Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Tomato Descriptions Spring 2011

Here is a list and description of the tomatoes I am offering this year.
The tomatoes will come in either 3-1/2" or gallon pots.
They are $3 and $6 and it would be advised to pre-order before my sales start.

  Yellow Pear Tomato
Vigorous vines produce high yields of 2", yellow-skinned, pear-shaped fruits with few seeds. Slightly later than Red Pear, but with the same prolific yields and dependable performance. 

Zebra Cherry Hybrid Tomato
 This compact, hard-to-find basket type produces loads of tangy fruits that are slightly larger than the average cherry at 1 to 1-1/2 inches in diameter. Exotic fruits have red and green stripes, with dark red flesh that is surprisingly flavorful and very firm, making them easy to cut. Hardy plants are ideal for small spaces and patios.

Lemon Drop Tomato
These sunshine-yellow fruits have a pure, tart-sweet taste that stands up alongside the most robust salad ingredients. Heavy trusses of 3/4" fruits literally beg to be harvested and enjoyed.

  Manitoba Tomato
An extremely early variety developed by the Morden Experiment Farm in Manitoba for southern Canadian prairies. Particularly well suited for extreme northern areas of Montana, Dakotas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and New England. Fruits are bright red, slightly flattened, good-flavored, and weigh about 6 oz. each. Easily grown in a small area.

Siberian Tomato
Bright red, egg-shaped, 2 to 3 inch fruits have an excellent flavor. Very early. Plants are dwarf with a spreading habit.

Tumbler Hybrid Tomato
Specially bred for hanging baskets. Bushy plants have pliable stems, and look fantastic when mixed in containers with Lobelia or Ivy. Sweet, bright red fruits.

 Green Zebra Tomato
This is the most unusual variety you'll ever grow! Fully ripened fruits are bright green, with stripes of a still lighter green. Round, smallish, 2 to 4 oz. fruits have excellent, "real tomato" flavor. Plants are vigorous.

  Husky Cherry Red Hybrid Tomato
Season-long production of outstanding fruits, 1" in size and featuring excellent flavor. A member of the Husky "ISI" Series, whose dwarf indeterminate habit and quality production makes it perfect for small spaces and containers.(VFA)

 Isis Candy Tomato
Superior quality fruits, marbled in red and with a cat's-eye starburst on each blossom end. 1-1/2" fruits are a silky blend of sugary sweetness and rich fruitiness. Heavy yields, with season-long production of short trusses, in double rows of 6 to 8 fruits each.

Climbing Trip-L-Crop Tomato
Enormous yields on vigorous vines which may grow as long as 25 ft. and should be trellised. Produces 2 to 3 bushels of fruits, each measuring up to 6" across, red and meaty, making this variety fine for canning.

Japanese Black Trifele Tomato
Heavy producer of pear-shaped fruits that are free of blemishes and cracks and range in color from intense black to dark grey blushed with magenta. Plants produce prolific yields of picture perfect, 3 to 5 ounce fruits that look stunning when sliced and arranged on a plate. As delicious as it is unique. An excellent canner as it holds its flavor and color well.


 Jelly Bean Red Hybrid Tomato
 (VFFAST) Grape-like fruits aptly named for their bite-sized sweetness and intense red color. Heavy clusters of up to 30 fruits each mature early on plants that have good disease resistance. Fruit quality holds up well during shipping.

Kellogg’s Breakfast Tomato
Lovely, pale-orange fruits are solid and meaty throughout, packed with mild, superb-tasting flesh. A long-season producer of large, beefsteak-type fruits, up to 16 oz., with solid centers that have just a few seeds at the edges. Very desirable!

Bush Goliath Hybrid Tomato
(VFN) No wonder this remarkable tomato has gained such wide acclaim in its short history! Specially developed for patio gardeners and those with limited garden space, and unsurpassed by any other bush variety, including Better Bush and Husky Red. Its attractive, compact plants grow up to 3-1/2 ft. tall and have a "patio" look...the surprise is their huge, red, 3 to 4" fruits packed with flavorful meat and high sugar content. Bears consistently up to frost and needs little staking.

Alaskan Fancy Tomato
 Excellent for those short-season summers, these are the earliest plum tomatoes available in today's market! Pear-shaped, bright red plums produce abundant yields to satisfy your salad and canning needs for the season. Its earliness does not detract one bit from its juicy flavor! Fruits are 2" x 1-1/2" and weigh about 2 oz. each.

  Champion 2 Hybrid Tomato
(VFFNTA) If you love the ever popular Champion Hybrid then you're sure to become a fan of this variety. Features even more disease resistance while maintaining the same delicious flavor and timing. Delivers high yields of meaty, 6 to 7 oz. fruits. Also exhibits intermediate resistance to Yellow Leaf Curl Virus.

Chocolate Cherry Tomato
Extremely flavorful, uniform, round fruits in trusses of 8, measure 1" in diameter. Fruits hold stems very well, don't crack and can be picked several days before completely mature and allowed to ripen off the vine without sacrificing quality. Great variety for the home gardener or for packing into pints for market.

Early Girl Hybrid Tomato
(VFF) It's hard to find tasty, full-sized fruits like this extra-early in the season! Meaty, ripe, red fruits, 4 to 6 oz., are slightly flattened and bright crimson throughout. Very appealing, with firm texture and blemish-resistant skin. Heavy yields on hardy vines. Seed is de-fuzzed.

Red Tumbling Tom Series Tomato
This magnificent variety cascades to 20" or more, making it ideal for hanging baskets and container gardens. Sturdy, evenly branched plants are loaded with juicy, 1 to 2" fruits, perfectly sized for snacking and salads. A true ornamental that may seem too pretty to pick, but one sweet bite will have you coming back for more.

Yellow Tumbling Tom Series Tomato
This magnificent variety cascades to 20" or more, making it ideal for hanging baskets and container gardens. Sturdy, evenly branched plants are loaded with juicy, 1 to 2" fruits, perfectly sized for snacking and salads. A true ornamental that may seem too pretty to pick, but one sweet bite will have coming back for more.

Yellow Cherry Tomato
Lots of small, 1/2", pretty fruits to toss in your salads. Strong vines produce high yields of yellow jewels, preferred by taste-testers about the same percentage as for Super Sweet 100.

Gold Nugget Tomato
Vigorous plants bear numerous golden-yellow, fine-flavored, 1" oval "nuggets". Uniform, compact plants, averaging 24" in height, begin fruiting extra-early.

Black Krim Tomato
A most unusual novelty. Fruits are a dark, deep red (almost a shiny black) with heavy green shoulders. Interior is a deep, reddish-green color. Sweet and tasty. Matures extremely early.


Mr Stripey Tomato
Red and yellow-striped heirloom variety that adds color to any gourmet salad bar. Large, ridge-shouldered fruits are mild-flavored and low in acid.

Box Car Willie Tomato
We predict this old-timer might become your main crop variety, due to its prolific yields of smooth, reddish-orange fruits averaging a large 10 to 16 oz.! With an old-fashioned flavor you'll remember from childhood, these high-yielding, multi-use tomatoes will last throughout the season and are ideal for canning, freezing, or for home-cooked meals. Crack-free and disease resistant.

Burpee Big Boy Hybrid Tomato
The hallmark of this large, crack-free tomato is its absolutely superb flavor. Bright red, firm, meaty fruits often weigh 1 pound or more, and feature smooth, blemish-resistant skins.

Burpee Supersteak Hybrid Tomato
(VFN) One of the top-rated beefsteak hybrids for the home garden. Its extra-large, smooth fruits feature improved exterior appearance, and its meaty flesh is very versatile.

Bush Beefsteak Tomato
This is the perfect sandwich-sized fruit produced on a square-foot, garden- sized plant. Solid-fleshed fruits of a deep, rich red, average 8 ounces, on vigorous, bushy plants.

Glacier Tomato
Extremely early, cold-tolerant, high-yielding special strain of tomato plant. Begins flowering when only 4" high and bears tasty tomatoes only 45 days from flowering. You can expect higher-than-average yields of 2 to 3 oz. fruits with outstanding flavor for such an early tomato.

Kentucky Beefsteak Tomato
An old heirloom that hails from the hills of its namesake, eastern Kentucky. Like most beefsteaks, the fruits are enormous, often weighing as much as 2 lbs. Unlike many beefsteaks, though, the fruits lack much of the roughness usually associated with heirloom beefsteak-types. Fruits are actually quite attractive - globe to oval-shaped, and a beautiful deep orange in color.

Micro Tom Hybrid Tomato
Considered to be the world's smallest tomato, with plants only 6 to 8" tall, bearing loads of flavorful, 1 oz., deep red fruits. Micro Tom is an ideal house plant for windowsills or patios, letting you enjoy vine-ripened tomatoes year round! Developed by the University of Florida.

Moonglow Tomato
A very pretty tomato and one of the best for straight-from-the- vine eating. Medium-sized, bright orange fruits glow with neon intensity against 36" vines. A high yielder and good keeper, producing loads of tasty, 3 to 4 oz., globe shaped fruits that are dense and meaty, with thick walls and few seeds. Flavor is sweet, with a hint of tartness, but without that strong acidic taste.

Opalka Tomato
Fruits are far richer and more flavorful than most paste tomatoes. A long, pepper-shaped type with fruits that grow to 4 to 6" long, clustered in groups of 2 to 5. So sweet and refreshing, it can be eaten straight off the vine, but is highly prized for sauces and canning.

Parks Whopper Cr Improved Hybrid Tomato
(VFFNT) Earlier and tastier than the original Whopper, with big red, 4" fruits that feature improved disease and crack-resistance, as well as a more uniform fruit size. You'll start harvesting in just 65 days, and keep picking right until frost! A popular choice for fresh market and home garden. Vigorous, stocky plants.

Parks Beefy Boy Hybrid Tomato
(VFFTST) We can thank superior breeding for these gigantic beefsteak-type fruits that have achieved the perfect combination of delicious flesh that is more solid than jell, awe-inspiring size and exceptional taste. So easy to grow, too! Deep red, 12 to 16 oz. fruits are round and smooth, ripening uniformly. Highly disease resistant.

Patio Hybrid Tomato
(FASt) Perfect for container gardening or limited space. Vines are extremely compact, yet produce medium-sized, deep oblate fruits that are smooth, firm and flavorful.

Pineapple Tomato
Enormous, uniquely-patterned, yellow-red striped fruits will be the center of attraction. Beefsteak-type fruits easily grow to 5" and larger, and are orange-yellow with red streaks. Fruits have meaty flesh, mild flavor, and no green shoulders. Heavy foliaged plants produce good yields.


Principe Borghese Tomato
Italian variety whose plum-shaped fruits are unusually meaty, with a very little juice and few seeds. A favorite for drying. Small, very prolific plants bear yield after yield.

Red Pear Tomato
One of the rarest of the heirloom varieties and still grown today! Hardy, medium-sized plants yield plenty of small, red, pear-shaped fruits with very few seeds. Perfect for salads, sauces or pickles.

Red Robin Tomato
An extra-sweet dwarf, container-grown variety, just as good grown indoors as a pot plant. Round, red, 1-1/4" fruits on compact plants 8 to 12" tall. Ideal for windowsills, patios or hanging baskets.

Snowberry Tomato
Nicely rounded, 1-1/2 to 2 oz., firm fruits feature a creamy yellow color outside with a white inside, making this unique variety the closest thing to a pure white cherry available on the market today. Sturdy plants produce trusses of uniform fruits and are sweet and fruity with a typical tomato flavor.

Sugary Hybrid Tomato
2005 AAS WINNER! Sugary stands out as something really special in the world of cherry tomato competition. Super-sweet, juicy, 2 oz. fruits, with appealing, reddish-pink skins and light green shoulders. Huge yields of oval-shaped, slightly pointed fruits set continuously in full sun.


Sungold Hybrid Tomato
A positively luscious, bite-size golden beauty overflowing with an abundance of fruits - thin-skinned, with a juicy flesh that holds its oh-so-sweet, fresh-from-the-vine flavor. Very early, and a heavy cropper both outdoors and in greenhouses. Cascading trusses are smothered in fruits that remain ripe and ready for picking over long periods of time.

Sunsugar Hybrid Tomato
The ultimate in cherry tomatoes, this golden yellow beauty achieves a new level of sugar-sweetness and flavor, superb texture, and a tangy "true tomato" taste. Fruits are a lovely golden yellow, weigh 1/2 oz., and possess thin skins - remarkable, considering its wonderful crack resistance, even in heavy rains. Heavy early cropper. Very vigorous - can be grown outdoors or indoors in an unheated greenhouse in cold climates.

 Super Sweet 100 Hybrid Tomato(VF) Staked hybrid plants produce long strands of 100 or more super-sweet cherry tomatoes, weighing about 1 oz. each and measuring 1" in diameter. Extra-high in Vitamin C. Plants bear fruits throughout the season. Requires staking or caging.





 Scarlet Sweet 'N' Neat Tomato
An ultra-compact, dwarf variety that is bred to thrive on windowsills, decks and in patio containers. Strongly branched plants produce masses of sweet fruits over a long season for continuous harvests. Petite 1" round fruits weigh less than an ounce, with a memorable flavor that sparkles with sweetness. Vines will reach 12 to 14" staked. Grow both colors for a summer-long treat.


Sweet Million Hybrid Tomato
 (FT) Terrific flavor in high yields of super-sweet cherry tomatoes that have excellent, hybrid disease resistance. Long chains of smooth, dark red, 1 to 1-1/2" fruits are produced on large vigorous plants. Matures nice and early and continues producing until frost.

 Taxi Tomato
The best yellow variety for short season areas. Bright yellow 4 to 6 oz. fruits are smooth and blemish free. Flesh is meaty, mild and acid free. Excellent fresh for salads, sandwiches or adds a nice splash of color to salsas. Heavy yielder over a 3 to 4 week period.



Jelly Bean Yellow Hybrid Tomato
(VFFAST) A prolific yielder of oblong fruits, true yellow in color. Bite-sized fruits grow in groups of 15-30 per cluster, and can be harvested later in the season than most. A nice complement to red grape types.

Pepper Plant Descriptions Spring 2011

     PEPPER OFFERINGS FOR 2011
           ORNAMENTAL AND EDIBLE

My peppers are coming along in the greenhouse. They should be ready for the sales. They will be offered in the 3-1/2" pots for $4 each. Please pre-order before the sales for best selection.

Big Bomb Hybrid Pepper
Move over Cherry Bomb - an even earlier cherry pepper is taking the market by storm! Big Bomb has it all - vigorous habit, fast cropping and extra-prolific yields of uniform, 2" fruits that explode with rapid maturity to a brilliant red. Fruits are moderately pungent, with thick walls that retain their shape when pickled. Resilient under a wide range of growing conditions.

Peter Red Pepper
The original strain from the Alfreys. Demand continues to far exceed supply of this ornery old heirloom, grown as much to shock the prudish as for its culinary value! Pods are 4 to 6" long, blunt-ended, and mature to a deep red - excellent for chili powder. Dense plants, 20 to 30" tall.

Baby Belle Pepper
These tasty, tiny, 2" by 2-1/2" sweet bells will certainly be the hit of any salad bar and are just the extra touch for that special gourmet dish. These mostly 4-lobed, emerald green beauties waste no time in turning mature bright red! Resistant to Tobacco Mosaic Virus.

Cherry Pick Hybrid Pepper
Fruits measure 1-1/4" by 1-1/4" and are uniformly rounded and sized. Disease resistant and about 25 percent larger than the old strains. Yield is superb, with tall, 24", vigorous plants setting loads of sweet, dark green fruits that mature to red, although normally harvested in the green stage. Let mature totally red for excellent pickled peppers.

Mini Belle Mix Pepper
A festive and charming mix of tiny bell peppers, just 1-1/4", on 24" plants. Prolific yields of fruits with sweet, firm flesh that is surprisingly thick and flavorful. All peppers start out green, and mature to a range of yellows and reds. Resistant to Tobacco Mosaic Virus.

Peperoncino Pepper
You've seen these little beauties pickled in gourmet shops. Our strain is imported directly from Athens, Greece, and is unsurpassed for purity and productivity. Abundant yields of thin, yellowish-green fruits, 2 to 4" long, stay sweet until late maturity. Harvest when fruits are at the green stage. Vigorous plants grow to 30" tall.

Sweet Banana Pepper
One of the most popular non-bell sweet peppers, excellent both fresh and cooked! Thick-walled fruits with sweet, mild, waxy flesh are prolifically produced on 16 to 24" plants with pendant fruits. Fruits start out a pale green, ripening to yellow, then red.

Filius Blue Pepper
As versatile ornamentally as it is to eat! Filius Blue plants produce unusual purple-blue fruits that are very hot when young, then mature to red and turn more mild.

Poinsettia Pepper
Ornamental, but edible - if you like your peppers hot! Long, thin fruits with pointed ends grow upright in clusters for a dramatic display. 2 to 3" long at maturity and brightly colored in a range of reds. A high yielder.

Twilight Hybrid Ornamental Pepper
This vibrant and unusual hybrid was developed at New Mexico State University based on a Thai chili pepper variety. Plants produce many small cone-shaped, upright fruits in a rainbow of colors as they mature from purple to yellow, orange and red at different stages, simultaneously. Clustered fruits are very hot, with a uniform size of about 1" in length. Green foliage and white flowers add to the appeal in pots and containers.

Tricolor Variegata Pepper
Use as a houseplant or for container planting! As it matures each leaf exhibits shades of white, green and purple in a never-ending, variegated display, with no two leaves the same. Purple stems and blooms add to the richness and charm. Fruits are hot, best used as a garnish, and turn from deep purple to bright red at maturity.

Sweet Pickle Pepper
The crowning glory of an elite class of peppers that is both highly ornamental and edible. Compact plants are covered with upright fruits in red, orange, yellow and purple, all at the same time! When fully ripened to a scarlet red, these plump, 2" fruits are very sweet, not at all hot or bitter. Enormously popular as a mixed-color pickling pepper, as its name suggests, but equally enjoyable when eaten raw.

Black Pearl Pepper
2006 AAS Winner! Looks marvelous in mixed containers and is the perfect backdrop in garden beds. Bushy, upright plants have a well-branched habit, producing shiny black fruits that are very hot to the taste. Fruits eventually mature dark red with a rounded, slightly pointed shape. Very vigorous, with a high tolerance to heat and humidity.

Chilly Chili Hybrid Pepper
This 2002 AAS Winner produces tapered, 2" long peppers that change from greenish-yellow to orange to red in a continual display set off by lush and attractive foliage. Although peppers are edible, their primary use is ornamental. Best when grown in full sunlight.

Medusa Pepper
Narrow, twisted, snake-like peppers named for Medusa's mythological hair! Compact, well-branched plants produce huge yields of 2 to 2 1/2" pointed peppers held prominently upright over dark green foliage. Plants, 6 to 8" typically display 40 to 50 mildly pungent fruits at the same time, covering a wide color spectrum ranging from ivory to yellow, orange and bright red.

Purple Flash Ornamental Pepper
Superb drought and heat tolerance in a gleaming ornamental whose almost- black leaves are layered to reveal flashes of electric purple. Glossy black peppers are attractive, but too hot to be palatable. Uniform plants are compact and mounded habit is ideal in mixed containers and beds, spreading to about 20".

Friday, April 29, 2011

Why Is It Still Snowing?

Okay, it's the second to last day of April. Why am I waking up to a blizzard? Should I be planting my potatoes in the snow? (usually planted on Good Friday but delayed because of snow already).
 Plants in the greenhouse are coming along. Had a few crop failures, but getting re-seeded. I want to think it's because I didn't get the brewed compost tea on the seedlings when they first emerged. We had some power issues going on and the pump that aerates the liquids was off and the tea went bad so I had to throw it out. The live good bacteria that forms when oxygen is added to the compost solution dies and turns nasty when it is oxygen- deprived and can cause problems in itself. But, I have a fresh batch brewing and hopefully it will right the damping-off and whatever else is plaguing the greenhouse. Cool temps and too much moisture wreaks havoc and causes all kinds of fungal and bacterial problems.
I have been very busy since we last talked. A great adventure to Lake Roosevelt and Davenport for sales and shopping with daughter Betsy. Creating and planning for our first spring garden show plus three more upcoming sales and the opening of the Farmers Market season.














My ad is out in the local Exchange and Nikels Worth newspapers and  pictures and descriptions of my tomatoes and peppers I am offering this year should be appearing on my website www.pattisgardenexpressions.com.

     PATTI’S GARDEN EXPRESSIONS
                    MOTHERS DAY WEEKEND SALE
              SATURDAY MAY 7th & SUNDAY MAY 8th
                                 10 am - 4 pm
                   5105 N. Idaho Road  Newman Lake
                                 509-226-0321

           Hanging Baskets of beautiful blooms
           Dozens of varieties of Tomato Plants
           Assorted Vegetable, Fruit & Berry Plants         
           Hostas, other Perennials
           Farm-Fresh Eggs
           Container Plantings
           Garden Décor
           Water Features and Aquatic Plants
           Handmade Delights

    And SATURDAY MAY 14th from 9 AM - 5 PM
      The 12th Annual SPOKANE GARDEN EXPO
                 1810 North Greene Street
            Spokane Community College Lair

Also visit me at the Kootenai County Farmers Market
  Every Saturday May thru October 9 AM - 1:30 PM
        Corner Hwy 95 & Prairie Ave. Hayden, Idaho

     Visit www.pattisgardenexpressions.com  or
            unfitgardener.blogspot.com
                    for more details   

PLUS!!  Saturday May 21st  11 am - 4 pm:
               GRAND OPENING
    of  my JUNQUE SHOPPE & PLANT STORE
                  “RE-TREASURED” @
EAST FARMS SUPPLY - a feed and seed store
Located at 21518 E. Gilbert Road, OTIS ORCHARDS
                     (509) 928 - 3616



 Our first spring show was a new one this year. Put on by the horticulture class at the community college. It was a bit early for alot of plants, but still there were some great items for sale. Fresh cut flowers and produce form greenhouses and all kinds of garden-related crafts and products. I really loved the orchids at one booth and even found time to sit in on her seminar on how to grow them. I hope some day to be able to have one of mine re-bloom! And towards the end of the day, a belly dancing festival showed up and performed dances and had costumes for sale. Highly entertaining! I just might have to try that!















Then we had to prepare for our Easter event here at home. That meant the crafts, seed packets,  labels, papers and everything else that had accumulated all winter on the dining room table and kitchen island had to be temporarily banished elsewhere. Not enough time for a proper 'spring cleaning' but a good scrubbing of everything and a little straightening. It was good to see the table once more and I had forgotten how nice empty counters look. I even got some yard work done and managed to prune and rake and get the pond started back up for the season. Then the egg decorating began! All four grandchildren creating masterpieces for the Bunny to hide. We had an exciting egg hunt and at the end all four children were given  live bunnies to have as a pet.
Dan has found only three eggs so far that were missed. For some reason the Easter Bunny forgets to count how many eggs he hides. And then a wonderful dinner with all the family. We combined Easter this year with Dan and his Dads birthday as it was the following day. The weather even cooperated and made it a perfect Holiday.
 I didn't watch my intake of fluids well enough getting ready and attending the sale and missed several days of work because I was so dizzy and weak, so I went back to the hospital and was treated for dehydration plus they worked on the opening between the esophagus and stomach where their was a narrowing that was keeping me from eating solid foods without pain and vomiting. It seems to be doing better now so I am looking forward to eating a bit more and gaining some energy for everything I want to do! And make sure I drink enough fluids.
Hopefully the weather will turn around. We have had record cold and rainfall and snow this spring. But at least no tornados! My prayers go out to those who have lost family, friends and property.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Upcoming Events

PATTI’S GARDEN EXPRESSIONS
                MOTHERS DAY WEEKEND SALE
          SATURDAY MAY 7th & SUNDAY MAY 8th
                                10 am - 4 pm
                  5105 N. Idaho Road  Newman Lake
                              509-226-0321

           Hanging Baskets of beautiful blooms
           Dozens of varieties of Tomato Plants
           Assorted Vegetable Plants
           Farm-Fresh Eggs
           Container Plantings
           Garden Décor
           Water Features and Aquatic Plants
           Handmade Delights

    And SATURDAY MAY 14th from 9 AM - 5 PM
      The 12th Annual SPOKANE GARDEN EXPO
                 1810 North Greene Street
            Spokane Community College Lair

Also visit me at the Kootenai County Farmers Market
  Every Saturday May thru October 9 AM - 1:30 PM
        Corner Hwy 95 & Prairie Ave. Hayden, Idaho

     Visit www.pattisgardenexpressions.com  or
            unfitgardener.blogspot.com
                    for more details