Common Sense Seeds

Celebrating an important Canadian plant breeder! Happy 81st Birthday to Stanley Zubrowski (July 26, 2026) – a Master Canadian Plant Breeder from Prairie River, Saskatchewan. 🍅🌹🇨🇦

You might not know that Stanley has been quietly breeding flowers (the stunning ‘Joe Zary’ clematis and ‘Louis Riel’ rose) and tomatoes for over forty years in Prairie River. You might be growing one of his plants in your garden!

We've been fortunate to get to know Stanley over the past few years and recently interviewed him about his plant breeding work. How neat is that! He told us about the inspiration behind his famous clematis varieties, roses and tomatoes.

In honour of his 81st birthday, we have put the interview together with pictures of his breeding work. You can read our interview with Stanley on our website. Here is the link: https://commonsenseseeds.ca/musings/musings-seed-story-stanley-zubrowski/

Pictured are 3 of his clematis varieties (pics by Stanley) and 1 of his tomatoes (pic by us):

• Top Left | (purple) Clematis koreana hybrid (one of his works in progress)
• Top Right | (pink) Clematis macropetala (another work in progress)
• Bottom Left | (pink) Clematis ‘Dr. F.L. Skinner’ (Stanley’s cultivar released in 1988)
• Bottom Right | Tomato Yellow Fireworks (sweet, yellow, early globe-shaped tomatoes)

We hope more people get to know and grow Stanley’s varieties.

Happy Birthday Stanley!

We’d like to tell you about the bean growing collaboration between Common Sense Seeds & the Calgary Seed Library. 🌱❤️ Common Sense Seeds was kindly gifted over 40 different varieties of heirloom beans from long-time seed saver Paula Dubeski of Lacombe, Alberta. Over the years, Paula has sought out hardy, early season varieties and then trialed and stewarded those beans in her Zone 3b garden. Paula has made these hardy varieties even better with her selection!

We shared some of Paula’s beans with the Calgary Seed Library and this summer the Calgary Seed Library is growing out 3 varieties (pictured and described below).

• Brown beans | Mennonite K Triple bush bean | A family heirloom that has been grown in Manitoba for over 100 years by the Keeler family. Paula originally received the beans from Heritage Harvest Seed who received them directly from the Keeler family. From Paula’s notes: ‘an extremely productive heirloom”. It is early to mature and used as a dry bean.

• Black beans | Beurre de Rocquencourt bush bean | A lovely yellow (wax) bean named after the town of Rocquencourt in France. The deep black beans are mesmerizing. An early and productive bean that does well in short season climates.

• White beans | Pfaelzer Juni bush bean | Another rare heirloom. This variety has large flat green pods with great taste. The flat pods are used as snap beans and Paula’s notes indicate that the dry white beans can be used as soup beans. She also notes that this is a prolific bean!

Thank you to everyone at the Calgary Seed Library who is growing, saving and sharing Paula’s beans!

Happy Planting everyone! 🌱❤️💚

This is such good information! Our cool weather in Calgary is not helping the tomato situation here either. Tania

This is why I HIGHLY recommend not planting your hot weather plants like tomatoes, peppers and eggplant among others until roughly two weeks after last frost which is June 8th this year. If you have a heated greenhouse that is a different story.

When temperatures drop below 10°C, the plant's photosynthesis slows significantly, resulting in much smaller plants and delayed harvests.

Exposure to chilling temperatures (below 10°C to 13°C) directly before or during flowering negatively impacts pollen viability. This causes poor pollination, a low rate of successful fruit set, and increases the likelihood of misshapen (catfaced) fruits.

Below 12°C to 14°C, the plant’s roots struggle to uptake essential nutrients like phosphorus, which can cause a purple discoloration in seedlings and leaves. Cold-induced stress also hinders the plant's ability to utilize calcium, leading to disorders like blossom end rot in early developing fruits.

Personally I will be taking advantage of the nice daytime temps to harden them off really well until planting time.

The white stuff in our garden is hail – such are the gardening challenges in June in Calgary (Zone 4 & 1045m/ 3428 ft above sea level).

A few days before the hail we had temperatures reach 31C (87F) (unusual for the end of May) and a few days after the hail we were under a ‘Special Weather Advisory’ which advised: “Conditions are favourable for the development of funnel clouds early this afternoon through this evening…. This weak rotation is normally not a danger near the ground. However, there is a chance that this rotation could intensify and become a weak landspout tornado.” (It didn’t happen)

I have been playing catch up with the weather all spring!

Over the years we have developed a number of strategies to try to mitigate hail damage, with row covers, cloches, and small greenhouses, but this year’s weather is proving to be challenging.

I hope everyone else is having better spring gardening conditions.🍅🌱

Happy Tomato Tuesday🍅❤️! Today I’d like to introduce a few Canadian tomatoes 🇨🇦 🍅that have been bred (or stewarded) for short growing seasons.

Pictured is one of our favourites -- Johnny Jumpup (the tomato🍅not the flower🌹).
• Bred at the Provincial Horticultural Station in Brooks, Alberta (1950s). (See photo from a 1950s agricultural publication)
• Compact (16-18") & makes a great container variety.
• Productive and covered with small tomatoes.
• Very good flavour. One of its parents is Burbank; a classic, great tasting tomato.
• Early and produces all summer

It’s not too late to start Johnny – in our Zone 4 gardens, we can start Johnny from seed into early May.

Other Canadian tomatoes we can start from seed into May and still have a harvest (not pictured):
• Arctic Pot N’Patio
• Porter’s Early Brookpact
• Cherry Gold
• Ross Red Salad Tomato
• House
• Siberian (honourary mention b/c it was selected by Canadian tomato breeder T.O. Graham (1960s) and then grown on Baffin Island in the Arctic❄️)

Happy Planting!

If you are looking for a fun gardening related thing to do today (Sun April 26) come see us at the Cochrane Gardening Expo! We will have our seeds and other vendors have plants and other wonderful things for your garden 🍅🌹🌷🪴

Living Sustainably . Event | COCHRANE & AREA GARDENING EXPO| Sunday, April 26 | 11am – 3pm

Get excited about digging in the dirt! Whether you’re an experienced gardener or the owner of untested garden tools this event will help you kick-off your gardening season with plants, seeds, accessories and tips for gardening in this (often challenging) zone!

VENDORS will get you ready for Spring planting with seeds, plants & accessories | EXPERIENCED LOCAL GARDENERS – chat & learn | SEED EXCHANGE TABLE operated by Cochrane & District Horticultural Society - Cochrane's Local Garden Club – bring your extra seeds & buy from the collection - 'pay what you can' with proceeds donated to a local charity.

The Gardening Expo offers three SPEAKER PRESENTATIONS:
11: 30 am: POLLINATORS AND SUSTAINABLE GARDENS | Sydney Worthy, Alberta Native Bee Council
12:30 pm: SOIL HEATH - THE KEY TO SUCCESSFUL GARDENING | Sheryl Normandeau, Author
1:30 pm: REGENERATIVE YARD CARE | Kurt Stenberg, Arborist – cochranetreecare

Location: Cochrane Lions Club Event Centre ( 109 Fifth Avenue, Cochrane). Entry is free of charge.

Event information & VENDOR LIST: https://cochraneenvironment.org/cochrane-area-gardening.../

Invite your friends and neighbours to join you at the Gardening Expo!

We will be at this awesome event with our seeds! If you are in Calgary come and visit us.

Get ready to sprout up and grow your gardening knowledge 🌱

On Saturday, April 18, from 10 am to 3 pm at our South location, explore Seed & Sprout, a spring-inspired experience filled with local vendors and everything you need to kickstart the season.

Connect with local seed suppliers and growers to discover what thrives in Calgary’s climate. Bring your little sprouts along for a free Paint & Plant session where they can decorate a clay pot, plant their own seeds, and leave it to dry while you explore the market 🌿

Learn more about the event here: https://calgaryfarmersmarket.ca/market-event/seed-sprout/

Please note this is a cash-only event — an ATM will be available on site.

Happy Tomato Tuesday! 🍅❤️ Have you ever heard of ‘The Ketchup Song’ by Stompin’ Tom Connors? In 1970, the late Canadian folk/country singer Stompin’ Tom Connors wrote a song about the tomatoes of Leamington (The Tomato Capital of Canada) – called ‘The Ketchup Song’.

We have a tomato in our lineup from Leamington called ‘Leamington No 1’ – but didn’t make the connection to the Stompin’ Tom Connors song until Norma Dunmore pointed it out. Thank you!

Stompin’ Tom wrote ‘The Ketchup Song’ about a romance between a tomato 🍅from Leamington and a potato 🥔from Prince Edward Island. The song went to Number 1 on the Canadian Country Music Charts in 1970!😀
______________

The opening lyrics of ‘The Ketchup Song’:

“There was a guy from PEI they used to call Potato
He met this young Leamington, Ontario Tomato
But he had eyes for other girls, and she was a little mushy
So, they said “well let’s get wed”, no sense in being fussy.”
____________

And it gets better – there is a music video of ‘The Ketchup Song’ – that stars The Big Tomato from Leamington (in cartoon form) as the female lead (see The Big Tomato postcard c 1961).

You must watch this video. It will make your day. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiGb31e5ydo

I am thinking this must be the first and only music video in the world that stars a tomato. Mr. and Mrs. Tomato Head please let me know😊

Garden Your Concrete! 🍅🌱With tomatoes! Plant some pots on your patio or balcony, use that space for growing food. These tomato varieties are container friendly and easy to grow in small spaces.

One pot at a time you can Garden Your Concrete into a beautiful and healthy foodscape!🍅❤️🥕

Tomato 1 | Fire Drill is an all-around great tomato. Plants are small, sturdy, & about 18". The fruits are lovely – perfectly round with very good full tomato taste (sweet-tangy). The plants are huge producers.

Tomato 2 | Siam is a cute little tomato with bright red cherry tomatoes. Plants are 8" to 10". Siam is easy to grow in a 1 or 2 gallon container and makes a great table top/patio tomato.

Tomato 3 | Henry Harrington is a micro-dwarf tomato from New Zealand. Henry is a sturdy little tomato, 10”, with great tasting small red cherry tomatoes. This is the perfect tomato for a 1-gallon pot.

Tomato 4 | Varto is a lovely and hardy Estonian tomato. It is early, compact (18”) and was developed as a windowsill or greenhouse tomato. Varto has brilliant red fruit that weigh 50g to 100g.

Happy Planting!

A Tomato Valentine's Day haiku written by my son (a few years ago)! ❤️❤️ Happy Valentine's Day everyone❤️

Giant Tomato

As you plant the seeds
the vegetables start to grow
the hard work pays off.