Meridiana, there is no reason to stop growing heirlooms in your garden! Carolyn has informed me that you are worried, but please forget about it! I'm growing tomatoes since many years in my garden - this year 125 different varieties, among them many heirlooms and only one hybrid - and I have never ever got any problems doing so. No control ever - who should do this?
I know about the discussions you mentioned, but that only applies to commercial shops who want to sell heirlooms. They indeed need a certificate which costs about 1000 Euros per variety, but I suppose you don't want to open a commercial shop, aren't you? As long as you are growing tomatoes, be they heirlooms or not, for your own use, you can grow whatever you want.
As to Irina: I've never ordered from her because I was a bit too skeptical concerning some of the varieties she is offering, but as Carolyn mentioned, Manfred Hahm-Hartmann and Reinhard Kraft are excellent sources to get (new) varieties and this for VERY small money. They don't want to make profit out of their offer, but share and distribute rare and sometimes endangered varieties, thus keep the diversity. I've never had any problems with their seeds and all grew true to type.
Another great German source is Gerhard Bohl, but unfortunately he is NOT on the net with his huge collection of all kind of veggies - you have to write him a letter to get a CD or an USB-stick first which show what he is offering, for small money also. The CD or the USB-stick are not for free, but they don't cost a fortune and there are a lot of infos in them.
Good luck with your plants and let's hope that FINALLY some kind of summer will arrive!
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