Quick Summary of Blush (Artisan Blush Tiger)
- 🌿 Plant Habit: INDETERMINATE (Tall/Vining). The bush features delicate, thin, and wispy “weeping” foliage that often looks wilted or fragile, even when perfectly healthy. Despite its delicate appearance, it is highly vigorous and can reach over 2 m (6.5 ft). It produces a massive amount of suckers and requires diligent pruning.
- 🌍 Origin: Created by Fred Hempel of Artisan Seeds (USA). Often sold in Russia under the translated name Bashful Blush.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Elongated julienne/bullet-shaped cherry tomatoes (20-30g / 0.7-1 oz). The color is a translucent golden-yellow heavily striped with bright pink and red. Warning: Highly prone to cracking in rainy weather or if over-watered.
- 👅 Flavor: Highly debated! When given enough sun, potassium, and allowed to fully ripen on the vine (until the pink stripes are prominent and the fruit is slightly soft), it has a remarkably sweet, fruity flavor akin to grapes or nectarines, with almost zero classic tomato taste. If picked too early, shaded, or overwatered, it can be sour and thick-skinned.
- ⏳ Maturity & Yield: Mid-season. Very cold-tolerant and disease-resistant (especially to late blight). Incredible yields with huge trusses.
- 💡 Community Note: Throughout this thread, growers discuss a specific seed line distributed by user “remko”, which many claim produces larger, thinner-skinned, and sweeter fruits than standard commercial packets.
Elongated, bi-colored, and striped cherries all at once; about 14 fruits per truss. Sweet with a fruity taste.
Indeterminate variety. It grew outdoors in open ground, and the bush reached a height of 1.4 m (4.5 ft). The bush is not wide, I led it in 4 stems. It loves to produce suckers, even at the seedling stage. As seedlings, the bushes are very beautiful and differ from other varieties—the leaves are lacy, dark green with a bluish tint.
A very productive and unpretentious variety!
Edited February 9, 2014 by Pomidoroved
Continuation:
What an interesting variety! 👍
In the last photo, the fruits look almost transparent; you can immediately tell it’s incredibly delicious!
I looked it up, and it turns out “Blush” translates to “Shameful Blush” (Stydlivy Rumjanets)! 😳
Edited September 29, 2013 by Kaliningradka
Yes, that’s absolutely right, Blush – Shameful Blush!
The variety came from D. Gusev.
Photo from October 15.
Towards the end of summer and in autumn, the color of the fruits changed slightly, becoming paler. I think the color and taste of this variety depend heavily on the amount of sun and fertilization.
Beautiful! Color, taste, and yield! But how does it perform when pickled/canned?
I haven’t tried canning them, but the fruits are quite firm and store well. So, for those who love pickled cherries, I think this variety will turn out pretty good!
Elena, thanks to you, I now also have this wonderful variety!!! 📝💃
Please tell me, when should I sow it for seedlings? What is its ripening time?
Elena! I checked my notes 📝. I sowed Blush on February 25, and the first ripe fruits were ready by early July. So that makes it a mid-season variety!
Elena, is it worth taking up valuable greenhouse space for them?
Alena, they should theoretically be sweeter in a greenhouse. But I still wouldn’t take up greenhouse space with this variety—they grew perfectly well in open ground (outdoors) for me. I pulled the Blush bushes out last among all my plants, in early October. They turned out to be very cold-tolerant.
Elena, did they catch late blight (phytophthora)? And what is the approximate weight of the fruit? I am only planning to plant this one cherry variety this season.
Tatiana! They did not get late blight. The fruits weigh about 20-30 g (0.7-1 oz), and the sizes are roughly 3.5 x 2 cm or 4 x 2.5 cm (1.4 x 0.8 in or 1.6 x 1 in).
Elena, thank you for such beauty and deliciousness! 🌺
I want to add the following about this tomato…
When people say a tomato has a “fruity taste,” you might imagine the smell of fruit or just a slight aftertaste… But I had never seen or even imagined anything like this tomato.
Let me explain.
If you eat it in the dark or with your eyes closed, you might think it’s not a tomato at all, but a grape. It has such a dense consistency. And the taste is not tomato-like at all, although it’s sweet with a hint of acidity… But there are seeds, and the seed locules are normal, though absolutely not watery. The size is just slightly larger than a ‘Lady’s Finger’ grape… The color is also amazing, with barely noticeable stripes on a lighter background.
It grew outdoors for me, between currant bushes, meaning practically in the shade. Moreover, I planted 3 tomatoes in one hole… it just happened that way, they grew in a bucket for a long time, and I was afraid to disturb the roots during transplanting… Next year I want to provide it with more comfortable conditions. Out of all cherries, I will only grow this one and Honey Drop (Medovaya Kaplya), but the latter only for pure sweetness…
Grew outdoors, never covered it with anything. It was planted late and ended up in poor soil—I basically planted tiny weaklings in the ground around May 10th. It started fruiting in early August. The fruits are very beautiful. As for the taste—it was a bit sour, the skin was thick, and the yield for me was quite small (took too long to get going). But the bush was healthy.
Nelli said:
If you eat it in the dark or with your eyes closed, you might think it’s not a tomato at all, but a grape…
Nelli, very accurate about the grape taste! 👍 Sweetish, firm fruits store well and don’t crack. The variety grew outdoors, indeterminate, and productive. I liked it very much, I want to plant it again 😋 Elena, thank you for the seeds! 🌺
trofi said:
As for the taste—it was a bit sour.
😲 strange…
Svetlana, mine grew outdoors, while yours was in a greenhouse. And I was eating it around mid-August, when we were already spoiled by abundance, and the rains had started. 😃 😃
We compared it with Honey Drop (the kids did), and they said this one was sour, while HD was tasty. But I won’t plant any cherries anymore—everyone only eats large beefsteaks or cocktail sizes. Nobody even bothers to pick the cherries, so we just left all the bushes with them hanging. 😞 😞
Girls! I am so glad! 😘 😘 😘 🌺
And regarding the taste, my tomatoes were also a bit sour in August. I concluded that the taste and sweetness of this variety depend heavily on the balance of nutrients in the soil. In September, the fruits became sweet again 😋
Elena, is it still alive outdoors for you? 😲 😲 We pulled out all our outdoor tomatoes on September 3rd.
trofi said:
Svetlana, mine grew outdoors, while yours was in a greenhouse. And I was eating it around mid-August…
Elena, mine also grew outdoors. Right now, all the fruits (some still green) are lying in the house, ripening off the vine—we cleared the garden bed for cover crops. I periodically snatch Blushies from the tray—the counter-ripened ones are tasty too. They are not as sweet as Honey Drop, and their size is almost cocktail—25-30 grams (1 oz). I try not to give them away much—I’ll eat them all myself 🙈
Elena! I didn’t plant it this year, but last year I pulled it out absolutely last in early October. The bush didn’t get sick with anything at all.
Svetlana, maybe I am being too strict with them, as cherries are apparently just not our thing. 😉 😉 But I actively gifted them to people and amazed them with their beauty. They are, of course, very unusual.
Yes, Elena, the bush is very healthy, I agree. 🌺 🌺 Next to a single case of late blight that I observed on Black Cherry, this one was still standing completely green (I mean the leaves).
I also really liked this variety. Both the taste and the color. I decided that out of all cherries, I will only grow this one. My family also doesn’t really eat cherries. The bush is not aggressive and invasive like other cherries. It’s still growing outdoors, the leaves are green.
Outdoors, the yield is much higher than in the greenhouse.
This variety conquered me too; it is my sweetest one this year. The skin is firm, it cans well. Productive, I lead it into 5 stems in the greenhouse, and there are still many green ones hanging.
Yes, the variety is very beautiful 👍 , but it didn’t turn out particularly sweet for me. It didn’t get much sun 🙈.
Elena, thank you for it 🌺
And this variety conquered me too 👍, productive, sweet, firm, and the size is just right for jars 👍 👍 👍… Elena 🌺 🌺 🌺
Thank you, girls 🌺 🌺 🌺
I planted this tomato after reading Elena’s review and didn’t regret it! The variety is just super! Furthermore, yesterday I finished eating the last tomatoes of this variety. The sweetness was still there, though not to the same extent as in summer.
