23rd Annual Doug Oster Plant Swap/Giveaway and Pepperpalooza 5/31/26 at Soergels 1pm

Join me at Soergels Garden Center in Wexford for the 23rd Annual Doug Oster Plant Swap/Giveaway and Pepperpalooza on Sunday May 31,2026 from 1 p.m. until 2 p.m.

For 23 years we've been getting together to trade plants. It's so much fun!

It’s a place for gardeners to trade with each other. Bring divisions from your garden to swap, be sure plants are labelled and please don’t bring anything invasive.

I’ll also have lots of ‘Limbaugh Legacy Potato Top’ tomato plants to pass out while supplies last. One plant of each per family please. BE THERE AT 1 p.m., IT’S CRAZY AND OVER IN 20 MINUTES!

This year, we’re adding something extra after the swap called Pepperpalooza!
Over the last few years I’ve been impressed with the unique varieties of peppers offered by Soergels. Varieties I’ve never seen at nurseries.
The team there is letting me talk about these cool peppers and will be selling them cheap.
I’m also bringing peppers to giveaway too related to my obsession with black artist Horace Pippin.
The WWI veteran was shot during the war, struggled with arthritis in his shoulder and used bee sting therapy to ease the pain.
He traded pepper seeds with a beekeeper for the bees.
‘Fish’ pepper has a long history with African Americans. It’s a hot pepper with variegated foliage that starts white, eventually turning red when ripe.
‘Buena Mulata’ has long, thin purple peppers which turn brown, then yellow and finally red. It’s a medium hot cayenne type.
‘Pippen’s Golden Honey’ sweet pepper is black, transforming to yellow then red.

These 'Limbaugh Legacy Potato Top' tomatoes are big, ugly and tasty!

The Limbaugh Legacy tomato is a huge, pink beefsteak that’s been grown in the Pittsburgh area for generations. I ask gardeners to grow out the plant and send me some seeds back to keep the program going.

Here’s how I found the ‘Limbaugh Legacy Potato Top’ tomato-

The late Fred Limbaugh looks over some of his tomato seedlings.

We meet lots of people over the years. Some come and go, but others always hold a place in our hearts. Fred Limbaugh was one of those special people.

I first met Fred on a warm day in the spring of 2000. After reading about my love of heirloom tomatoes, he was compelled to call and tell me about the tomato his family had grown for generations, ‘Potato Top.’ He invited me over to pick up a couple of plants to try.

“They’re the best-tasting tomato you’ll ever eat,” he bragged.

I listened with interest as he talked about the plant he loved and had given away to friends and family for years. Once they grew ‘Potato Top,’ they were hooked, said Fred, who didn’t even like to eat tomatoes but grew them for everyone else.

Over the years, Fred and I became good friends. We would visit at his home in Robinson, and on hot days he would offer me a cold beer but never drank one himself. We talked about gardening, his love of the outdoors, his beloved German shepherds and how he was getting along in his 80s.

Together, the two of us would walk down a steep embankment in his back yard to his cold frames filled with deep green tomato plants; they had thick stems and sometimes were covered in bright yellow blossoms. As he got older, he couldn’t get down there anymore. It was even hard for me to navigate, and I was 40 years younger.

Years ago, I started giving away the seeds of ‘Potato Top’ with the condition that gardeners send me some seeds at the end of the season so I would have more the next year to keep the program going. I wanted everyone to taste it and hoped that by sharing the seed, we could guarantee the survival of this tomato with potato-like foliage for a long time. Every year the project grew, expanding from Western Pennsylvania to other states and eventually to many other countries. One summer, I got 140,000 seeds back from readers all over the world.

Fred was never one for the limelight. As ‘Potato Top’ became more and more popular, he would call me and say with a laugh, “I never thought one phone call would turn into this.”

One time his daughters brought him to North Park, where I was giving away the plants. Wanting to recognize Fred for starting the whole project, I tried to make an announcement. But Fred wouldn’t hear of it, and in an instant he was gone, slipping away so he wouldn’t be noticed.

His health took a turn for the worse several years ago. When I went to visit him at a nursing home, he was figuring out a way to grow tomatoes on a windowsill so he could still provide plants for everyone who asked.

That was the year I started growing plants for him, as many as I could in my little home greenhouse. They never looked as good as Fred’s; he just had a knack for getting nice stocky, healthy transplants. Eventually, I turned the job over to friends at Soergel Orchards, who were able to produce quality plants.

Several years ago, Fred passed away at 86. He was out for dinner the night before with his family and then was gone early the next morning.

I always felt we were kindred spirits whose love of gardening transcended the boundaries of age. I’ll never forget that first day we met when he gave me two large plants, their roots surrounded with newspaper.

In memory of Fred and with the blessing of his family, I’ve renamed the tomato ‘Limbaugh’s Legacy Potato Top.’ For decades to come, I hope gardeners will search the name of the tomato and rediscover its origins. They’ll learn about a wonderful man who wanted nothing but to share a big, meaty pink tomato with some friends. Little did he know that he would be sharing it with thousands of strangers, too. That always made him feel good, to know so many people were enjoying the tomato.

I miss that old guy and always will think of him as I sit at home filling seed envelopes and giving away plants. It feels good knowing that his name will always be linked to a family heirloom that will live on in gardens around our area and the world.