THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who has replied so far, This has been very helpful. I love that so many of you took he time to reply, and I also am excited to hear that I already have a few of the varieties that are mentioned here- some multiple times (Golden Celebration, Lady Emma, Darcy Bussell, Jubilee Celebration) they are still so young I haven't been able to tell anything about their blooming habits for sure yet. AnnTn, I live in a suburban area very close to an urban downtown area, so my yard is pretty small, I don't have room for many giant species of rose (although I'm constantly trying to make more room) my soil is heavy, sticky clay, but my flower beds have been amended so many times, I don't know how much of that is still in there, and if my hydrangeas are any indication it is very alkaline. Most of my available space at the moment is mostly sun with some dappled shade, but as soon as the sidewalk that is In planning stages gets built, I will build my fence, and then I will have more full sun space available, but I'm waiting until the sidewalk and fence are done to plant near the very front of my yard (some of the sunniest territory) I don't want the roses to get messed with during the construction process, I would hate to get into an altercation with a construction worker ;)

I'm wondering if you are giving these plants long enough to prove themselves. Sometimes it takes a daylily three years to really settle in and strut its stuff. You posted earlier that you were getting rid of some that are very good performers here. Scarlet Orbit, for example, is a good performer that I would never consider getting rid of. The same goes for Absolute Treasure, which was on your earlier list. This another thing I've found. While a daylily might be a top performer one year, it might have disappointing performance the next year. For example, some that have three cycles of bloom here one year, may have poor bud count and no rebloom the next. They kind of wear themselves out overperforming. Another thing that zaps a plant's energy is setting a lot of pods on it, which I have been known to do. That said, these were my best performers last year: Mister Bubbles Ruby Lipstick Adamas Moonlight Sail Shores of Time Mardi Gras Parade August Frost North Wind Dancer Freedom's Triumph Kokopelli Cameroon Night Old King Cole Flying Carpet Eye On A String Brooklyn Twist Cretaceous Crunch Ada May Musick El Desperado Debra

I didn't have any way to get a cattle panel last year. I drooled and drooled and tried to find a better way to grow indeterminates than bowing them to the ground after they grew out of a standard tomato cage so they couldn't be seen, (but did just that for 3 or 4 plants)and found none. I actually take that back. I grew 2 of them up into my orange tree and that worked well. :-) You did send me the list. AND I bought a truck. I'm going to head out to the supply house for a cattle panel in the next couple weeks and I CANNOT wait. I still won't be able to grow many because the area that I will be able to put the cattle panel that won't be seen (the raised bed is in a raised area of the yard) is against the fence and doesn't get as much sunlight. So I'm not sure that they will grow as well, but I am certainly willing to try. I started 3 Big rainbow, 3 beefsteaks, 2 Cherokee Purple this weekend. I'll plant more once I get the panel in and see how many I can really fit. I started all my determinates for the early season trial last weekend, too. I don't normally care for cherry tomatoes but if it truly has a tomato taste and not overly sweet I'll be on the lookout. I have a ton of cherry seeds I'm willing to share if anyone wants some. :-) The f4 I've been saving that started as a sungold was sweet but it's lost most that now. :-)

I'm with Robert and Suzie on this one. The first tomato is the one we look forward to the most. Technically, we've already had our first three tomatoes from our plants in pots, so for us the first tomato thing already is over. Like all tomatoes that have set and ripened in cooler temperatures, their flavor, while still good and certainly superior to grocery store tomatoes, is not the same as a tomato that will ripen in hotter temperatures in May or June. The first tomato from an in-ground plant likely will be from Better Boy, which bloomed insanely early, but the ones I'm looking forward to the most are those from the black, purple or pink varieties like J D's Special C-Tex, Spudakee Purple, Spudatula, Greek Rose, Cherokee Purple, etc. It is likely our first fruit from in-ground plants, if not Better Boy, will be from Terenzo or LIzzano, but I don't particularly crave the flavor of a typical red hybrid cherry. I crave the OPs that are impossible to come by in stores....and when I have bought the commercially grown OPs from places like Central Market, they did not taste nearly as good as OPs grown here in our garden. Fresh and locally grown still is best, regardless of the name of the variety. Suzie, Say it isn't so! I have steadfastly refused to look further out at the forecast for next week because I didn't want to see another potential cold front. I told Tim this morning that it wouldn't surprise me to have one next week, since that has been a very consistent pattern for the last few weeks ....but I sure was hoping for a pattern change. Some of my plants soon will be too tall to cover. At about 2.5-3' tall now, some of the potatoes already are getting hard to cover, and this heat is making them grow by leaps and bounds. Even with floating row cover, there's a limit to how much you can cover, and the taller the plants get, the harder it is. For us, the rain has tapered off a lot down here the last two weeks....and my ground is cracking. Crazy, isn't it? Usually the ground doesn't crack until June. All winter I looked forward to spring so much. Now,I look at all the crazy roller coaster weather and say to myself "This? This is what you were waiting for?" It was 91 degrees at our house yesterday and yet our forecast for later in the week shows 34 degrees. It seems ridiculous to have both of those temperature readings in the same week. I'll be happy with whatever tomatoes we get this year because something tells me we aren't going to have the huge harvests we were blessed with last year. I am so happy we canned, froze and dehydrated a 2-3 year supply in 2012 because it may be that we don't get enough fruit this year to make/can salsa and all that other stuff. Dawn