Tomato Plant Purchases

I of course rushed home the moment I bought them to photograph them... or I might have not got round to it for several weeks so here they are several weeks worth bigger than when I bought them at the beginning of May time

There is a special place in my heart for tomato plants, and not because Im fanatical about tomatoes.  No its because they remind me of my granddad, and not because he was fanatical about tomatoes either.  Having worked as a gardener the man knew a thing or two about growing and until I was ten he had a tomato greenhouse; an actual full size greenhouse exclusively for them.  Inside it was always hot and heady, the air thick with that pungent and distinctive tomato plant smell.  There was also a deckchair in there as it was where he quite liked to take a nap, and who wouldn’t lets face it.  I only have to smell a tomato plant and he is conjured up before me, complete with patterned maroon jumper.  Like getting a whiff of a mother’s favourite perfume it just takes me back to my childhood so im not going to lie, I make sure I get a daily nostril full.

Because of this I look forward to that moment when I get to hot foot it to a garden centre and purchase my plants for the year.  ‘Your not growing them from seed?!’ you cry, and no Im not.  He always bought plants and if it was good enough for him its good enough for me.  Plus I would have six of the same variety and that’s a tad boring.  Variety truly is the spice of life.

For no particular reason other than its where I got my vegetable plants from last year I went to a different garden centre to my usual one.  Choosing how many to get was pretty simple, they sold seven varieties and I just bought one of each.  I have grown tomatoes for a couple of years now and I never have enough plants.  The first year I had three so I had a very intermittent and not exactly overwhelming supply.  Last year I think I upped it to five or six which did me fine, but nobody else got much of a look in.  So this year its seven.  I don’t know that I have enough decent sized pots to put them in but that’s never stopped me buying something before.  The selection process I went for was short and stubby with solid growth.

The varieties I plumped for are:

Sweet Millions
Shirley F1- Apparently the mother can remember granddad growing this one so im expectant
Alicante
Moneymaker- the label says 'agreeable flavour' which apparently means you grow it for productivity not taste, 'you wouldn't grow it if you were growing tomatoes yourself the mother said when I got it home.  I think what Im doing may be lost on her.
Tumbler F1
Gardener's Delight
Supersweet 100

Because Im not overly organised I can’t remember what I grew last year but now I will have a record of good producers for next year.  I accidentally bought a yellow tomato the first year, never again.  Don’t get me wrong they tasted fine but a tomato should be red and that is that.