Heirloom Tomatoes

Comment from Gary:
Just want to say how much I enjoy your website. Please drop by and see what we have that may interest you in heirloom tomatoes. tomatofest.com

Response from Pat:
It’s nice to hear from you. Thanks so much for your compliment on my website. Are you the same Gary who used to be connected with Hortus Nursery in Pasadena?

It was that Gary I meant when on my blog I mentioned “traveling purveyors of tomato plants” (a phrase that caused some amusement among readers. But perhaps it is not you who take your show on the road to the San Diego Botanic Garden and other venues? Those tomato guys sell plants, not only seeds. I am hoping they will offer grafted tomatoes for sale this spring, since that’s what I was touting when I used that phrase about traveling purveyors that I heard gave rise to colorful mental pictures.

I am very enthusiastic about heirloom tomatoes and intrigued by the fact that they seem to be regional. Specific
varieties are better adapted to certain geographical regions and climates than others. I would be interested in knowing anything you have discovered along that line since such information is helpful for gardeners.

Whereas heirloom tomatoes are far more tasty and delicious than the disease-resistant varieties, I got many letters from gardeners last summer whose tomato plants were suffering with Early Blight and Late Blight and th  plants most seriously afflicted were heirloom varieties. Therefore I think of grafted plants as the best new advance in tomato growing. I now believe that heirloom tomatoes on disease-resistant roots are the wave of the future in tomato growing.

Do you carry tomato plants or only seeds and if you carry plants do you offer heirloom varieties on disease-resistant roots? And, if so, when if ever are you likely to travel to the San Diego area?