Tomatoes?

[SarzWix]

I'd recommend Sungold - cherry sized, sweet, and a lovely orangey colour. They take just about anything you can throw at them in terms of weather and/or neglect and still crop

[Bigmallly]

same hapend to mine the kept flowering and got huge but never turned red so i threw them on the compost pile

Keep your eye out in spring, you may get some nice seedlings. Toms are great for sprouting anywhere.

[HotStuff]

I had big success with Gartenperle this year. Started them off from seed in a heated propagator in Feb, moved them on to a sunny windowsill then put 5 plants in 1 big tub out on the patio in May. Masses of cherry tomatoes, hanging like big bunches of grapes

Did a lot better than my more expensive 100s & 1000s in hanging baskets. But to be fair that may have been my fault not watering the hanging baskets often enough

[Flummery]

How did you find gartenperle Hotstuff? My son in law grew them and we were staggered by the bland-ness. I wouldn't grow them after tasting them.

[HotStuff]

I was pleased with them Flum, very tasty. I'm planning on doing them again next year.

[Two_Sheds]

How did you find gartenperle Hotstuff?

Mine were horrible. Bland and kind of powdery tasting

[Two_Sheds]

Any tips on varieties that are good for beginners?

Toms aren't hard to grow, they just need a long, hot summer. Therein lies the problem.
Starting them early indoors does help, just ensure you have room for them on your windowsills ... they can get quite big and they need to be indoors until the end of May

[chriscross1966]

You will find that a cherry type tomato - gardener's delight or sungold, for instance, will ripen earlier than a large variety. Get them going indoors in early March and pot them on when they are all showing their first leaf. Put them outside in big pots in June. Best of luck!

Black Krim is a beefsteak that will beat Gardeners delight to ripe fruit both indoors and out.... I'd recommend eastern european toms to beginners cos they all seem to be really early.... Black Krim is an odd colour when ripe so might not be the best for newbies... persuading yourself that a dark green tomato shot through with purplish-brown is kinda hard first time round....

chrisc

[Bigmallly]

BM, it's a 'feature' of the Vine, linking to searches is unlikely to work for very long.

Thanks for the tip Hotstuff, I'll try & bear it in mind.

[sabulous]

I think I'll stick to "normal" red ones... I'm growing them for me and the family I work fot and they're quite conservative, can't see them eating any "funny looking" tomatoes!