Garden And Gossip Forums

Just received an email from Plants of Distinction that's a bit worrying:-

[b]New rules coming into place at the end of the year[/b]

will mean that we are unable to continue offering the wide selection of Heirloom Tomatoes that many of you have enjoyed growing over the years.

Our new catalogue will be available in a few weeks and you will see a big change in the Tomato section. We do have lots of lovely new varieties to tempt you, however most of the heritage varieties we have all come to love will no longer be included and so whilst we are still able, we wanted to give you a chance to grow these favourites for one last time.

Familiar names such as Black from Tula, Caspian Pink, Halladay’s Mortgage Lifter, Hill Billy Potato Leaf, Japanese Trifle Black, Lemon Tree, and Russian Black are just a few of the varieties disappearing from the UK for good.
.............................................

I presume this is something to do with Brexit or ?paying to register seed varieties?

Whatever the cause, its all the more reason for us to save heritage/open pollinated seeds before they disappear for good.

That’s worrying. Shame they didn’t go into more detail as to why.
I’ll keep a look out for other companies doing the same thing.
Starting to wish I’d grown Black Russian again this year.

(11-09-2020, 05:16 PM)Small chilli Wrote: [ -> ]That’s worrying. Shame they didn’t go into more detail as to why.
I’ll keep a look out for other companies doing the same thing.
Starting to wish I’d grown Black Russian again this year.

Me Too........Black Russian are the main tomato I have missed this year.

Surely open pollinated varieties can't have a patent on them? More likely there is more money to be made by selling F1's which you have to purchase each year from a supplier.

T&M ( ) and a few others still selling black russian seeds but they could well be going (black russian noj T&M)  cause of Brexit and likely not just tomatoes so to be safe rather than sorry we need to buy any seeds before then and start saving any we want.

This site seems to have a lot but is closing down - I've never used them so can't recommend: https://tomato-plants-direct.co.uk/

Maybe we should all buy a couple of packs al then save the seeds?

Nice find Mark. I’ve bookmarked that for a good look later.
Like that plan admin.

Just bought these.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tomato-Black-...xyYANTYiei

Is Black Russian the same as Russian Black??

Premier seeds direct are also selling Black Russian seeds - 300 for 99p

Yeah I imagine it's something to do with the fees required to sell varieties grown outside of the UK and the costs of this are too much for some heirloom varieties which don't sell very well. I wouldn't worry until the situation becomes clearer, or other seed companies start doing the same. The bigger companies will likely be more willing to pay the fees but I guess they will be more conservative with their range.