Nothing beats homegrown!
You can easily
grow these beautiful tomatoes in your own garden.
Order early to reserve
your plants and especially to book your shipping period.
Laurel ~
310 534 8611
10:00 to 5:00 Mon-Fri and
10:00 to 3:00 on Saturdays
(Pacific Time)
When Your Plants Arrive....
We send
you hearty, lush, leafy plants, 12" to 20" tall, in 4"
pots, 100% organically grown outdoors in full
sun right here in Los
Angeles.
Get them
outside when they arrive. Our plants are completely hardened off
and do not need adjusting to your climate.
Our stocky dwarf plants are usually
shipped at about 4"- 5".
IMPORTANT:
Please put
your plants into full sun as soon as
possible. Outdoors right away -- they need sun and fresh
air.
See all the photographs
in the
Big List
below!
17" tall plants in 4" pots, read to ship or to pick up!
NEW FOR
2026 ...
Gregori's Altai, Queen of the Night, Kumato,
Rose de Berne, Brandywine Pink, Sweet Scarlet, and
Yellow Submarine
Photographs and descriptions are in
The
Big List
below.
Shipping and Pick-Up Periods For
2026
Choose your Shipping
Period before you order, or ask Laurel about the best
planting time for your
area.
NOTE We ship first in-first out unless you choose
Exact Week or Exact Day shipping service fees.
Orders placed in Sep, Oct, Nov. will ship before orders placed in
March, Apr. or May, etc.
Early Bird Lists are limited to available varieties -- Call
for list. 310 534 8611
Period B - February
23rd to March 3rd - Limited to our Early Bird List
Period C - March 9th to
March 18th --
Period D - March 23rd to
April 1st --
Period E - April 6th to
April 15th --
Period F - April 20th
to May 6th --
Period G - May 11th
to May 26th --
May arrive after
Memorial Day
Period H - May 26th
to June 3rd --
Will arrive after
Memorial Day
Period I - June
8th to
June 17th --
Period J - Late Bird
List - June 17th to July 10th (Limited to varieties on hand)
Black Goose Creek
Custom Grown Plants
Plan
ahead with a 10 to 12
week
lead-time.
Many of our customers ask us to grow a tomato variety
that's not on our list.
We are happy to
custom grow for you and are the only company which offers
this service. It is a specialty - a delicate, exacting
project and is expensive.
With a
minimum 10 week lead time, we will start
seeds, grow your plants, and ship them to
you.
You may send us seeds or we will
provide seeds. Prices are per variety.
Please order
early. We book quite a few custom orders and need a minimum
10 to 12 weeks in advance of shipping*.
(Custom-Grown plants ship separately
from your regular order and delivery
week is estimated.)
Custom-Grow
Order
Cost. Prices are per plant per variety:
Using your
seeds:
9
or more plants of one variety, $16.95 per
plant.
6 to
8 plants of one variety, $18.95 per plant.
3 to 5 plants of one
variety, $19.95 per plant.
1 or 2 plants of a
variety, $21.95 per plant.
Using our seeds:
Add $1.00 per plant
Plant Cost does not
include packaging and Express Shipping or Prep Fee for
Pick-up orders. These costs will be determined and charged
before we start seeds.
* Custom Orders are
Shipped by Express only.
Note: Custom Orders
are booked by telephone - or in person - by appt only: 310
534-8611 (landline!)
Monday -
Friday 10:00 to 5:00
Saturday 10:00 to 3:00, Pacific Time
Shipping Costs:
Payment Information &
Shipping Costs
1. Choose
your plants from The Big List
below. Make a list of the ones you want.
Minimum order is
four (4) plants. Orders of 64 or more plants qualify for a volume
discount.
2. Go to the Growing Tips &
Garden Products link:
Growing Tips and Garden Products
to choose your fertilizers and garden products.
3. Choose
your shipping period from the list above.
4. Call to place your order 310 534 8611 (call
until your reach us, it gets busy! ) or email to
tomatoplants@pacbell.net
Have your credit card ready. Or request a PayPal invoice. PayPal is due when your invoice
arrives.
We ship
nationwide via Post Office: Priority Mail or Priority Express. EXPRESS
is guaranteed.. Express parcels
need to be signed for.
Priority Mail
is not guaranteed and can take 5 days.
If you do not
wish to sign, tell Laurel: WE WILL TRY TO MAKE IT
HAPPEN. We attach 3 large neon green stickers
stating 'NO SIGNATURE
REQUIRED'. But a carrier may insist on a signature; we cannot control
that.
If you cannot
receive post office packages on Saturdays please tell us.
About Phone
Orders During April & May: It is not always easy to
get through due to extremely high call volume in April and May.
Thursdays are easier.
Please try again, don't leave
a message; we get swamped with orders and won't get to voicemails for at least 3 weeks.
Please call until you reach us.
310 534 8611(landline, no texts)
(Cancellations are accepted within 48 hrs. from the date/time of your
payment to receive a full refund or store credit. After 48 hours we
issue a full refund for your shipping cost less 50% restocking
fee for plants and packaging.)
Black Krim
To Order by Email
Email: tomatoplants@pacbell.net
Choose your shipping
period from the list above.
Email with this information,
in this order:
1. Your name as it appears
on your card.
2. Your billing
address and your shipping address.
Have you
moved? Please BOLD THE NEW ADDRESS AND TYPE
"NEW ADDRESS" in your email.
3. Your
'anytime' telephone number.
4. Your
best email address.
5. Your preferred shipping period.
6. Your payment type: VISA, MasterCard, Discover, American
Express or PayPal (we send a PayPal invoice due upon receipt.)
Or cash for pick-up.
7. Your plant list in
Alphabetical Order along with some alternates and a list of the garden products you need.
Make a simple alphabetical list,
please, not a
spreadsheet, I copy and paste.
FAX
310
494 0518
FAX your list and credit card data.
(Our FAX
line is only for orders which include credit card numbers. It is
secure.)
Substitutions:
If a plant is be too small
to travel:
Include a few alternate plants you'd like in case one of your choices is
too small.
This happens
once in a while.
If a plant is
too small, we will not
have time find you and discuss a substitute on a busy shipping day;
many orders are going out and we are on an insanely strict deadline for our parcel pick up.
So, we
just go to your handy alternates list!
Or Let Laurel Choose:
"Ask Laurel to choose a
similar, delicious alternate for me if a plant is not available.
She's the expert."
Important:
If you
do
not want Laurel to choose alternates for you, select one option:
1. Substitute
from my handy list of alternates.
2. Send a second plant from my main list.
We cannot accept 'no
substitutes' orders.
Making Your Payment
When we receive your emailed
order, we you send an invoice within a day or so. You then call or FAX payment information to reserve
your plants and shipping.
310 534 8611 (landline, no
texts.)
OR - Request a call back within
a time frame. We will call you for payment info. Please have your card
ready.
After payment is made, we send a copy of your receipt by
email.
Please check your receipt carefully to be sure all your information is
accurate -- especially your shipping address.
Have you moved?
Make sure we have your current shipping address.
If you don't get your receipt within
4 days of talking to Laurel or AJ and paying for your order,
please call or email with 'Urgent re: email address' subject line
Let's be sure we have your correct email address.
Calling in your order is faster.
310 534 8611 (landline, no texts)
New Telephone Hours
Monday through Friday
10:00 to
5:00
Saturday
10:00 to 3:00, Pacific Time.
Sundays - March through July 10:00 to 4:00
310 534 8611 (landline, no texts)
Please remember time zones. Our business phone also phone rings at a
residence.
If you call
at 9:00 from, say...New York, it's 6:00 a.m. here. And we are/were asleep.
When Will My
Plants Ship?
Shipping begins with a
few varieties in
January and February and then with all 70 varieties during spring and
summer. (We
may have a few varieties for fall and winter - not every year.)
Your shipping time is scheduled
for a
period to suit your planting
time.
Your plants will sometime during that period.
If you choose Period E, April
6th to April 15th, your plants will
ship sometime in that period.
If your plants are too small we delay shipping for a few days to allow
more growth and safe arrival.
We reserve the
option to hold a shipment if temperatures en route from our nursery
to you are extremely cold.
We offer
Double-Box or Triple-Box Systems to insulate
your plants. This increases shipping weight/dimension.
For Exact Day Shipping Service,
rather than sometime during the 10 day window:
For 1 to 4 plants -- Add 40.00
to have your plants shipped on an EXACT DAY
For 4 to 9 plants -- Add
$55.00 to have your plants shipped on an EXACT DAY
For 10 or more plants --
Add $75.00 to have your plants shipped on an EXACT DAY
Questions? Just call me;
I'm glued to my desk.
Laurel, 310 534 8611
Heirloom Caprese Salad. Yum!
When To Plant
Your plants
should go into the garden when nighttime and soil temperatures remain steadily and
reliably above 50º.
If you want to plant earlier when it's in the
30's or low 40's at night and are using hot caps or covers of some kind,
that's great, you're the boss.
But you are
responsible if your plants encounter temps below 40º
in transit from Los Angeles and arrive cold damaged or dead. You will need to order
replacements.
Tomatoes are a Warm/Hot Weather Crop. Don't Plant in Cold Soil
If you opt to
plant in cold soil, we issue a disclaimer and cannot be responsible for poor growth. Two to three weeks after your last
frost date is usually the best time to plant.
If
you choose earlier shipment, you risk the chance of cold weather
triggering dormancy, setting back
growth progress, reducing and delaying your harvest. This causes stunted
growth, disease-prone plants, uneven ripening and low production for the
entire season.
Wait for the warm weather when
soil and daytime temperatures are about 68º and overnight temperatures are reliably above
48º.
How Many Plants?
Smart Spacing
Most of these heirlooms get big, from 5 to 8 feet
tall, 3 to 4 feet wide, and need to be spaced at least 32 -
36 inches apart in rows at least 4 to 5 feet apart.
Sure, they are
small when you plant them; don't let that fool you. King Kong and
Clifford the Big Red Dog were small when they were born, too.
Our 3 Dwarf plants are shrubby
and need to be planted 2 feet apart.
For example, a garden bed 6'
by 18' will accommodate 10 -12 plants -- 2 rows
of 5 or 6 plants -- depending on
plant size at maturity, while providing plenty of root
space, airflow, and room for lots of foliage and fruit.
Our dwarf varieties
remain small and compact, from 20" to 3 or 4 ft. tall and can be spaced
18" to 20" apart on center.
(See the
Growing Tips page
for more detailed information.)
Plant Prices, Minimum
Order
Our
organically grown tomato plant prices range from $9.95
to $12.95 each.
Some
of our very rare plants -- and custom orders -- are priced higher.
Plant prices are next to their names on The Big List
below. Shipping
and packaging are not included in the plant price.
Minimum order is 4 plants. Price break begins at 64 plants.
Sun Gold
Substitutions
Sometimes we must substitute a plant if your first
choice is
too small to ship.
Please list some alternates. If you do not list alternates, Laurel
or AJ will choose a
very similar variety for your climate.
If you do not
wish to accept alternates we
cannot take your order.
Hey...Where's the Shopping Cart?
Can I Order Online?
No, we do not have an online shopping cart
due to variable plant sizes, from 8" to 20" tall, so shipping weights
and carton sizes will vary.
Each plant can weigh from 12 oz. to 2 lbs. This means variable shipping
weights and package dimensions -- we estimate shipping cost individually.
Payment Information &
Shipping Costs
Be sure you
know our prices, shipping method, packaging costs and our guarantee
before you order. Or call for an estimate. 310 534 8611
We ship large, live plants from Los
Angeles.
You may choose Priority Mail or Priority
EXPRESS.
If you choose Priority Express
(guarantee of 1 to 2 day in
transit) it is expensive.
(Cancellations are
accepted within 48 hrs. from the date/time of your payment to receive a
full refund or store credit. After 48 hours we issue a full refund for
your shipping cost and retain a 50% restocking fee for plants and
packaging.)
Your Privacy,
Guaranteed
Your
personal information, email, phone number, purchases, address, etc. is never shared with anyone, ever.
1884
($9.95
)
78 days.
1884 is a superbly flavored old-time
tomato which grows on a strong vigorous plant and produces big luscious 1 lb. to 2
lb. deep dark pink fruit with
luxurious
flavor and sets
fruit readily in hot weather.
Very similar
to Pink Brandywine in flavor and appearance, but with more than 5
times the production.
The original plant was discovered by James Lyde
Williamson growing out of a huge pile of debris after the big Ohio River flood of
1884 in the tiny town of Friendly, West Virginia.
This
grand fruit has taken top mention year after year in tomato tastings all over
the country. Easy
to grow and very productive.
A Laurel's Favorite!
Amish Rose
($9.95) 80 days.
This lovely old
Amish tomato that has been one of my favorites for more than 20 years.
With rich, Brandywine-like flavor, strong growth reliability and old time
nuance, it is a magical inhabitant for your garden.
This is a classic, fabulously
flavored tomato that I want you to grow so you will know what I know.
I have been getting requests for
Rose for years after it was featured in a PBS radio show years ago. The host spoke of how her late Mom,
named Rose, had always grown this tomato in Pennsylvania and that she'd
saved her Mom's seeds for
30 years.
She lost the seed packet during a move and was devastated. I
called the station to leave a message that I knew of this tomato and could
help -- that I had seeds to send her.
We had a very emotional conversation
when we realized her Mom and I both loved of this extraordinary tomato
and that I had seeds for her.
Ananas Noir
(aka Black
Pineapple)
($9.95) 85 days.
A hugely popular tomato,
Ananas Noir, French for Black Pineapple, is a stunning fruit --
incredibly beautiful. But what about flavor? 8 to 10 ounce. What good is all that
flashy gorgeousness if the flavor is dull?
Well, it's not!
IT'S
FABULOUS!
Fragrant and sweet, juicy, ambrosial with lingering notes of
tropical fruit and sunshine, luscious, unending flavor that lingers
on the palate.
One of my all-time favorites, I want you guys
to try this one. It will blow your mind.
A
Top Seller!
Anthony's Passionate
Heart ($9.95)
78 days
Big, red heart shaped 1 lb.
fruits on a plant that withstands every type of weather. A marvelous
tomato with rich, bold, fruity-sweet flavors and a perfect balance
of acidity.
This is our premier presentation for
2020 in honor of Tony's legacy: Food will always bring families,
neighborhoods, cities and countries together, gathered at the table. Nothing to fight about, everything to love.
In our garden it kept
producing through prolonged heat waves in the high 90's when other plants gave up the ghost.
Now it continues to grow as cooler weather arrives. No
cracking, high production, dreamy texture, disease free. A real
winner.
In the words of Gary Ibsen
of Tomatofest who developed it, "Anthony Bourdain was an
American celebrity chef and author who
explored the cuisines, culture, joys and essentials of human
existence around the world. He was an icon to me, and many others,
who love food and cooking as a most enjoyable way of gathering
people together to celebrate our humanity."
Apricot Brandywine
($9.95) 80 days.
These fabulous tomatoes are a perfect golden/apricot color
-- not yellow -- and grow huge! Up 1œ pounds in
clusters of 4 or 5 huge tomatoes on rugged potato-leafed
plants.
Apricot Brandywine produces a lot more tomatoes than the other
Brandywines,
much more than I've ever seen on other Brandywine plants
except Brandywine OTV and the taste is unforgettable. Just incredible.
One of my favorite qualities of Apricot Brandywine is that
the
stunning, meaty
flesh inside is exactly the same color of the skin when you cut it
open, or just take a giant chomp! WOW! Mind blowing. Makes
INCREDIBLE sauce!
This plant has strong thick sturdy stems. It really
has to have stems like this to support all of the huge
fruits! Be sure to give it a strong cage like Our TomatOH
Holders, to help it stay up!
We think it originated from Great Britain some 30 or 40
years ago, the actual origin is unknown -- I'm researching
it.
Aunt Ruby's German
Green
($10.95) 75-78 days.
You're going to love this
beautiful Tennessee tomato. Medium to large sweet
beefsteaks, bursting with a fragrant, complex, spicy-sweetness with a touch of
tang.
A gorgeous
green-when-ripe color with a delicate pink blush inside, this much sought after variety is a real treat to have in your
garden, and is said
to be the very best tasting green. Reaching up to one pound, Aunt Ruby's
German Green grows in clusters of 2 or 3.
With its intricate, earthy, unforgettable flavor
and chartreuse flesh this one will broaden
your tomato horizons. Top favorite of our friend and customer Tom Wopat. Very adaptable, and easy to grow with good disease resistance.
From Ruby Arnold of Greeneville, Tennessee.
Bear Claw
($9.95) 78 days
The Bear Claw tomatoes in the photographs
weighed 2.14 lbs, 2.9 lbs and 3.5 lbs. Always a
winner in Big Tomato contests with fabulous
flavor to boot!
Bear Claw is a h
uge
fruit with incredible flavor. The plants grow very big and very fast -- like
being in a time warp.
Huge plants. Stems like tree
trunks. Give it extra support!
I plant Bear Claw in a huge 30 gallon pot by a
palm tree. As it grows, we lash it to the tree trunk. Palm trees make
excellent tomato stakes.
J
The
first tomatoes reach about one pound. After
that, with proper care, they get bigger and
bigger producing lots of deep crimson fruits
with incredible flavor.
PROPER CARE FOR ALL YOUR
TOMATO PLANTS:
1. Plant in deep rich soil.
2.
Feed every 2 to 3 weeks without
fail,
using a granular organic fertilizer like our Happy Frog.
3.
Water moderately but deeply.
4.
Be sure all of the soil volume is damp but not soggy. Water the
entire bed, not just near the stem.
5. Spray every
week with our Monterey Neem to control bugs and disease spores.
Photograph 1 by Dianna Theyssen of Ingalls,
Indiana. Used here with her kind permission.
Beefsteak:
See Classic Beefsteak below.
Beauty King
($9.95) 80 days
How often does something
this gorgeous live up to its beauty with equally stunning flavor and
character?
I'm disappointed when a
beautiful tomato doesn't thrill me with flavor. I grow out many,
many varieties each year to be sure your tomatoes have fabulous
flavor. Sometimes the first bite is a heartbreak...
which we call
'a spitter'.
NOT THIS ONE!! Beauty King
is
probably the finest flavored
red and yellow bi-color tomato of all time.
A fabulous cross of Big Rainbow and Green Zebra.
Very sweet and meaty,
regularly reaching a pound. reaches 85 ounces or more, sometimes up
to 18 ounces with high
production to boot!
You'll be harvest lots of Beauty King tomatoes
within only 80 days of planting.
Another incredible Brad
Gates cross.
The release several years
ago of Beauty King generated huge excitement in the Heirloom Tomato
World.
Brad continues to bring unbridled joy to the gardens of
the world. YAY BRAD!!!!! WE LOVE YOU!
Berkeley Tie Dye,
Pink ($9.95)
80 days.
Beautiful
half-pound treasures!
This rare and exotic fruit with big, bold, luscious flavors looks just like its name implies
with showy streaks and swirls of pink, yellow, lime green and orange patterning inside and out. From 8 to 12 ounces, chefs
nationwide are ordering these plants for their restaurant gardens -- tomato
lovers are clamoring for this fabulous variety. (This pink version of Berkeley
Tie Dye is exponentially more flavorful that the original Berkeley
Tie Dye.)
Pink Berkeley Tie Dye is another
fabulous variety from talented tomato breeder Brad Gates of Wild
Boar Farms here in California. Brad has forever changed and
enlivened the world of heirloom tomatoes.
Photograph of
whole fruit be A Tucker. Cut-open Pink Berkeley Tie Dye is the property of Brad Gates/
www.wildboarfarms.com
Go see Brad's incredible varieties!
Black Bear
($9.95) 80 days.
TOP SELLER!
Black Bear is getting rave reviews from our customers.
We presented it
for the first time
in 2023 and customers who grew it
went crazy for it ordering it again for 2024 and 2025.
I knew it was special -- but hearing all these
compliments is so satisfying. I'm thrilled that you like it as much as I
do! Yay!
Here's what we're hearing about Black Bear:
Fast growing,
very high production, delicious, disease resistant, mind-blowing flavor and 'easy to
grow'!
One of those incredible
fruits with the giant, complex flavors we adore in the big
purple-black tomatoes. Full, complex, and SO satisfying to bite into.
CHOMP!
Because it's so meaty, it's easy to slice thin
or thick for sandwiches, or cut into wedges for salads or in half for
seasoning and roasting. And...straight up feasting right in the garden!
Thick, smooth flesh with lots of juice.
Meaty and luscious -- disease resistant with
really high production.
The Worlds Darkest
Tomato!
Black Beauty
($9.95) 85 days.
Beautiful to look at, the
flavor of Black Beauty is deep, rich and complex. Combined in a
tomato salad with red, orange and yellow tomatoes - a real
mind-blower!
Be sure and wait for true
ripeness...Black beauty takes a while to ripen -- definitely
worth the wait.
These photographs are
from our home garden and are not
retouched. The fruits and the stems are deep dark
indigo-black. Inside, blood red.
The first photo is a not quite ripe
fruit, the second and third photos show the color change indicating
ripeness.
So dark that some tomatoes turn
solid blue-black on the skin. Deep red flesh is among the best
tasting of all tomatoes. Rich, smooth and savory with earthy tones.
A dark, meaty, very rich-fleshed
tomato with extreme anthocyanin effect, the same antioxidant in
blueberries and blackberries. The emerging little fruits are deep
black from the time they are tiny until big and almost ripe, then
you will see some color changes as you can see in the photographs.
Keeps well on the
vine and stores very well, and the flavor improves with
room-temperature storage.
Baker Creek's Dave Kaiser tasted it at the
2015 National Heirloom Exposition and proclaimed it as the BEST
tomato he had ever eaten! Yay Dave!
High production from this best-selling variety!
Black
Cherry
($9.95) 65 days.
A perfectly
round 1" cherry tomato with classic black tomato flavor, sweet, yet rich, smoky and complex. Fruit
picks easily from the stem and is produced in abundance on vigorous, tall plants.
Bred by Vince Sapp, these cherries are irresistibly delicious: look like a black cherry, taste like a
sweet cherry-- a unique addition to the color and flavor spectrum of cherry tomatoes for your garden, along with our other cherries, it makes an arresting display for any table.
Just outstanding. These
guys got eaten moments after the photograph was taken.
:)
New for
2025!
Black Goose Creek
($9.95)
80 days
This big, heavy,
delicious
cross of Goose Creek and Black Krim was created by famed author,
long-time market grower and agricultural guru Jimmy Williams whose family
of enslaved people, including his great, great grandmother
Elouise Watson, had hidden the original red Goose Creek tomato
seeds in her skirt pocket on her journey from the Caribbean
Islands to the The Carolinas many generations ago. This was in
the mid 19th century around 1845 when she was transported to grow rice in the US.
The boat docked at Charleston, near Goose Creek, South Carolina.
A truly marvelous
tomato, the flavors of Black
Goose Creek linger in your mouth as they morph from tangy to
sweet to passionately rich and fragrant -- a taste experience you won't
forget. The tomatoes here in AJ's photograph were devoured
pretty quickly, a heavenly experience. Didn't even stop to save seeds
and had to wait for the next ripe ones...
In the early 2000's,
Jimmy cross-pollinated the 2 varieties -- and after a few
generations it stabilized -- creating this unforgettable black tomato for
your garden. Big beefsteak fruits with deep dark red flesh, the
flavor is out of this world.
Among the black
tomatoes, Black Goose Creek stands out: Big, very
heavy-in-the-hand, 8 to14 ounces with extraordinary flavors. An
adventuresome tomato. Spending a few hours talking and hanging out
or gardening with Jimmy is an adventure in itself.
Top Seller
since 1997!
Black Krim
($9.95)
75 days
This
delicious much-sought-after Ukrainian variety is unique and
unforgettable, originally from Crimea on the northern coast
of the Black Sea in Ukraine.
Black Krim has a superb smoky sweetness with a delicate lingering touch of
tang in a 4-6" slightly flattened, mahogany-colored fruit with lovely,
deep green shoulders.
Setting fruit at higher temperatures, it is superb
and very easy to grow.
Black Mamba
($9.95)
78 days
