Thank you for mentioning Super bowl. I just received it from Jim's hosta and planted in prominent spot. I do like cupped hosta leaf. After reading your comments I replanted it somewhere else where it would take its sweet time growing and planted hosta Dance with me in its place. Now I have my beautiful purple lace leaved japanese maple surrounded by Summer Breeze, Dance with me and Heart and soul.

Scott, First of all, with all the rain you had, it is remarkable that you had any tomatoes at all! We had that kind of rain here in April-July of 2004 (believe it or not) and I was the only person here among our "gardening circle" of friends, neighbors and acquaintances who had tomatoes at all. Our raised beds saved the day for us, because the folks who had their plants at grade level lost them when 12" of rain fell in the month of June and drowned the poor plants. I did have a lot of concentric cracking, and some vertical cracking as well, and to me the flavor of the tomatoes was not as strong as usual, but....the people with whom I shared the tomatoes were just so thrilled to have any tomatoes at all. Non-gardeners always think that rain is "always" a blessing for veggie gardeners, but the truth is that too much rain is, in some ways, more damaging than too little rain. If I had a choice (and I couldn't have "normal" weather"), I'd choose raising my veggies in drought over raising them in flooding rains. I thought about growing Celebrity, and there is NOTHING wrong with its flavor, but I am spoiled by the unique flavors of the heirlooms, so I usually don't grow it. I do, in fact like the flavor of several hybrids, among them Better Boy, Big Boy, Early Girl, Porterhouse, Little Brandywine and Bucks County. Every heirloom tomato is NOT superior in flavor to every hybrid, although a lot of them are. Roma was my dad's standard go-to tomato for sauce and salsa, so I grew up eating them and I like them. I do like LaRoma better (and so did he, once he tried it), but I quit growing it when I found Viva Italia, which is similar but has better flavor and much better disease resistance. THEN I found San Marzano which put the others to shame and I was sure it was "the" best paste tomato ever, until I grew San Marzano Redorta. At that point I was sure there couldn't be a better-tasting paste tomato, and for me, there probably isn't. And, yet, I love the flavors of Amish Paste, Martino's Roma, Grandma Mary's Paste and others like Heidi. Growing tomatoes is such a "journey" and it always amazes me when I find a "new" (to me) tomatoe that supplants one I had previously thought was the best. LOL And, guess what? In the winter, when grocery store tomatoes are all that are available, we happen to like salsa made from store-bought Romas just fine too! With salsa, it really isn't the tomato that contributes the most important part of the flavor....the tomato is just the base, and it is the peppers, onions and seasonings that make salsa taste like.....salsa! I always say to myself in winter that I won't "waste" garden space on Brandywine ever again, because 3 out of 4 years, they are very poor producers. Then, I think of their incredible taste and end up sneaking one or two into the garden somewhere. Brandy Boy has been a huge improvement, though, and gives tomatoes that taste almost as good as Brandywine, but not quite. I grow it because its' taste is close and its productivity is so much higher. Earl's Faux (grown from seed saved from Brandywine that had clearly crossed with something else, or at least that is what most people think) is close to BW in flavor and is more productive, but is not as productive in my garden as Brandy Boy. True Black Brandywine from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds was a great new find in our garden this year. It outproduced all my other blacks and purples, and the flavor is great, although it is not quite as good as Brandywine Sudduth. It may be the only Brandywine I grow from this point forward. If you garden on level land, the best way I know to get early tomatoes is to plant them using Wall O'Water or Kozy Koat devices. Unfortunately, I garden on a slope and I can't use them because they tip over and the water spills out. Gordan Graham (now deceased), the gardener from Edmond, OK, who holds the world record for the largest tomato ever grown, liked to use WOWs to get an early start.....and he started his plants so early with them that he had to stack a second WOW on top of the first to protect his plants until all danger of frost had passed. I'll try to find a description of how he did it and post it in a separate thread. Since I can't use WOWs, I mulch heavily to keep the ground warm, and cover my plants with buckets and blankets during cold spells. For a couple of years I wrapped the cages of the early-planted tomatoes with plastic, but that is a huge job and interferes with air flow. So, now if a severe cold spell with several consecutive days of sub-freezing temps threatens, I build a quick hoop house over the plants using 6mm plastic. I've managed to protect the plants from late sleet by doing that. Some of the older tomato varieties that are most resistant to cracking (some are true O-P heirlooms but some are just really old hybrids from the 1950s or earlier) include Sioux, Super Sioux, Homestead 24, Santa Clara Canner, Carnival, Mule Team, Champion, Box Car Willie, Earl of Edgecombe, Akers West Virginia, Traveler 76, Arkansas Traveler, Rutgers, Zogola, Porter (barely larger than Large Red Cherry), Porter Improved, and Bradley Pink. Most of the processing tomatoes that have "Heinz" or "Campbell" in their name are very crack-resistant, and so are some of the newer hybrids like Cobra and Amelia. If enough rain falls, though, or if you over-irrigate (and I know you wouldn't), any tomato will crack though because the excess moisture makes the inside flesh grow faster than the outer skin. I've never had any of my heirloom Livingston tomatoes crack either but I've never had the kind of moisture that you do. My favorite Livingstons are Golden Queen, Gold Ball and Paragon, but Stone and Perfection are outstanding too. Victory Seed is the only company I trust for authentic Livingston tomato seed. One thing about the Livingstons that I adore is that they grow and produce in the worst of our droughts. I don't know why they are so much tougher than other tomatoes in drought years--perhaps it is superior genetics Early tomatoes can be quite vexing. There are many years when some 70-75 DTM tomatoes give me ripe tomatoes before Early Girl does, and I have no idea why. Among the better ones for early tomatoes are Bush Early Girl, New Big Dwarf (slow in some people's gardens, but an early producer in mine), Sophice's Choice, Matina, Kimberly, Stupice (pronounced stoo-PEECH-ka, by the way), and Glacier. I use Better Bush as an early, but it is only early because I buy it when it is already quite large--clearly started by the growers in November to give early-bird gardners like me large plants in 6" pots in mid-Feb. to mid-March. Among the cherries, both Grape and Black Cherry produce very early for me. Finally, if you are looking for tomatoes that produce in our climate, one of the best (and few) "local" seed sources is Wilhite Seed, based in Poolville, Texas, west of Fort Worth. Although Wilhite's specialty is watermelons (oh my, their selection boggles the mind), they cater to market growers, so if they offer a variety, it is a good producer. Since Porter and Sons Seed went out of business in either the 1980s or 1990s, Wilhite is the only company in Texas that I buy seed from. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Willhite Seed Co. website

Hi, Ladies-Have been reading posts with different ideas & thought I would share my opinion (which, by the way, opinions are just like noses, everyone has one!Ha). I really think this swap was something that Hazelnutbunny was really looking forward to & wanted us all to share with each other. She has made it so simple & not expensive which I think is great. I am not sure that she would want us to cancel due to the problems she is having. I sent a box to her today & included things for Valentine's Day for the family. Just my opinion & I might be wrong but I think Melissa would be disappointed if we cancelled. I think it is great that Maryann has helped out in Melissa's place & has stated she would assign partners. The decision needs to be made if we are to get them sent in time for next Saturday as some of us are quite a distance from others. Thanks & Blessings, Margaret

They really are surprising good!. Here’s the recipe I have. 2 cups light brown sugar 1 cup margarine - yes, for this one you must use margarine 1/2 cup light corn syrup 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1 - 21 oz. pkg. Cheetos® - crunchy kind Mix sugar, margarine and corn syrup in pan. Bring to a boil. Boil 5 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat and add soda. Stir until light in color and foamy. Spray a roasting pan (deep 10 x 14) with Pam. Put Cheetos® in pan. Pour the mixture over Cheetos® and stir, coating each piece. Place in oven at 250 degrees. Bake for 1 hour stirring every 15 minutes. Immediately, pour onto wax paper, or cookie sheets, sprayed with Pam . (This is the hard part.) VERY QUICKLY spread out as thin as possible. If not quick and spread out as thin as possible, you will get a big hard glob. After about 5 minutes, pull/break these apart even more and loosen them from the wax paper. If you don't, you'll have wax paper stuck to them when you go to eat them. You will regret it if you don't double the batch as guests are going to demand MORE! You can bake batches together and add an extra 20 minutes to bake time. I do them separately because of having to work so quickly to keep them apart at the end. The one batch can almost get too hard while working with the other batch.