I've been growing tomatoes in the northeast for 25 years. When I first started I could harvest perfect beefsteaks into Nov by throwing some plastic over the plants in Sept- the leaves would stay healthy and plants vigorous through Sept. Then early blight arrived and everything changed. Plants will just start to ripen fruit and then begin to die. You usually get a rush of tomatoes that are perfect then quality rapidly declines as plants succumb to blight. For quite a few years I've grown several variety of heirlooms and have found a couple that are fairly productive even in the face of blight but things vary here a great deal year to year now. Many small commercial growers have resorted to growing heirlooms under plastic because that is the only reliable way to assure productivity. Serious home growers too. I won't go to that much trouble for tomatoes, but this year was the best tomato year in probably 15 years. I first thought it was because of the weekly applications of copper I applied but it was a banner year for many growers here in the southeast NY area with many experiencing a major reduction in blight damage. Around here the hot item is heirlooms grafted to the roots of more vigorous varieties, but that is also too much trouble for me, although there are several mail order nurseries that offer them. Things like Purple Brandywine on Better Boy roots. I think a better deal is to grow Burpie's Brandy Boy which is a hybrid combining Better Boy with Brandywine, creating the flavor of the latter on a more productive, vigorous plant. If you want to grow what is hands down the most vigorous and productive beefsteak variety I've ever ever grown, get some Country Taste seeds somewhere. At peak I must have been harvesting 20 pounds a week from one obscenely huge plant. I'm still eating ones I picked green about 3 weeks ago. It reminded me of the beefsteak plants I used to grow, but more tomatoes. Not quite as tasty as a really good heirloom though, but so, so much more productive than any I've tried. For the most productive cherry- that would be Sun Gold or one of its improved strains. Silly sweet with almost no acid. Fun to browse but I prefer a real tomato. Many people think it's the best thing since sugar enhanced sweet corn though. Now that I can't stand.

Heres my lineup: 7 pot Scotch Bonnet Yellow and Red Fatalli Bhut Jolika Austrian Lanterns Thai red and yellows Poblano I have grown 100s of varities over the last 15 years and these get me everything I need. I tried the scorpions last year, they look cool and are very hot but didn't make good sauce and the Bhut dry better and just as hot for my powder. Am trying the 7 pot/pod for the first time, we'll see if they make back to next years lineup. Bhut Jolikas best for powder. Fatalli makes such a so much better mash for pepper sauces I don't even fool with mashing anything else, except for a few scotch bonnets. Got have a few jars bonnet sauce. Austrlain lanterns made in back in this years lineup, what a great pepper to eat fresh, awsome smell and taste and HOT. Got have my thais. Love taking the to the local Thai place getting the cook in my food, plus i make this soy/honey/garlic sauce with them. Pablanos obiviously for my rellanos. Thats all I need to keep me happy:)

Salviakeeper: On Mar 11, 2010, the Salvia eremostachya in the Pinyon Crest area of Riverside Co. were just starting to bloom. In some places the air was pungent with the scent of the foliage. The plant in the photo is at 33.61379N, 116.41519W, 3301 ft. elev. +- 66 ft., close to Hwy 74. You can see it (and many others) from the road, if you know what to look for. But you shouldn't take your eyes off the road :-) The population of S. vaseyi further downhill is in a natural preserve. There's a tiny parking area off Hwy 74 (west side) for the preserve. It's a breeding area for desert bighorn sheep, and now there are signs posted saying the area is closed except for a small part of the year that doesn't include the blooming period. However, there is no physical barrier to entry. S. vaseyi are scattered on the slope south of the parking area. BTW, I forgot to mention that I also have photos in this forum of S. carduacea and S. sonomensis. Look for "Salvia [insert species] in California." I've looked at the Consortium of California Herbaria for localities of S. dorrii, S. mohavensis and S. funerea, but I would indeed be interested in your localities. A couple of years ago I looked in listed localities for S. mohavensis and S. dorrii in Joshua Tree N.P. I found one S. dorrii but not mohavenis. I know there are other places further north. WRT S. leucophylla, it occurs sparingly if at all in Riv. Co. Fires in Orange Co. swept through known populationsm, but I haven't gone there to look. There's a single record in Consortium and Calflora (same plant) in the Tierra Santa area of San Diego. I haven't seen the plant, but I get the impression it's a garden escape, since I've seen no indication of a population.

Lou, I'm glad to hear from you. I have enjoyed many of your GardenWeb posts over the years. There does seem to be considerable variation in the M.C.s. The ones we bought from Madrone Nursery and at a plant sale at the Heard Natural Science Museum several years ago have a more weeping, bush-like habitus, not like the ones I got from Creech and the one on Wilson Street. They all seem, once established, amazingly tough. The pinetum in Angelina Co. TX. had some along the edge of a pond and, initially unknown to us, a beaver moved in and selectively mowed the M.C.s to 4 to 8 inch stumps, but they all recovered. I must beg tolerance for our website We haven't updated anything but the database of the Angelina Unit for about 10 years. This will part of our work next winter. If you are ever back in E. TX., we would enjoy your visit. Please call ahead because now we seem to be spending more time in MO. (where we have recently enlarged).rl