Parks and Burpee are for me only if I am desperate to have that particular seed. There are only few of Burpee intro plants that nobody else carries... I used to do lot more ordering overseas but after all those permit paperwork required do not do as much. Still I was very pleasantly surprised when seeds from Plant World seeds came- their packaging assures you that everything will be great and and seeds do get delivered with or without proper paperwork. Their choices are stunning, so much of rare or new seeds that it is well worth ordering. My perennial favorites are Gardens North- excellent rare, native, woodland choices, excellent germination rates- it is one company I know that will send their seeds moist packaged to preserve viability. Hardyplants.com have extensive range of seeds and I always had great germination with them, I will be ordering from them for year to come. JL Hudson, seedsman is another very reliable and quirky place to get rare seeds and GA-3, great prices and germination rates. I think they are only company that sells pretreated Datura seeds as some of them very tough to germinate. For annuals I like Swallowtail perennials and Summer Hill seeds- good choices, germination rates, varieties, customer service. For regular cottage garden look nothing beats those racks in box stores- usually it is discounted enough not to be steep and most of those seed varieties are easy to germinate with great results. I like T&M but only when they on 50% clearance sale or from Valueseeds, some of their germination were iffy for me over the years but recent couple of years it significantly improved, only rare package will be total dud,of course you have to check amount of seeds as they notorious for packaging 3-5 8 seeds per package... For primroses I discovered new for me place in France- Barnhaven primroses- got nice seed packets, excellent germination and varieties are stunning...that Wayside primroses You and Me advertised as something new and rare are indeed old plants hose in hose which have been in exsistence for while... of course T&M sells them $5 for 12 seeds....got about 100 seeds for same price at Barnhaven... and they germinated dreamily too... And most of all -remember places as NARGS- North American Rock Garden Society with it annual seed exchange, you can check out current list on website to see what you can get- well worthy cause to participate. And if you attracted to certain particular group of plants there is society with that name- Lily society, Primrose society, etc...- there are plenty of seed exchanges there and possibilities to make friends...

I put no credence at all in anybody's promotion of "super foods", vitamins, diets, or supplements as a means to health. I don't think our bodies are that biologically simplistic. I also think we have become overly preoccupied with health/illness issues. You can hardly get away these days from prompts to think about sickness and I don't believe it makes us any healthier, although it may serve to defend against anxiety about about our inevitable mortality. But paradoxically I think it makes people feel even more anxious about the possibility of sickness during life. Medical providers (legitimate and illegitimate) and the media all pander to this paradox because it makes money for them. Real advances in medical knowledge are news, but the endless recycling of that info into promotional programs, menus, diet and health advice and regimens, etc. are just out to capitalize (literally) on our media-fanned fears. Except for personally-specific advice provided by your doctor (and in these days of BigPharma and medical device-promoted influence on MDs, even that should be weighed carefully, I guess), don't read or listen to too much else about health. It's all intended to support one revenue-stream or another. Even "newsletters" from seemingly reliable sources (like Mayo, WebMD, etc,) while not selling you a specific product are still selling your attention to advertisers or promoting themselves. That's how the business models work. Newspapers and TV reports are the same: they are attracting your attention in a time-honored and effective way to expose you to their advertisers' pitches. Even if the information is accurate, you are "paying" by having your attention drawn to sickness or poor health possibilities, even for a short span. And cumulatively it all adds up to a pervasive mind-set of ill-health-consciousness. L.

Yes, when I refer to furnace, I meant the inside air handler. The quote for a matching furnace is $3800, which I am thinking I don't need to spend, since my current air handler (a 20 yr old Rheem) is working.I do have budget restrictions, so am trying to make a compromise to get a good system. I understand that I will not get optimized performance from the heat pump, but I'm thinking it will take a long time to make a furnace upgrade pay off for these reasons: -Quebec electricity is still affordable; I currently pay about $1500 a year for my 2 storey house -the 5 companies I called (all selling different brands) all stated there was no need to waste money when the current furnace still works, although they could sell it if I wanted it -the heatpump won't work at optimum efficiency, but it will still be a lot more efficient than what I have today, so should still see savings -the aircon will only be used for 3 months of the year -the furnace takes over heating when it gets colder than -10C, which is about 4 months of the year I admit I have not done any calculations to confirm my theory, but I will attempt to do so shortly. Have been out of town last week. My current furnace is a 20KW model, which does heat up in increments. The thermostat quoted is the White Rodgers IF70.

Here's a link to the Penstemon Sour Grapes source I'm willing to drive four hours round trip to get (!) Penstemon Sour Grapes at Mostly Natives and here's a photo of mine and for a change the photo really does capture its true color. It's *really* difficult to capture this color and many might think it less than an ideally attractive color, but amazingly it seems to go with everything, and that includes the autumnal flowering Heleniums. So it fits in very will with my many Echs and everything else. And it also keeps to its space, unlike many Penstemons, and in addition it blooms non stop from mid May to December here. I don't know another Penstemon to equal it.