If you're in the Denver Metro area, Dirichmond, Kelly at Timberline Gardens on West 58th in Arvada carries most of the same plants that were sold by High Country--and more. Kelly is VERY into native and xeric plants and grows things you won't find anywhere else in the Denver area--but no mail order! I checked his site and his perennial list for 2012 has been taken down and the new one for 2013 isn't up yet--he must be working on it! In addition to Timberline he has his own private business, Cold Hardy Cactus, where he sells a LARGE selection of hardy cacti plus some really cool agaves, some yuccas and a few other miscellaneous things. And he DOES mail order those, so if you're interested in any of that I recommend you check out his site, linked below. (There's also a direct link to Timberline on his Cactus Home Page!) And if you ARE in the Metro area and are interested in cacti, you can see a LOT of them blooming at Timberline, usually in June, but the extreme heat last year had them all messed up and they bloomed way early! Don't know of any other mail order places that would be similar to High Country. Skybird Here is a link that might be useful: Cold Hardy Cactus (dot com)

Thanks for the encouragement! Sochi, I think you're right, that is the quintessential french light fixture isn't it? I tried to mix it up a little with the different pendants over the island, but I do really like the shape of that chandelier. I'm really looking forward to the rustic modern. A lot of the homes close the ski resorts near my home would really do well with rustic modern interiors. I can't wait to see the great ideas.

Ann: Congratualations. What a relief! Doesn't life seem a little lighter now? What brand washer/dryer did you buy? My brag for yesterday is also on the Christmas thread: I threw away my dead and very dry Christmas tree with the lights still on it. The tree was so dry and brittle that the light cords were simply not worth taking off, time-wise. I'm bragging about this because in years gone by I would have procrastinated even longer to take down the tree or I would have blamed my husband for requesting that the tree remain up until mid-January and made him take down the lights, which would add another couple of weeks to the process. Anyway, who's next?

It was held at the Denver Botanical Gardens and I think all the buildings there are pretty spectacular. Surprisingly the parking decks were almost full when we got there. I think it was because today was so gorgeous. I didn't get any roses but there were a number of people leaving with garden carts to help them with their haul. I think High Country Roses must have grabbed various plants that were Colorado appropriate from their flowering stock and brought them. Everything had a bloom. :-) Matt mentioned how Weeks Roses had cancelled their order but sold them a propogating license instead and so all his staff has been madly propagating the Weeks patented plants. They are even going out to member's gardens to get cuttings. I think he said they had 600 "parent" plants in house. In previous conversations he had mentioned that Weeks Roses sells them plugs that they then grow. It sounded like no plugs this year hence all the propagating. Matt has a great presentation style and incorporated alot of humor in his talk. There were alot of helpful 'science fair' style presentations for people like myself to come up to speed easily and quickly on all things pertaining to rose growing. I think they thought there was less attendance than usual due to Coronavirus but I think there were more people there than I thought would be. However, this is the first time I have attended. The other outfit selling roses was Bailey Bare Root Plants. They had bare root roses and peonies for sale. The bare root plants were pretty big, hence the garden carts. Bailey Nurseries I was pretty pumped to get a door prize but I was hoping for one of Matt's High Country Roses Gift Certificates. Some other lucky people got those. In my door prize basket I am most excited to try the rose food. We tried Mile High Rose feed last year and it drove the dogs insane! They kept trying to eat it. This new one is liquid so hopefully won't have that affect.