Orkado F1 Hybrid. You won’t need to worry about a less-than-perfect summer with this superb outdoor cordon variety. First trusses are early to ripen with an average of 8 round, deep red fruits of up to 140g each per truss. The firm, well-flavoured fruits resist splitting and are ideal for slicing. 8 seeds. 99p.

Good value for F1 seeds. Perhaps low on thrill factor – but if it delivers flavour and standard size tomatoes early in the season – that’s good enough!

Sungrape F1 Hybrid. Enjoy the unique sweetness of this “baby grape” variety! From the same breeder as our popular Sungold and Suncherry Premium tomatoes, Sungrape has a distinct flavour profile due to its high levels of sweetness (brix content of 10) and acidity. These tasty tomatoes are quite thin-skinned, but resist splitting. Best grown under glass, but will grow as a cordon outside in a sunny situation. 6 seeds. £3.69.

I have one question but it’s important … is the flavour as good as Sungold? If it is, then  a cute shape and skin that doesn’t split makes it an attractive alternative.

Tumbling Tiger F1 Hybrid. Grow this fabulous British-bred tomato on the windowsill. Enjoy an abundant crop of tasty, striped, plum-shaped fruits – expect up to 300 per plant! Compact habit when grown in a 20cm pot on the windowsill or will trail gently if planted in a 35cm basket or container. 10 seeds. £2.69.

Very tempting. 300 tomatoes from a pot on the windowsill (my one windowsill won’t hold a 20cm pot but leaving that to one side for the time being) would be great and as Tigerella is one of my favourites, I’d love to try this mini tiger cub of a tomato.

Black Prince: Very dark red to brown fruit with soft flesh. Sweet juicy flavour. One of our heritage varieties and is best grown indoors. 10 seeds per packet. £2.25. From W.Robinson&Son

I always like to grow a dark, standard to large tomato and Black Prince sounded suitably noble and mysterious to earn its place in this year’s line up.

Britain’s Breakfast: Lemon shaped fruit, red and very sweet. Standard habit and has a large spreading truss with many having over 60 fruit per truss. Fruit does not split when ripe. A unique variety. 30 seeds per packet. £2.10. From W.Robinson&Son

As this is a year of showcasing Britain’s Best – I cannot think of many things better than a Big Breakfast – and if this tomato, grilled is one component of a few lazy, summer morning fry-ups – or maybe tucked in between a couple of slices of fresh white loaf with some charry pork bangers – then it will something humble but royal to celebrate all the same.

Tomato ‘Berry’ F1:  Cascading trusses of deliciously sweet, dark red “strawberry” shaped fruits. The small 15g fruits have outstanding flavour, ideal for adding to children’s lunchboxes, for salads and sandwiches or just pop in the mouth and enjoy! This early ripening cordon variety is best grown in the greenhouse, but will also grow in a sheltered, sunny spot outdoors. Height: 200cm (79″). Spread: 50cm (20″). 7 seeds per packet. £3.69. Thompson&Morgan

A variety that I think has only been around for a couple of years, so feels a bit more of a novelty than serious tomato. Although that may be to underestimate it. If it does have outstanding flavour – then the only lunchbox/mouth it will be going in is mine! Especially as I only got 2 seeds in the packet. They were tiny, so I carefully took the packet apart by the seams to see if any had lodged in the corners but nothing. One for customer services!

Another new grafted variety is Orangino “An orange cocktail tomato with excellent taste. The round, shiny fruits are on uniform trusses of 8. The plant is open and fruits have an average weight of 35 grams, with a good shelf life.”

And then new and novel is a Tomato Twin. Two varieties – Florryno and Orangino on one plant. The idea being that on each plant you will get two separate fruiting stems, a variety on each stem.

They’ve clearly been living up to their name in the grafting department, as not have they introduced new varities and twins – but they’ve also been refining the grafting technique. Whereas the grafting point used to be below the cotyledon leaves, it is now higher, above the first true leaves. The advantage of this it “will lead to even earlier and bigger crops, with fruit beginning lower on the stems, producing at least one extra fruit truss per plant during the season”.

And if that wasn’t enough, this is also the year that the Three Tomato Tenors have been grafted. For the first time, you can get Gardener’s Delight, Shirley and Moneymaker all as grafted plants. I can see those being popular.

Today I am looking at the other three new varities, avaliable as seed.

F1 Giulietta. Plum Fruited. Ideal for sandwiches, frying or grilling. Bred by own group, this large-fruited ‘Italian’ plu,m variety performed superbly in last year’s trials. The fruits set well, even under cool conditions and are juicy and delicious. It produces high yields and boasts a good range of disease resistance.

Initially I was going to put it in the same punnet as Roma or San Marzano. But then I thought they are good for cooking, especially for making sauce and Giulietta gets name checked for sandwiches. And yes – frying and grilling but the fruit is still kept and eaten whole. So an interesting innovation? Price to find out – £2.15 for 7 seeds.

F1 Spencer. Medium Fruited. For Greenhouse Culture. Early-maturing. A standard, indeterminate variety. Spencer is intended for growing in a greenhouse, polytunnel or a sheltered spot outside. The fruits are medium-sized, strong red in colour, and have a good flavour.

Not sure why the Shirley lovers would swap to Spencer as this ‘shirley’ has to be the same market? Perhaps good to think of it as a complementary variety- as Barbie has her Ken – so Shirley now has Spencer? Price of true love – £1.99 for 7 seeds.

Megabite. A superb dwarf variety. A windowsill variety. Whether you grow them on windowsills, in containers, borders, greenhouse or conservatory, expect a good crop of large, tasty bright red fruit which, despite their size, show good resistance to fruit fall. Perfect for pick-your-own at barbecues!

This is confusing – megabite – but for windowsills? The photo does show two large fruit being a handful – and a chunky stem in the background – but how does all that fit on a windowsill? It won’t be me who gets to find out as, with the exception of the kitchen, my house is sill-less. But if anyone has a spare sill and £2.15 for 7 seeds it would be great to find out!

In the end it’s actually a relief to restrict myself to the T for tomato pages. All those other temptations translate to a lot of hard work!

So what did I find that’s new in the catalogues for this year? Today I’m looking at Sutton’s tomato collection. I’ll look at one new variety of seed in particular and then take another look at the other new seeds and developments in the plants on offer later in the week  (there have been some  innovations in the grafted range).

The big story is one of the varieties that I’ve sown – F1 Lizzano. This is how it’s described ” Genuine blight resistance! Lizzano, as confirmed by Bangor University is the most blight tolerant variety we have seen. It is a semi-determinate type producing abundant yields of tasty, high quality, bright red, baby cherry sized fruits. It is a vigorous variety with a compact, uniform trailing habit that makes it perfect for patios.”

Not for those who like their patios to be a place of ordered serried ranks though. Lizzano roots may be containable within a pot but she looks like the squatter cousin of a sprawler  such as Sungold or Black Cherry, throwing out trusses and seeing where they’ll land. Still if she’s blight resistant and produces fruit as delicious as they do, she will be most welcome.

I counted 11 entries. 9 were Cedrico and 2 Alicante. I think I have got the photos in the right order of first, second, third and I think fourth prize. But for sure they were all Cedricococo!

Left behind in the cloud of dust – are ‘Sunrise’ and ‘Cream Banana’.

There weren’t any entries in this class last year so good to see a couple this year. The Brandywine were especially attractive.

Staging cherry tomatoes is clearly an art as well. The sand makes them look a little like rouged-up ostrich eggs, the kitchen towel is a little too… ‘kitcheny?’, the tack to hold them in place – works well from a securing point of view – but not so sure I like the look, sort of fabergé egg without the fab – and then there are the plates – where it would seem an inquisitive finger has given them a curious poke – and the tomato equivalent of Come By is now needed to herd them back into formation.

I always like to take note of the outcome of the annual Noblesse oblige in the Melon duel. A duel because there are only ever two – one from the Duke of Devonshire, one from the Duke of Marlborough. And whilst the actual fruit, could easily be bought and perhaps bettered from any supermarket – there is something delicious about this rough-skinned slice of history being played out year after year. But this year there was – gasp – only one melon, and it was smaller than in previous years. I hope this is hiccup and not revolution.

On the tomato benches – no such unsettling sights. Although from studying the look-a-likey plates in the medium class – I am sure if the Stepford Wives had a Stepford husband he must have been called Cedrico!

But I thought we’d start with the Small Fruited Class. 1st prize: Apero. 2nd prize: Sungold. 3rd prize: Harlequin. And all lovely looking fruit and well deserving winners.