I've had pretty good luck with the few nurseries I've tried. Usually the prices are so much higher, I just go to the end of season sales, but when I can't find a plant I really want, then I go to the nurseries. Perhaps part of the problem is that many people probably like plants, which is why they start a nursery...however, people buy plants and that's how you stay in business. Raising beautiful plants would be only half the challenge...you have to be able to sell them. I'm sure there's a lot of frustration, when people like myself compare their prices to the big box stores...but that's going to happen. Like any business, you have to be able to work with people and explain why these plants are superior, better quality, better choices, whatever...and taking the time to help people with their gardens would be something that might bring them back repeatedly, even if prices are a little higher. There's usually a better selection, too. This year, I've had great luck with Northland Rosarium, very nice customer service and beautiful roses. They even offer classes about roses! Some other nurseries I've tried haven't had such nice customer service, but still adequate. However, another nursery I went to with my mom had beautiful plants (and I bought some) but we would have stayed longer if an employee had not been using the VERY loud leaf blower right by the building. He was out there at least 20 minutes, (we even asked the employees at the register if he would be much longer, but they didn't seem to get a clue) so my mom and I grabbed a few plants and left. There may have been some great plants out there, but we couldn't take the noise. Seems they could do that type of thing BEFORE they open...but that's just me :)

When I was growing up, my grandparents had an iris bed around 3 ft x 50 ft that was next to the road in front of their house. I was instructed by my grandmother to mow over the iris in late summer each year, then I would help her dig them up. We would replant about a third of them and they would give away the other two thirds of them. The rhizomes would make the ones from Schreiners look small. Every year the iris bloomed and multiplied like mad and we would repeat the process again the next year. So in short, mowing over them is quick, convenient, and doesn't hurt them in the least if it's done later in the season.

Hi Barb5. The fact that your dining room is very traditional is a good indication that your chandelier should look good with candleshades on the bulbs. Yes, they may be fashionanble at the moment, but they're a very old solution (sort of) to a very old problem: glare. I say an 'old' solution because early tungesten bulbs were considered uncomfortably bright & glaring to people who had grown up with candles or kerosene, or even gas, or who had electricity at home but who had become accustomed to the gentle amber glow that came from carbon-filament bulbs, and shades were the easiest way to diminish said harsh glare. And I said shades were were 'sort of' a solution because they don't stop the glare right where it's most problematic--directly below the fixture, where people sit. Even a dimmer won't help much when you're talking about a direct source straight in the eye, since even a 4-watt nightlight seems like glare to some people, especially in an otherwise darkened room. In fact, the dimmer the surrounding room, the more glaring the actual bulb will seem to be, no matter how low the wattage. Forty watts isn't much--especially if the bulbs are cranked down on a dimmer--but any unshaded light source can cause glare. That's why a lot of traditional dining rooms rely not only on chandeliers above the table, but on wall brackets around the room, which brackets can be fitted with one-sided shades that mask the direct light but brighten the ambiant light in the room with general illumination bounced off the walls. If you don't feel like tearing up the plaster to install new wall brackets, you might try adding torcheres--above eye level so you don't see the source--in the corners of your room, and putting them on dimmers as well, to create a soft overall glow to the room, which will in turn minimaze the glare effect from the chandleier. In general, lots of low soft lights is always better than one hard bright light source--even if it's a nice fixture. If you don't like the ideas of torcheres, you could add tall buffet lamps on a sideboard to do the same thing, the way I did in my dining room. To keep the light where I wanted it--on the ceiling for reflectance, not in people's eyes--I used opaque shades on the lamps. Basically, though, anything that spreads the light out from its current single source will help. Another thing is the bulbs themselves. I like clear bulbs in lamps near walls because I like the hard-edged pools of light they create on the walls, but where they're seen directly, frosted bulbs are better. And the larger the bulb size--and I'm not talking about wattage, but physical size--the more spread out & less point-like the source will seem to be, and therefore, the less annoying to your family & guests. In my own dining room chandelier, I use t-8 aquarium bulbs because I like the contrast of the industrial-looking linear filaments against the traditional furniture, but for most people, I recommend not a flame-shaped bulb but a regular frosted A-lamp, which were frequently used--un-shaded--in the 192Os, even in traditional chandeliers. At any rate, the quality of light (and the various ways of modulating it for specific purposes) is a fascinating subject. I hope maybe this will help you out a little . Regards, Magnaverde.

Thanks to everyone for joining in! Being a homeowner has been quite the adventure!!! Here are some pictures of my house when I purchased it back in 2009....and it's a little painful for me to look at because - as you can see I removed a LOT in the front yard since 2009, some of it good and some of it probably bad. In other words, even if I thought it looked dated and was trying to give it a newer look, it still looks finished as compared to what I have now. The metal awning was first to go - it was like looking through metal bars and losing it made the good light in the south facing LR spectacular light. Still, front of house lost some architectural detail, and looks rather flat and bare now, I think. Also took out the hedge, the gas light fixture (slow leak) , about three Bottle Brush trees that were never tended ( still have a 100 foot Canary Island pine in the front of my yard near the sidewalk street and a 30 foot Bottle Brush) along with the concrete pathway. Remember I had no intention of completely LOSING the concrete walkway, I was just going to repurpose it into urbanite, re-lay it and take it from 1950 into the next century. But guys abandoned me!!! This last pic is looking out my front window - you can see how deep my front yard is, and the enormous Pine and Bottle Brush near the street and sidewalk. Lastly, here is the old roof that I just replaced a few weeks ago with a new Cool roof per LA's new saving energy requirements. The right side of the picture shows my attached garage which forms an L shape in the front yard. BTW, I was thinking of staining or painting the brick chimney to blend with the new gray roof.