I am not sure if I got this story right, it's been a while since I heard it. But it is true. There once was a little boy, maybe eight or nine, who wanted to be a gymnast. He spent hours on his jungle gym and monkey bars, building his strength and training himself to do things. That was his only goal, to be a famous gymnast like Olga- she was his hero. (I forget her last name. She won a gold medal in the olympics, I think.) However, he contracted a disease that weakened and eventually killed him before he turned eleven.His parents, naturally were heartbroken to watch him suffer, but even more so in understanding that his one dream would never come true. One year after he died, they happened to look at the mokey bars, now sadly empty. But underneath the bars, where the earth was packed as hard as iron, were two blood-red lilies. It was as if he was saying, "It's okay, mom and dad, I am fine. I can do things here that I could never do at home." The lilies never bloomed again.

Ilene, I've been wondering where you'd been! I agree with you. I do think there is a big climate difference between extreme southern Oklahoma and northern Oklahoma, especially northeastern Oklahoma. For starters, we are are the 'sunny side of the Arbuckles', though you can't tell much difference this year! I think we get a little hotter, perhaps, in late July and early August of some years. Our first year here we had a string of 110 to 115 degree days in early August that lasted about a week, and I was ready to pack up and move back to Texas, where it 'only' gets to about 105, maybe 106 on very hot days. Most of the time y'all have higher humidity and higher rainfall. Y'all also have generally better soils and colder winters. We have earlier springs most years, and we have occasional days in January through March where the temps spike up into the 80s and even the 90s, which will make us think it is spring even though it is not. I don't know if your winter temps are as erratic as ours, or if they are more consistently winter-like? I think our frost-free growing season is a few days longer than yours, but not much. We do get away with pushing the envelope as far as planting early, because our late cold spells tend to be briefer and not as cold as your late cold spells. If you are familiar with the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and its weather, ours is very, very similar to theirs--only slightly hotter in the summer and slightly colder in the winter. As far as whether you are a Yankee or not? I don't think so! I have to admit though, that when I was growing up in Texas, it was generally accepted that everyone who was NOT from Texas was, in fact, a damn Yankee! Now just find a single person in Texas who was even born in Texas! The Yankees have all moved south and become Texanized. Ilene, I was pinching back the lemon and lime basil earlier today because they are trying to flower and I am trying to stop them. I could pinch back basil all day--it smells so good. I have a big pot of tomatoes on the stove boiling down so I can make spaghetti sauce for dinner. In a few minutes I am going to run out to the garden and pick some Italian large leaf basil and some parsley to use. Yum. I am just like you--tired of the rain but afraid to say so out loud for fear I will jinx us and the rain will totally stop. It has happened to us before--we have gone from a VERY wet spring to a July and August where virtually no rain fell, and it is amazing how quickly the moisture in the ground dissipates! I hope they are careful with their water releases so your area doesn't have to deal with more flooding. Your little old lady friends sound so precious and sweet--I always liked the Baldwin sisters. When I was growing up we had a lot of older ladies like them and they got me addicted to gardening. I remember them working out in their yards and gardens wearing cotton housedresses in lovely floral prints, and very sensible shoes, and big straw hats, and very proper gardening gloves of course. I may be more comfortable in my jeans, T-shirts, baseball cap and hiking boots as I work in the garden.....but I don't look like a 'southern lady gardener' the way they used to! We've been fighting the grass too as it attempts to take over the world, especially in the beds where all the 'prety' stuff grows. It seems like all we do is mow and weedeat lately, in between rain showers, of course. I hate to say it, cause I'll jinx us, but not a drop of rain has fallen at our place today. There--I went ahead and said it--now it will probably start pouring down rain at any moment. :) I need to go gather some herbs. Talk to you all laer. Dawn

I don't know what you have from Tomatofest but it doesn't sound right to me even at presumably the seedling stage in that pot. Southern Exposure sounds OK as does Tania as does the blurb for Sandhill which you don't quote. I know I sent it to Jeff at Southern Exposure as well as to Glenn at Sandhill. And I also know that in the other thread on this variety I explained where I got the seeds from initially and that for me it was determinate and i sprawl plants most of the time. Growing that way it was never more than about two feet tall but very bushy. Did you direct seed into the 5 gal container or did you grow the seedling elsewhere and then transfer it to the pot. That could make a difference b'c direct seeded it would form a tap root structure and if transplanted it would produce the more desirable fibrous root structure. Carolyn

This is my first year growing tomatoes from seed, but I consider Sophie to be the most unique looking of all of my 18 varieties. Here is a picture from a week or so ago, although it has become even bushier since then: It's wider than it is tall, and off and on has curled leaves whereas none of my other varietes do that. I have two in containers and one in the ground. One of mine in a container has weirdly curling branches but the other two do not - see link below. On the plus side, Sophie is the first to give me a tomato and has the biggest one of all of them so far - and I have a bunch of other "early" varieties. Here's a pic from last week but now it is bigger than a quarter and sort of ribbed: It's not the most attractive plant, but it is a very good size for a container, and I am going to let taste determine whether I will grow it again next year. I agree about the name - I always assumed someone with a daughter named Sophie came up with it but hadn't seen the movie. I've read the book and it is about the most depressing thing I've ever read. Here is a link that might be useful: curly stem on sophie's choice