I think Cyrczch has hit the nail on the head. Check what the breeders say about their varieties. The only other thing I would add, is that if Stokes doesn't list enough info for you, don't buy from Stokes. I personally haven't found their quality to be very good. Ditto on onion seed storage in the fridge. Two years ago I got a great deal on a gallon bucket of pelleted onion seed from a large seed company. It was listed as 2002 seed when they pulled it from storage 2 years ago and sold it to me for cheap. I've planted thousands of seeds and still get 40-50% germ with good vigor.

Well, I am still here, I spent the day at the doctors offices, and hospital with my son. I did not get home until 6pm, and I was too tried to drive to the coast. I am so glad I was off so that I could be there for my son. I have my car packed and ready to go, I am leaving as soon as I wake up. I have left instructions with my hubby to do a porch check every day when he gets home. He has been given instructions, and he knows what to do in case Santa comes. Barbra,

OK Christine Now we know what is important. More about the plants, then about Hubby or his big beautiful truck. Les P.S Then there was the time my wife came home to find a police car in the front flower bed -- thank goodness nothing was planted in it at the moment.

esmerelda23, your counters look great. The granite looks just like what I was looking at, although I can tell the color is not coming through true. The pattern is the same. I recieved a 10% off lowes coupon and LOST it. I am still upset about that. I don't know if I can get a coupon on Ebay and be sure it hasn't already been scanned and used at Lowes. It would be usable at HD either way, but I think Lowes would know. I guess you take your chances with those coupons. I got a price for the Costa from my kitchen installer. It is an additional 1795.00, I think he said. The price for my kitchen included granite in a choice of ten colors in the "A" group. If I go with someone else for my granite I get a credit of 2100.00 on the price of the kitchen. Add the 1795, and that means the granite will cost me 3895.00 for the Costa, I guess. I can't really be sure about that, because I don't know if that 2100.00 is the total cost of the entry level granite or if I just get a credit on what the material and fabricator cost would be and he keeps his profit either way. Anyway, there have been some problems and tugging and pulling about what goes into my kitchen. He didn't want to install any filler pullout because he didn't want to warantee the job with them, and I didn't want fillers without them. It is a family business and his mother designed my kitchen. I didn't know I had the option of a more functional cabinet over the fridge, but she put a shorter one so she could put a carved embellishment over it. There is an issue with a window molding that I was supposed to put back myself that I can't now because there isn't enough room and they tried to tell me to hire someone to it, the molding isn't their responsibility, and I disagreed since the problem was a result of the cabinet installation and plan, and I offered to pay for the new molding materials if they didn't charge me for labor. They agreed but I could tell they felt they were being made to do something they shouldn't have to. There is also a problem with the finish on the cabinets that is a manufacturer issue, and we had to wait 2 weeks while nothing was done on the cabinets for a apt. with the manufacturer rep. Then the kitchen installer forgot about the apt and missed it and we had to wait a 3rd week with no work being done until the rep could fit us in again with a new apt. At that point I lost it, it was right after going through Christmas in this mess, and I got teary and mad and even yelled at him a bit "HOW could you forget?" I regret that, but I have lived in this mess since Oct. and plead temporary insanity. Now we are waiting for several new cabinets and doors and things are strained. He made a point of telling me that the granite was his cost, it was a one time thing because he "can't seem to please me" and it would not be good if I went and priced a bunch of different granites. I am over budget and If I could get the granite somewhere else for a similar price, where I could get good financing terms, also, it would help. I have to pay by cash or check with him, he doesn't take credit cards at all, nor do most local contractors around here. The granite is 37-38 sq feet, so "His" price is about 100.00 square foot, I guess. He says he should be getting 140.00 sq foot for this. I mentioned that some people had found better deals when the fabricator called other granite yards, but he immediately said his use IGM exclusively. ( although his mother told me that the NVG that IGM was out of was available from a yard in New Haven, a month ago). I think he said that without even checking, since he doesn't want to spend any more time on this job and he is mad at me over all the other issues. I am not pushing the filler pullouts and may see if they can be installed by a different contractor at a later date. One already said he thought he could do it for me without too much difficulty. I hate this. I think he would actually be fine with my getting my granite elsewhere so he doesn't have to worry about "pleasing me" with the granite install, or deal with any more problems that might come up. I can not pay any more than this for the granite, though, and am really stretching the budget to even do this, since I bought appliances that were not in the original budget already, also. I don't know the names of the fabricators they use, but they are small local shops. I found that out at the granite place (IGM) when they mentioned that these two guys were two of their favorite fabricators. Nice people and do a lot of granite, should have a lot of experience. So I suspect they would do a good job. Sue