Kim,
What locale in zone 7 are you in? Is your neighborhood in a micro climate different than the surronding area? In a valley ... lots of tall shade trees ... How much direct sunlight would be available for the heirloom.

Im in VA and looking to grow Mule Team and NAR as my primary reds with Aunt Ginney's Purple and German Queen as my backups. For my Orange I'm growing KBX and Kellogg's Breakfast and backkups Qolden Queen, Nebraska Wedding; Yellows will be bicolor Striped German. For Darks I'm growing Indian Stripes, Cherokee Purple and someone just sent me Noir De Creme.TY Greens will be Spears Tenn.Green and Cherokee Green. So in our area Aug and Sept are very dry so I'm growing mostly in Raybo's Earthtainer SWC. As watering will be time consuming during those months.
The above choices were recommended to me for my area.

George

I do not think our climate would be different that surrounding and the garden area is full sun. We are between Greensboro and Winston Salme. We do have some area that is just partial sun if that would be better. Thank you for all the suggestions

In zone 7 you can grow any variety you want to as they will all do well. So it is just a matter of deciding if you want large slicers, plum/paste types, or cherry types and what color?

Check out these current discussions from over on the Growing Tomatoes forum here at GW. You'll find many helpful discussions there.

Which 10 should I grow?

Favorite beefsteaks?

If you could grow only one heirloom which would it be?

Dave

Thanks!!

Kimmie,
Good luck on your tomato quest. But just a note of picking tomato types by winter hardiness zone. We're in a zone 7 with two months a year where the night lows are above 50 degrees. That is a killer for some tomato varieties. And summer highs break 70 degrees for only two months. Most likely most the varieties digdirt may grow wouldn't have a chance here. So just keep that in mind. No matter what you'll have fun. Tom

Kimmie, I live in the Mooresville, N.C. area so I know you can grow any variety you want to. You can transplant tomatoes until about the first of July for a late crop.
My best varieties are Pruden's Purple, Eva Purple Ball, Cherokee Purple and Black. Glenn

skagit_goat_man - kimmie is in NC which is the same longitude and lattitude and part of zone 7 as me here in Arkansas. Even has the same day and night temps and same humidity levels.

For some reason you keep trying to move me to Arizona. ;)

Dave

Hey Dave, We're in a lot further north zone 7 in WA's upper Skagit Valley. It's a tough place for south eastern tomatoes without some shelter. Using z7 alone in making picks has given me lots of dissapointments. But sounds like your picks should work well for kimmie. Look at the AZ weather right now, not a bad place to be. Good growing in '09.
Tom