Sammy, it's too bad that you had to see SD in this drought. My parents lived in San Diego for a number of years, and I visited them often - I always marveled at the beautiful plants and flowers, especially in neighborhoods that were fairly near to the ocean. But, of course, San Diego was always basically a desert next to an ocean - an ideal climate for growing succulents, which were magnificent. I myself live in Sacramento, and yes, we are near the fires. It's a bad year, as all the vegetation in the foothills and the mountains is so dry. And, while it's true that drought years (like earthquakes) are part of living in California, many of us are feeling that this drought cycle could be a long one. Some people have plowed up their front lawns and put in drought-tolerant plants. We who love roses are hoping that we can baby them through - many of the roses in the Old City Cemetery Rose Garden have come from places in the foothills where they survived on their own without anyone caring for them for years, so we know that they are survivors! I hope that you can visit San Diego later on under happier circumstances. And I'm glad your daughter is OK!

Which Las Pilitas? The Santa Margarita store may have limited hours, since it's mainly wholesale, but the Escondido store is open most days from 10 to 4. I think they're closed Tuesdays and, probably, major holidays. All that said, I like Tree of Life better. The sheer quality of their stock is superior, they have better availability, and they are more open to questions about propagation. In fact, the main reason I got into propagating my own plants is because Las Pilitas (which is an easy 25 minutes away) were always telling me they were going to finally have some stock "next month," but "next month" never arrived. I'm talking about easy-to-grow things like "Dara's Choice" Salvia. So I just started growing my own to get the plants I want.

Poway (zone 21) and Ramona (zone 20) are both inland and will be hotter in the summer and colder in the winter than near the coast. The ground won't freeze, but this past winter we had the coldest weather in 70 years and many areas got down to 15 degrees for several nights in a row - it was a disaster for many tender plants, and local nurseries and wholesale growers lost millions of dollars. However, this is highly unusual. Soil vary dramatically from area to area, even within the same piece of property, so once you buy your new place you'll need to study what you have. We had rain yesterday - for the first time in months! Here in Vista we got 2.7" of rain in one day - bringing our total rainfall since Jan. 1st to a whopping 7". Many parts of the county have had far less rain. My plants are looking sooooooo happy today, with their leaves washed off and their stems all plumped up. Plants from all parts of the globe with a Mediterranean climate do great here, so you can easily grow plants from the Mediterranean basin, South Africa (including a vast array of effortless bulbs like watsonia, babiana, freesia, etc.), coastal Chile, much of Australia and New Zealand. You're going to have too much fun! I've got plants from all over the world in my garden, and I've grouped them according to their watering needs. Mine is a low-water garden throughout (except for one very small area), and we'll soon start planting trees which will be watered with "gray water" from our laundry, showers and bathroom sinks. There's some interesting new articles and books lately about water harvesting, ways to save/store the rainwater that might otherwise go down the drain. You might want to think about that when you plan your new garden. One downside to Ramona - it can be a long drive to downtown San Diego. Poway is next to a major highway and easier to get to/from. Ramona sometimes gets some snow in the winter, tho not enough to use a shovel for, I don't think. *grin*

Mission Pools - Stay away Our familyÂs personal experience - I called into Mission Pools back in April this year to request a repair as part of my tile on the right face of my Mission Pools spa was falling off. I explained this exact sort of thing had happened some time ago (2005) on the left half of the Spa and was repaired after my initial call as a warranty issue in 2005. Now they refuse to repair the exact same of problem under warranty on the right half of the spa and have e-mailed me an excessively high quote for repair of $5,000! This has now become a health and Safety issue as tile is unstable and a hazard to children and adults alike and a liability to our family and Mission Pools as Mr. Dunn (Owner) and their service department are aware of the situation. I have been down this road once before at the time of the construction with Mission Pools. The Spa needed to be completely rebuilt (jack hammered out and completely reformed) due to a poor workmanship, structural issues and irregular forming. I had to go to war with them then and apparently I do now. Bruce Dunn wonÂt give you the time of day until you file a complaint with the California contract licensing board  Stay away!!