Cindeea, I am ready to order the Stars & Stripes. I just need another person to join, so I could order the package. So two so far have owners then. One more, and I am adding the package to the order. Good that there is this forum. One can order varieties that would not be available otherwise. I will try to find your e-mail address to try to set up the details with you if we find a third taker. elizabeth, That is indeed Jungle Star. That is what Hans says is the Papillio Improved. And if it is Improved then I have two Papillios and no Improved. Actually, I like it better than Papillio. It has more character. jodik, My credit card is charged, so I assume that the shipment is occuring soon. I can't wait to lay my hands on the new bulbs... Finally... I will update you when I have new details coming up.

Annie, I think we are only the tiniest bit hotter, but y'all are probably usually more humid. (On some days, I'd think the higher humidity would feel great, but on other days it would push the heat index into the stratosphere!) We have limited protection from south and north winds, but not so much from the west, and none from the east. Our clay holds too much moisture when it rains and not enough any other time, but it is great when well amended. We have one narrow band of sandy soil between the house and garden and that is where the guinea coop and chicken coop are, there under the shade of the big pecan tree. I have cannas and 4 o'clocks and rough-leaf dogwood under that pecan to help shelter the poultry from the predatory birds that like to eat them. Unfortunately, the soil amending has to be ongoing....year around, year in, year out. I am "only" 49, but wonder how many years I'll be able to garden at the current pace. Already, the heat bothers me so much more than it did 5 or 10 years ago. The garden gets a little shadier as the trees on three sides of it get larger, but I have to worry about their roots encroaching too. Our soil leans towards being neutral, around 6.8 to 7.2, as long as I keep it well-amended. I had alkaline soil (around 8.0) in Texas, and it was a struggle to lower it any at all. Unfortunately, our place here was once a farm where cotton was one of the crops raised, and there is cotton root rot in the soil. That gave me a lot of trouble in the early days, and there really is no "cure" for it, but I find that the more I amend and improve the soil, the less trouble I have with cotton root rot. Unfortunately, two or three thousand plants are susceptible to it, so I have to watch what I plant. I don't garden on most the land we have because the clay is like red concrete. Only about a acre or acre-and-a-half of it is tamed, about 3 acres are pastures where the wildflowers and grasses nurture the wildlife, and a little over 10 acres is forested and full of deer, bobcats, foxes, ringtailed cats, ferrets, snakes, snakes, snakes, and tons of other stuff, including possums, armadillos and skunks. We do mow 10' wide paths through the pastures so we can walk through there without stepping on copperheads (been there, done that, didn't care for the experience, but didn't get bitten either). I love, love, love living and gardening here, but I miss the longer growing season we had in Fort Worth, where the last spring freeze was often in mid to late-February and the first one often didn't hit until mid- to late-November. Still, I do like Oklahoma better even if it took me 39 years to get here! I envy the rainfall y'all get up there....in a GREAT year here, we'll have 30 to 34" inches and we'll be astounded that we got so much! I can't imagine routinely getting 35" or 40" or more. I'd sure like to try it for a year or two though! Most years since we've been here, it's been more like 26" or 28" or maybe 30" of rain, but one year it was 21" and another it was 24". In a year like that, it gets to where all you can do is water enough to keep the foundation from cracking. So, in a "good year" we STILL have drought here, and in a bad year it is unspeakably bad. I guess it is probably pretty much the same all over Oklahoma....is there ever really enough rainfall in June, July or August (well, maybe at Scott's! LOL). Our 17 keats have survived their first month and we've only had to kill two black snakes that were after them, although our predator-snake problem is usually the worst in July and August. DH keeps wanting to let the keats out of the brooder cages, but the last two times we did that when they were this old, something got them all, so they are staying in the brooder a while longer. I think the guinea coops is about 95% snake proof, but I am not convinced it is 100% snake proof. Our bunnies are disappearing, but I haven't heard the coyotes howling at night yet, so think they are still denned up with their young. A neighbor says a friend of his is seeing a cougar occasionally, but I haven't seen any signs of one near us for a couple of years, I think. Maybe it is the bobcats getting the rabbits. It has been such a great rabbit year, but I know it doesn't last long. The turtle eggs laid in the shrub bed (clay highly amended with compost) have hatched and we have little baby turtles everywhere, and we've had a huge population explosion in the hummingbird gang this year--ruby-throated, black-chinned, and rufous. Life is good! (Hot, but good.) I am very careful about exposure to the heat and sun. I don't wear sunscreen as often as I should (but I'm better than I used to be), but I always wear hats and, more often than not, I wear long-sleeved cotton shirts in the summertime. All the ranchers and farmers here do that to protect their skin, so at least I don't look like an oddball. (Being an organic gardener in a pretty non-organic county makes me enough of an oddball as it is! Not that I care. I wear my oddballness proudly!) Dawn

I try to cover a wide range with a relatively limited number of plants and only have the ones that taste good (to me). I like at least one early and one hybrid and a grape or cherry so Early Girl is my early and my hybrid. Grapes and cherries also tend to be early. Once I have that covered I look for med to large good tasting fruits in a range of colors, at least a couple each of reds and pinks, a yellow/orange and a black. I would like to add a green or stripe this year. I find the variety makes for very pleasing bowls of tomatoes and fun, appetizing dishes and sandwiches while still tasting wonderful. I find I can cover that with only about 8 or 9 plants. I don't want to plant more than I can keep up with, and I live alone, so unless I start canning big time, its enough plants for me. I would decide how many you want to plant, and make a list by early, mid and late season, as well any other features you are trying to include and start narrowing down the ones you want try and the ones you want to plant again from last year. Try to keep your real favorites from previous seasons and add at least a couple new ones each year. I just learned about the different Brandywines last year and plan to start trying the different varieties. I will start with the Suddarth, and you may want to continue that one and add one other each year until you find out which ones work best in your area which taste the best to you. Some people like sweet tomatoes, some dislike the sweet ones and like very acidic ones. Its all pretty subjective, but you will find about 2 dozen or so that well liked and are repeatedly recommended here, like Brandywine Suddarth, Kellogs Breakst, KBX, Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, etc.

Hi Caroline, Thanks for the reply. This is the first and only "Hillbilly" I've grown, so my statistical sampling "couldn't be worse." Well, I suppose "zero" would be worse. Then I'd be making it all up, wouldn't I! The weak petiole is most startling in this plant, and I'm wondering if you've ever noticed that. I like the plant for all other reasons... with the biggest reason (tasty tomatoes) still pending. I've got abundant green toms, to my delight. As you've no doubt discerned from my occasional other postings to this forum, heirloom yield has long been a problem here for me. Notable exception to that rule came with Crnkovic Yugoslovian... some years ago. So I'm delighted with any heirloom that gives me fruit, and this year I'm going at it big-time in my small-time suburban backyard. Each plant is in a 10-gal pot, all lined up where they get the maximum solar exposure... a new configuration for me. (Shadows are a problem considering the tallness of neighbors' trees, tall perimeter block walls, and my two-story house.) Considering that Hillbilly Potato Leaf is comparatively high-yield, I'm hoping it's worth its weight in moonshine flavorwise. Then I'll keep seeds and multiply the process next year. I prefer potato leaf varieties not for disease-resistance (not a problem here in this rainless climate) but because PL is recessive and it's easy for me to spot an interloper in my seedling production efforts. That said, I know which fruits on my small garden are assuredly self-pollinated, and will save seeds only from them. I never see honeybees at work on my backyard toms, though I have incessant bee activity with my colossal rose bushes, which are about a dozen in number in my front yard. Maybe bees don't like toms or maybe my bees just get enough pollen from my roses. I suppose your comments on whether bees like toms would be helpful. You've told me before that toms don't need insects to pollinate. Still I suspect otherwise with the elongated-pistil anatomies exhibited by almost all heirlooms I've observed. Our big black carpenter bees somehow work (ever-so briefly) the tomato flowers, however. (I observe this commonly at our massive public garden, 1 1/2 miles from my home.) These ungainly bumblebees briefly dangle unside down from large tom flowers, and seem to suck something from the pistil, for a mere second. Then the insect flits off to another flower and repeats, over and over again. The tom yields at the big public garden are higher, but hybrids predominate there. I have some heirlooms in my 20'x 30' plot there, still coming up. My hybrids ("Big Beef" etc.) are indeed vigorous, big, and loaded with green fruit. My heirlooms are doing well but trail given their later plantings. This will be a good year and so I'll be able to make some comparative comments about yield... assuming our admirable mild weather persists for a few more weeks. I've had lousy yield results since 2001 (ever since my mom-in-law died) until this year. Maybe she is looking over my garden this year. I used to provide her with numerous tasty toms... especially appreicated given her infirmed body... but still-viable taste buds. By the way, my Stupice (that Czech heirloom) plant has produced numerous tasty cherry-sized tomatoes. The flowers have short-pistils, like most hybrids, and the yield has been correspondingly high. None of these potted plants gets big, like ones planted in terra firma. So my comments about "high yield" are qualified by that overriding fact. Thanks for staying in touch. Best regards, John