I don't post here a lot, but I do on the Canadian forums. I lurk here :-) I don't grow a lot of tomato varieties but I do grow for quality. This year I have one plant, grown form a seed of the original Gordon Graham tomato. He has the world's record largest tomato according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Through good fortune and a friend, I was able to trade for just a few seeds from Gordon Graham's world record tomato. I got one to germinate, so I have one tomato plant that is a direct child of his original! I do grow other tomatoes but I'm really excited about this one! We had a very bad tomato year last year with lots of BER. This year I planted the tomatoes in my good lasagne "wine" garden, dug in lots of old manure, a little lime and one Tums tablet in each hole. The same friend who gave me the seeds above, told me that a Tums will help supply the calcium the tomatoes need to help prevent BER. So I'm trying it. It's easy and cheap, so I figured "Why not?" We'll see how it goes. Needless to say, I baby that plant! In addition to that one, I am also growing our own heritage Portugal beefheart tomatoes (see link to pic below), San Marzano, Manitoba, Ailsa Craig, and Rev Morrow long keeper. Here is a link that might be useful:

f-ing list? Is that a Canadian thing? My all time favorite HT rose is 'Jardins de Bagatelle', nothing else comes close. Magnolia virginiana especially about 4PM onwards, very intense Tea olive, smells of apricots, sweet & perfumy Mockorange, in full bloom now, some more fragrant than others. American Fringetree, in full bloom now, very sweet, drifts with the wind. 'Sweet October' Camellia, very sweet and welcome in the fall. 'Juddi' viburnum, sweet, maybe a little overpowering. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------these three on the bad list, DO NOT PLANT Japanese Honeysuckle, no doubt introduced because of the intoxicating fragrance, nothing like on a hot, summer evening, sadly a horrible weedy vine. Autumn Olive, sweet & showy flowers, silvery foliage but a horrible, weedy pest. Kudzu, showy purple September flowers smelling like grape soda, one of our worst weeds.

Wow interesting! Here is my list with some minor differences with yours: # 1 shiranui # 2 gold nugget: a favorite on this forum! # 3 kishu: Brian, I bought a bag of tiny small mandarins at my asian grocery (the size is about a looney or smaller). It wasn’t label as kishu so I am not sure but they were very, very sweet. They really taste like orange life saver. I read about this description before but never thought much about that until I taste it. The description ws very accurate. # 4 xie shan: winner at the citrus expo held in alabama. Must be really good to win the favor of all those enthusiastic citrus lovers. # 5 page: never taste it but seems a classic to have. Everyone was raving anout this variety in another forum some years. Sugar Belle, Pixie, Daisy and Tango are all great varieties but I never taste them and can’t find lot of information on them.

"I don't have a list. Neither does DH." That is so us. We usually do some kind of gifts to each other but honestly, we have everything we need and buy something when we need/want it. I absolutely do not like to know what I am getting, have to tell someone what to get me, receive money or gift cards. I love surprises. I have to be very careful when I see something I like because my husband often interprets that as something I WANT. LOL This season is not about gifts to us. I chair a local angel tree committee and we've been very involved in that (finishing up this week!) and seeing the requests from some of those children just makes me realize even moreso that we don't need anything. Still, I'll have some little things for hubby and I know there will be a surprise for me. I like that friends of ours only do a stocking for each other. Good idea. I just want some down time, spent with the one I love. That's my Christmas wish!!