK CREEK FARMS:

This is Gary's place in the Tulsa area and he doesn't have a website yet (although he is planning to have one). I requested info from Gary so I could include his farm in our heirloom tomato (and heirloom sweet potato--see other thread for that) thread and he mailed me some really nice, detailed info. Since he doesn't have a website yet, I'll include the type of info here that you'd find on such a site.

Gary (aka The Tomato Meister) sells at the Cherry Street Farmer's Market, at 15th and Peoria, in Tulsa, OK and he is there on Saturdays only, beginning May 8, 2010, from 7 to 11 a.m. Prior to that, he'll have some heirloom tomato varieties at various plant sales/plant shows/garden festivals that are listed below.

April 3, Sat., 10 am - 4 pm: The Oklahoma Horticultural Study Group is offering a free Tomato Growing Workshop with Sue Gray, OSU Extension rep. at the Tulsa Garden Center at 24th and Peoria in Tulsa. Plants will be available for purchase from 10 a.m. to noon and then from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. The workshop, led by Sue Gray and with other guest speakers, will be from 12 noon until 2 p.m. A small selection of tomato and herb varieties will be available.

APRIL 10, Sat., 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Brookside Herb Fest, 41st and Peoria in Tulsa. Gary will have a partial inventory of plants available.

APRIL 17, Sat., 8 a.m. to 4p.m.

Sand Springs Herbal Affair, Downtown Sand Springs, OK

Gary says all his herbs should be available on this date as well as a partial inventory of vegetable plants. He'll be set up next to the Amish Kitchen tent.

APRIL 24, Sat., 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Jenks Herb and Plant Show, Downtown Jenks, OK.

All herbs should be available and a partial inventory of vegetable plants.

MAY 1, Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Oklahoma Horticultural Study Group Plant Sale

Tulsa Garden Center, 24th & Peoria in Tulsa, OK.

Gary said all his listed plants, plus a few extra, should be available at this special plant sale and you can find him next to the Linnaeus garden.

Gary's fall tomato plants should be available around July 10th. His spring tomato plants are $2.50 each and his fall tomato plants are $2.00 each--with the discount on fall plants offered to encourage more folks to try growing a fall crop.

Here's a list of what Duck Creek Farms offers, and I want to stress I'm only typing the variety list here because he doesn't have a website. I figured it would be more efficient for all of us here if I just included the his grow list so you all wouldn't have to e-mail him to ask "Do you have variety X?". Please keep in mind that Gary sent me this list in mid-February and there is no guarantee every variety will be available, since we all know that crop failures can and do occur. However, this is the list of what he expects to have available for 2010.

HEIRLOOM/OP VARIETIES:

1884 Yellow Pinkheart

Amish Paste

Arkansas Traveler

Black Cherry

Bloody Butcher

Bonny Best

Box Car Willie

Brandywine, Legendary

Brandywine, Cowlick' Strain

Brandywine, Cherry

Brandywine, Red

Bulgarian Triumph

Cherokee Purple

Creole

Earl's Faux

Ed's Millennium

Gary O'Sena

Germaid Red

German Johnson

Gold Metal

Grandma Suzy's Beefsteak

Granny Cantrell's German Red

Grape

Grub's Mystery Green

Herman's Special

Homestead

Indian Stripe

JD's Special C-Tex

KBX

Kellogg's Breakfast

Kentucky Beefsteak

Magnum Beefsteak

Marglobe

Mexico Midget

Mountain Princess

Mule Team

Neve's Azorean Red

New Big Dwarf

Opalka

Orange Minsk

Paul Roberson

Precocibec

Randy's Brandy

Roma

Royal Hillbilly

Rutger's

Sara Black

Sioux

Spudakee

Stupice

T. C. Jones

Vorlon

Yellow Pear

HYBRIDS:

Beefmaster VFN

Better Boy VFN

Big Beef VFFNTA

Big Boy

Celebrity

Favorita F1

Heartland VFN

Jet Star

Moreton

Park's Whopper VFFNT

Ramapo

Sun Gold

Sun Sugar

Super Fantastic VF

Super Steak VFN

Super Sweet 100

SWEET PEPPERS

Big Bertha

California Wonder Bell

Keystone Giant Bell

Golden Cal Wonder Bell

Jimmy nardello sweet frying pepper

Purple Beauty Bell

Sweet Banana

HOT PEPPERS:

Anaheim

Ancho/Poblano

Jalapeno

Habanero

Serrano

Tabasco

EGGPLANT:

Black Beauty

Pingtung Long

Rosa Bianca

HERBS:

Aloe Vera

Basil, African Blue

Basil, 'Lesbos'

Basil, Sweet Genovese

Basil, Lemon

Basil, Lime

Basil, Green Pepper

Basil, Variegated

Bay

Chives

Chives, Garlic

Cutting Celery

Dill

Fennel, Bronze

Lavende

Lemon Grass

Lemon Verbena

Sweet Marjoram

Mint, Apple

Mint, Blue Balsam

Mint, Banana

Mint, Chocolate

Mint, Mojito

Mint, Orange

Mint, Peppermint

Mint, Pineapple,

Mint, Spearmint

Mint, Swiss

Mint, 'The Best' (aka 'Kentucky Colonel')

Mint, Wintergreen scented

Oregano, Greek

Oregano, Italian

Oregano, Mexican

Parsley, Curly Leaf

Parsley, Italian

Pennyroyal, Creeping

Rosemary, 'ARP'

Rosemary, 'Hill Hardy'

Sage, Bergarten

Sage, Garden Variety

Sage, Honeydew Melon

Sage, Golden Pineapple

Society Garlic

Stevi

Tarragon, French

Tarragon, Mexican Mint Marigold

Thyme, French

Thyme, Garden

Thyme, Lemon

Thyme, Silver

Zaatar (Bible Hyssop)

Vietnamese Coriander

Duck Creek Farms will have other herbs available on a limited basis.

If you send Duck Creek Farms your mailing address, they'll add you to their mailing list. Their e-mail address is: DuckCreekFarms@aol.com. Please put "Tomato Catalog" in the subject line of the e-mail.

Can y'all believe Duck Creek Farms has such a huge variety of plants? Just typing the list here made me want to make plans to hop in the car and head north.

I am so envious of those of you in central and NE OK who have these great local resources. I've never seen anyone down here in southcentral OK selling the huge variety of heirlooms offered by the three local growers mentioned above.

OK, y'all, I've started this thread and now I hope you all will add to it if you find local sources for heirlooms (or, for thay matter, hybrids). (That includes those of you in Kansas, Arkansas and Missouri, too!) I know we must have a lot of small growers here and likely many of them carry heirloom varieties, but have never seen a list of all of them. Maybe we can compile our own list.

Dawn