(Photo by MIKE MERCIER) Helen Roelens of Lapeer shopped Friday morning at Randy & Teresa's Garden Center in Mayfield Township for vegetables for her patio garden for her home.

A hard frost May 28 means if you are headed to your local garden center to start a vegetable garden, you're likely to run into people who started theirs earlier.

Gerald Swoish at Swoish's Green House in North Branch said he normally has between eight and 10 people come back for more plants to replant their garden. "This time its been more like 100," he commented.

According to the Michigan Field Office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service, cold and windy conditions in May has put the state's vegetable growing season about two weeks behind schedule.

Kim Willis, a horticulturist at the MSU Extension Service in Lapeer, said the best thing gardeners can do right now to get back on track is water. She said temperatures are expected to rise this week, which will promote growth, but soil moisture has been on the low side.

Willis said vegetable gardening has been a "hot topic" at then extension service this year.

Teresa Fick at Randy & Teresa's Garden Center in Mayfield Township said she's been seeing a lot of new faces this year. "We're seeing quite a few more younger families," she said, noting, "our usual customers are middle-aged women."

Fick said there's a growing interest in heirloom varieties, especially tomatoes. She said the Brandyvine tomato is very popular this year. She attributed that to "good ol' fashioned flavor."

Swoish said in addition to Brandyvine another heirloom tomato call Mortgage Lifter seems to be very popular with his customers. He said that while it's not as resistant to disease and cracking as some of the hybrids, "it is one of the biggest."

"If you're going to grow your own, when the same old white potatoes," said Willis, urging gardeners to be a little adventurous. "One of my favorites," she said is a fingerling potato called "Russian Banana. They're long like a fat peanut. They're not really big and they're hard to clean, but they have a very nice really nutty taste. They're really good."

Fick said her center ran out of seed potatoes two weeks early this year. "Potatoes are really huge this year," she said.

Mandy Quertermous, the office manager at Campbell's Greenhouses in North Branch, said she's seen an increase in customers, but they seem to be sticking with the "tried and proven." Like other area garden center operators, she said people seem to be more interested in heirloom tomatoes this years.

Willis two old-time vegetables that seem to be gaining in popularity are turnips and Jerusalem artichoke. She said diabetics find turnips a good substitute for potatoes because they have less sugar. She said Jerusalem artichoke is a potato substitute not often found in stores because it "does not ship or store well."

According to Willis, what makes heirloom varieties of vegetables attractive to the home is taste and diversity.

"There are thousands of varieties of peppers and tomatoes," Willis said. "Why buy something that's been grown for its ability to ship and store well, when you can plant something like the garden peach. She said it's tomato that's "orangey-yellow with a red blush and a little bit of fuzz. It has a delicious flavor and is very prolific."

She noted that while most of the exotic garden plants are found in specialty catalogs, many local garden centers are adding them to their old standbys.

Swoish said he added chocolate beauty peppers, a dark brown bell pepper; braccoflower, a broccoli-cauliflower cross; and Cheddar cauliflower, a cheesy-colored version of the church casserole standard. However, he added, "I haven't had much luck with them."

Still, overall, said Fick, "Vegetables are hot. We're seeing people who've never planted a garden before come in and buy 200 plants."

Phil Foley may be reached at (810) 664-0811, Ext. 8148 or pfoley@lapeergroup.com.