Wow nmgirl, that's a shock! Thanks for the heads up... now I'll be sure to make my final visits there soon. I guess I'll have to console myself with deals on plants that I can only imagine they will have to offer. Here are my thoughts on this nursery (not the mail-order section of it): Glossy, overpriced, but with an extensive offering of ornamentals. Great during a sale! I can easily imagine why this nursery would fail before others though... loads of employees, expensive buildings and greenhouses, show gardens to maintain, high enough prices to limit the buying to subset of population. I am also quite sure though that the owner has already made his millions and does not need to stay in business to make a living! I imagine this will be a blow for fans of the mail order side of the business, but for me it's the least useful of Santa Fe area nurseries (Agua Fria, Plants of the Southwest, Newman's, and Payne's all have better prices and either more natives, a better fruiting plant selection, or wider variety of gardening tools, seeds, etc...

Just thought I would post a comment in this thread and this forum as the comments and reports on this site really helped in my decision in late 2010 with my decision to purchase a new Blue Star RNB304BBS V1 range on November 23rd 2010. It took a long while to finally arrive out here in California, but it did on January 25th and was put into service on the 26th. We live in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and were concerned with the effects of our 3600 foot altitude on the range's performance, since our local gas company tech had related several horror stories about Wolfe and Viking owners being unable to get their burner performance dialed in correctly even after repeated attempts and factory service calls. We are also on LP here, so the range was ordered from the factory for LP use. We had this same gas company tech do the hookup and testing of our new V1, and although the tech had never worked on a Blue Star before, he and I both found the design to be laughably simple compared to the GE Profile range we had bought and later returned out of dissatisfaction with its performance. And to both of our delights, the BS needed only very minor adjustments to the venturis of the top burners and the oven in order to get them all PERFECTLY ADJUSTED! The tech remarked that out of the hundreds of ranges he had worked on, including many high end models, our BlueStar was by far the easiest adjustment session he had ever done. He also was VERY impressed with the overall build quality and of course, the 22k burners! When the range arrived the day before the above hook up, we did find a few problems: One of the top bowl grates had a chip in the coating caused by a very small hairline crack in it, and there was an odd blemish on the stainless steel of the 8" backplate we had ordered to replace the factory installed Island trim package. I placed a call to BlueStar Warranty Service and spoke with a woman named Mandy. I told her about the grate and the backplate issues. She asked me to inspect the other three grates while I was on the phone, and I relayed to her that the other three looked fine. To my surprise she told me that they would ship me FOUR new grates just to be on the safe side! These things are like 20 lbs of solid cast iron, and I don't think they are cheap to purchase, so that was an impressive offer! She also said they would ship a new 8" backplate out as well. They didn't need to see photos, or offer up any additional proof of the problems other than my word, and they also did not want me to bother sending the problem parts back. Mandy told me to just dispose of them as I saw fit, and in the case of the grates, just keep the extras in case I ever needed to replace one down the road. (based on my experience with cast iron, I doubt I will ever need them, but what the hell!) I have to say that based on some of the comments and complaints I had read on this forum, I was VERY concerned about what might happen if I ran into any problems with my new BlueStar range, but after that 5 minute call to the factory, I came away most impressed! I can't recall a time where a manufacturer was so prompt in handling a problem, and replacing the parts with no questions asked! In terms of the range itself, we couldn't be happier! It is a pleasure to cook on both on the stove top and with the oven. This thing is hands down one of the most satisfying purchases I have made in a very long time. Considering how simple the design is, I feel that I could probably take care of any future adjustments or parts replacements myself. The inner workings of a BlueStar compared to other stoves reminds me of the difference between working on my 1966 Mustang and my 2004 Honda Accord V6! ;o) (In other words, I wouldn't dare touch my Honda's engine, but I never had any fear of rolling up my sleeves to work on that 289 V-8) Cheers. []Rick.

Such beautiful black cats....I love them, although I no longer have any. I content myself with petting my friends' cats, LOL. Our last black cat, now long-gone for almost a decade, was a Burmese mix. One of the largest, longest short-haired cats I've ever seen. When he went up on his hind legs, he could easily touch the top of a 36-inch high kitchen cart with his front paws. One day he was lying on our Chinese rug, stretched out fully, and I caught him in full-length mode. It looks fake, but he really was big - a full 16.5 lbs.

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.