Have you posted in the TOmato Seed Exchange to see if anyone has any of those seeds? That's where requests for tomato seeds should be posted as well as trades, etc. There's a link to that Forum at the top of this first page just above and to the right of the first thread.

You probably know that there's a person who has been selling those seeds online for many years as a commercial venture and asks, I think, a ridiculous price for them.

They aren't any different, really, from any good tasting currant variety, S. pimpinellifolium, which is what they are. So there's another suggestion for you.

Tomato Growers Supply in Fort Myers sells seed for two currant varieties, Sweet Pea and one called Wild Cherry.

Hope that helps.

And no, the cold you had didn't freeze the ground in the 9a area so you should still have many volunteers if you grew the Wild Everglades tomato last year. I live in a 4/b 5a area and the ground freezes deeply every year for long periods of time and I always had lots of volunteers.

Carolyn, who has friends who go to FL every winter and some of their comments about the recent cold snap are pretty funny when one considers they went to FL to escape the cold. ( smile)

Smitty,

I'm offering Wild Florida Everglades in the 2010 Seed Savers Exchange Yearbook which is due out I think in February to members of that organization. I strongly recommend membership.

If Feb. or March is too late for you to start seeds, contact me at tomatohead48@hotmail.com for seeds. I'm in Manasota Key right now, but will be back in Evansville, IN later this week. I see first hand all the vegetative damage from the 28*F temps a couple weeks ago. Horrible. Bad for the fish and sea turtles too. Even saw some lizards go dormant and fall out of trees. Almost comical.

Anyway, good growing.

Bill

Hoosier, I remember the back and forth chat here about the Wild Everglades tomato, amd more than once, and I guess you were one who went ahead and bought some seeds. I know what others have said in terms of comparing it to currant tomatoes and I'm curious as to how you compare it to the wee fruited ones you've grown, whether pea sized or a bit larger, whether currants or not.

Above I noted that I had friends who go to FL in the winter and just this AM I got an e-mail from one of them who said that all sorts of dead fish were washed up and washing up on the beach from the cold that killed them.

They're on the West Coast now, but in another two weeks transfer over to the East Coast.

And she commented that she knew we were having a wee heat wave up here now, which is quite true. Temps each day above 32 and most days near 40.

BUT, my outside probe reads 38F and it's snowing out there right now, and heavily. LOL

Carolyn

Carolyn, it just got unacceptably cold in Evansville. I hate it anymore. Came down here for a long weekend to visit friends. It's 50*F in Evansville today. LOL. Probably be cold when we get back. And yes, there is a dead fish problem here with some species. Manasota Key is on the Gulf south of Sarasota just a bit.

The Wild Florida Everglades I bought online for 6 bucks a little pack (before the same guy went nuts and started asking 8 or 9 dollars) makes gobs of little red cherries a bit smaller than Sun Gold. They are sweet but don't have any complexity of flavor. Kids love'm. The readily volunteer as advertised. The leaf form is cerasi-something or other. You spell it for me please. LOL.

I just bought them to "liberate" them from the scalper pricing. That's it really. They aren't anything more special than any of the other various "wild" Texas, Florida, Mexican, etc. types.

The leaf form is cerasi-something or other. You spell it for me please. LOL.

I can do that, it's cerasiforme, LOL, but that refers to the stigma, which is not exerted as it would be with many currant types.

Matt's Wild Cherry is IDed as a cerasiforme by Johnny's so that folks know it isn't a currant. A cerasiforme is a half domesticated cherry type.

But perhaps you mean the the foliage looks more like, or shares traits with, a currant which would mean small narrow leaves, lighter in color, hairy, as are the stems, and with a distinctive smell.

Glad you liberated it and are making it available to SSE members. Seems to me that Marianna's Peace was also liberated so that folks didn't have to pay the initial asking price of $4/seed as I recall. LOL

Carolyn, where it's still snowing, temp now at 37F. Tune in for your daily weather report from Carolyn on the VT border in true upstate NY. LOL Also assuming you got my em re the F1 seeds. ( wink).

I just ordered some Everglades seed from an Ebay dealer for a bit less than noted above.