Hello tc88, Yes,the Bountiful Blue,Misty,Sunshine Blue and Legacy kept most of their leaves.Some others,like Star and Sweetcrisp,I recently acquired,so I'll find out next Winter. The leaves on some Southern Highbush,like Misty,to me, are kind of funky anyway,so some of them can get kind of crinkly looking,but I don't think I'd call it a disease.They seem to fair well here. This area does get it's share of rain,usually in November and December,but the overcast is the thing.Some places will get a lot of rain all at once and then it will clear up.Here,the gray may stay for a few days with not much precipitation. One Winter,I had to cover the Bountiful and Sunshine because snow was building up on the leaves and could have broken some branches and an ice storm came right after. Brady

I have had this plant for years, I love it just for the dark purple foliage. I tried to find out what it was at a nursery and was told it was a 'wild hibiscus'. I believe now that was a wrong answer. Anyway, sad thing is I lost my last plant winter 2010/2011. I have been trying to track down a replacement (seeds would be fine). Can anyone help - Please! I live in Florida, so did see the flowers, small pinky red, flower only in late season (trying to preserve their species by making some seeds). They do normally drop seeds and you get plenty of baby seedlings, but mine got frosted and I did not get to save any seeds. I had it in a pot, trying to save it over the winter, being as it was my last plant. I'm distraught that I lost that gorgeous dark purple foliage, it was a 'special' plant in a border. I would really like to get another plant or a few seeds..... can anyone help please!

colorado, What I grew in '91 is the same that TOm Hauch got out of the SSE Yearbook and others were growing and listing it as well. I said above that I compared my 91 with Tom Hauch's current stock and they were identical. I'd said above that after Tom sent seeds to Steve Miller at the Landis Museum that it was Steve who got the background info. There are NO seeds that came forward directly from about 1865 in a direct line as far as I know. And Tom can't even remember the name of the SSE person he got the seeds from and clearly others got it from that person as well. I didn't say that as clearly as I should have. RB was listed by an SSE member in an SSE Yearbook. How that SSE member got the seeds is not known. Apparently Steve contacted that SSE lister and found that the variety was knnown to have been grown by the Amish in Chester Co PA. One might assume that the original SSE lister got it from the Amish. You know, I think a lot of these questions would be answered if those of you who still have questions, were to read the article at Victory Seeds on the history of brandywines by Craig LeHoullier. He did the family ones and I provided the info for the ones that were bred or resulted from cross pollinations. Fruit size alone can never ID a variety b'c as I think most of ou know, weather can alter fruit sizes, and so can amendments used. So without doing controlled studies I would not use fruit size as THE determining factor in IDing any variety, Carolyn

I still maintain the faux red brandywine PL that I got from Chuck Wyatt's site in 2002. It is a very good flavored tomato that produces huge flattened fruit up to 2 pounds. I need fresh seed this year so it will be in my garden again. I also grow the true Red Brandywine which is an excellent all around red tomato from 12 ounces up to about a pound. I had a variant plant in 2008 from supposed Red Brandywine seed that produced huge fruit well over 2 pounds. I saved lots of seed and will grow it out this year to see if I can stabilize it into a large fruited variety. It is listed on my website as Beefywine for the time being. DarJones