In answer to the question about getting other companies colors mixed into top-quality paint.... I have always been very happy with having this done in Ben Moore. 10 years ago, most BM dealers had a computer list of other companies colors (I got a lot of Martha Stewart colors mixed in BM back when she was the only one with interesting, complicated colors available!) and sometimes it was trial-and-error after they did the initial mix. Now, most BM dealers have a computerized color matcher... so they actually feed in a chip (photo, old paint chip, piece of pottery you like, etc) and the computer generates a match. I had this done with an old paint chip, 5-year-old paint I wanted to match- and it did a great job. BM paints are a dream to work with. I will never use cheap paint for anything other than the chicken coop again!! I've been using their low-VOC Aura lately and like that as well.

I have been through at least 100 yellows looking for my lower cabinet color. Some really pretty light ones that are not (in your face) YELLOW are Benjamin Moore: America's Heartland 197, Cornsilk 198, Pale Moon , Ambiance 309, Weston Flax HC-5, Santo Domingo Cream 274, Harp Strings 213 Some of them seem beige on the swatch but when held next to white will definitely read buttercream. Vellum 207 is really nice but is deeper and I don't know how much saturation you're looking for.. We are going with Hawthorne Yellow HC-4 but that is more yellow. Our kitchen faces south and many of the yellows I mentioned above just looked too beige IN MY KITCHEN. In other rooms, they were yellow, but in my kitchen they were washed out. Also, we are going for a different look. Hope this helps a little... OH, if any of those aren't yellow enough another one might be Hay Stack 317. However, it's yellow for sure. Hawthorne yellow is a bit less vibrant I think. Good luck. Yellows are HARD! Mine change color all day long. Ones I loved at 9 am seemed to be a totally different color at 4 pm, etc : ) Oh, and get the 8x8 or 5x9 swatches online for FREE from Benjamin Moore. They will ship them for free too. Much easier to see the colors. I have hundreds of them. It's under the architect/designer section of the website but you don't really have to be either of those : ) Actually once I got down to the ones I really like I would order four of the same color and tape them together and hang a big piece of it in my kitchen. Fishies

Vaporvac, ac91z6 - I have both Florentina and Princess Alex de Lux, and I highly recommend them both. Florentina I've had for about 4 years and it's an enthusiastic bloomer all season with entirely cane hardy survival in an average zone 5 spot. The blooms are very full and dark red and it's among my favorite climbers these days. PadL is newer, since she just went in last spring, but I can already tell she's a typically enthusiastic Kordes rose. She's putting out canes in every direction trying to elbow wimpy neighbors out of the way, and I've seen clusters of those thickly petaled blooms off and on all season. She hasn't gotten to her third season yet so her repeat isn't all that frequent, but I don't expect that in a rose's second year. I think she had some but not all surviving cane over the winter, which is typical of most of my roses. Both were from Palatine for me, and both have done extremely well. Cynthia

:) Not all of the colors in the fandeck/rack are made to be durable enough to use outside exposed to the elements. The chips in exterior brochures of suggested color schemes are rarely accurate because the brochures don't have to meet the same standards for accuracy like the paint chips. However, those exterior brochures are a great reference to quickly see what colors a brand has specifically for exterior applications.