New York Times journalist Michael Tortorello takes on the hybrid/heirloom debate in “Heirloom Seeds or Flinty Hybrids?”

The faithful few may have noticed that this is a question that POD plans on exploring this gardening season. If this year’s hybrid experiment works, POD’s taking the Fisker route from here on out.

“AS gardeners stock up on heirloom seeds for spring, Rob Johnston, the chairman of Johnny’s Selected Seeds in Winslow, Me., would like to suggest an accessory. Why not buckle up in a 1936 Oldsmobile coupe? O.K., so it doesn’t have seat belts. But the swoop of the fenders resembles Joan Crawford’s eyebrows. Better yet, the rest of the Oldsmobile’s curves are all Lana Turner…But even with all that a ’36 Olds has going for it, Mr. Johnston, 60, said, ‘I’m not sure how big of a market there would be for 75-year-old cars. It would just be a sentimental business.’

So to return to Mr. Johnston’s own business, vegetable seeds, why is the backyard gardener buying so many 1936-era heirlooms?”