Most garden plants are either open-pollinated or hybrid.

Open-pollinated (OP) varieties are pollinated naturally by insects, wind, or self-pollination. Plants of a named OP variety look and taste like their parents. Save seed from the best plants, and you can grow that variety again. Heirlooms are open-pollinated varieties with a history — passed down for decades, often attached to a place or a family. All heirlooms are OP; not all OP varieties are old enough to be called heirlooms.

Hybrids (often labeled F1) are a first-generation cross of two distinct parent lines. Breeders do this to combine traits: disease resistance from one parent, fruit size from another. Hybrid seed can be excellent in the garden. The catch is seed saving: seed from an F1 plant does not grow “true.” You get a mix of grandparent traits, not the hybrid you bought.

What GardenBreezy sells

All seed varieties offered at GardenBreezy.com are 100% open-pollinated heirloom / non-hybrid. Browse the seed shop at gardenbreezy.com. If you want to save seed, OP and heirloom varieties are the ones that make sense. If a neighbor hands you a hybrid tomato that you love, grow it — just do not expect the seed to repeat the show.