Thank you Melissa for the idea of May Night Salvia. I've never grown, nor seen in person before. I'm sure it does look lovely with the TES. Unforunately not tall enough. Behind these plants is a 3 1/2' chain link fence I'm trying to disguise or at least minimize. Idiothe, yes I know that seems like a lot of sun. In this same bed I have 2 Patriots, 3 years in this garden and gets even more sun, sun up to sun down, no burn and look great. Also have Pauls' Glory, Sum & Substance, August Moon and... wait for it.... Elegans. These last all going into third year in sun till at least 3pm. All looking great. I will be moving Elegans but only because the blue against the dark green viburnum background is just too blah. Also grow three Kalmia's in this bed, their just getting ready to flower. Maybe it's the fact that our summers are IMO almost never what i would call HOT (though I'm sure there are some that would disagree). Here it is June 8th and we have only had three days hit in the 70's, today and the other two about three weeks ago. Course it doesn't hurt that I water the He!! out of everything. Melissa did get me thinking, I may go with something else that gets to the 3-4' height. I just don't know what. I am getting (gasp) (borrowed from Melissa) a little burned out on hosta. Thank you all for your observations and opinions, they have, as always, proved insightful and thought provoking. Alexis

My opinions. Cherokee Purple is not purple. It has a clear epidermis and I refer to it as a so called pink/black. An excellent variety for almost everyone. Craig LeHoullier got the seeds from J D Green and Craig has been my best tomato friend for 20 plus years and he sent me the seeds after he first grew it out in about 1992 and I've grown it many times since. I reciprocated when I was given seeds for Indian Stripe and sent seeds to him ASAP to see if IS was what I thought it was, that is, a version of CP, and he agreed it was. Purple Calabash I simply cannot stand the taste of, far too aggressive for me. But it's one of the few varieties that actually has some purple tint to it. So see what you think of the taste and I do know some folks who like that kind of taste. Purple Russian I haven't grown. Carolyn

I have sierra ridge with dark cherry I was worried it be too dark and its not. It just got installed yesterday. I will try and post a pic tonite for u. The slab looked exactly like our sample piece

I like them all - have looked at most of them myself. I ended up with the Tech Lighting Jayden Grande pendants in clear because when they brought one out from the back to show me I just fell in love with it. I actually didn't like it all that much online and I'm not generally a crystal girl, so I'd suggest seeing them in person if at all possible because it can really change your perspective. My take on #2 with re. to DH's concerns - I don't think the polished vs. stainless or brushed is a big issue, and the pattern would probably work since it isn't competing with anything. My thinking is that the light has a dainty/delicate feel with the flower design and I'm not sure how well dainty/delicate works with your kitchen. If it were geometric I'd probably be more comfortable with it, but that's just me. In some ways the flowers add a bit of the unexpected which is fun too. Of your other 4 options - I really like #1 and think it would look great, thought it looked very pretty in person too. They have it in clear with black wrapped around the inside white cylinder which would be pretty and pull in the black granite. #3 would really be a knockout especially if you end up with stainless in your tile. (I love the tile with stainless in it, by the way.) Another light I saw that I absolutely loved, and the sales guy called "sexy" which was an apt term, and would look awesome in your kitchen - was a jet black glass one. The glass was completely opaque - not just a dark smokey gray. As I recall the light didn't diffuse out the sides of that one. It stayed black when lit with the light just projected downward. It was gorgeous and would look stunning with your granite. It had the shape of the first pic in your "alternates" list and the Tech Lighting one badgergirl shows. Stunning but maybe not as much light as you are hoping for. So many fun things to select from out there! But too many choices can make it so hard. Good luck!