I made an effort to go to the cities that had stores for their closing sales. I enjoyed them, while they lasted and I will probably keep their stainless steel shovel and spading fork forever as they are well made and have already outlasted their predecessors from local (so-called) hardware stores. Thank God for the internet. There are still quality tool manufacturers out there, but now they are harder to find. I'm also finding that shipping from there to here (aka out in the boondocks) is sort of break even. Sometimes it's cheaper to go and buy in person, but often shipping is less than a four or more hour drive each way. An interesting catalog arrived very recently. A.M.Leonard has been my go to place for replacement blades and parts for our army of Felco secateurs and loppers. All of a sudden, this spring, A.M.Leonard has a pretty, home gardener directed catalog (as opposed to their old one that was more directed to professional gardeners.) One thing I didn't get at Smith and Hawken (the prices hadn't come down enough) were some very large ceramic planters. I saw some at good prices at Sam's today. Here is a link that might be useful: Now A.M. Leonard is here, for a while, at least

From the Smith and Hawken website last week, sale pages, the stainless steel shovel and spade are what I've been looking for ....for years. And I'd considered paying considerably more. My cheapest and best is the Martha Stewart weeder (question mark shaped) from K-Mart bought on Rose Forum recommendations years ago. DH laughed when I bought a Martha Stewart (!) tool with Marth Stewart paint colored handle. Then he used it. Then we bought two more. One for him and one as a spare. He's repainted all the handles with fluorescent paint so they can't be misplaced. (The paint could be a tool purchase of sorts....to keep things found.)

That's great to hear that. We don't seem to hear about the good Service some Companies provide only the bad. I will say that Mail Order on line is very fast, I ordered my first digital camera from Sydney late one afternoon and it arrived just after 9am the next morning also. Cheers..MM.

Floral, I'm turning 23 this month and probably going to marry my girlfriend in a few years. But my current job doesn't have any possibilities of me transferring to a different location. My boss already told me that in our interview. And this job is already my career as it is a horticultural position. So unless either me or my girlfriend- soon to be wife wants to move out by choice, I don't think there would be any worries on that. Which I don't know if either of us will, hopefully not. Peren.all, ok so arctic beauty is a cultivar that has both male and females. I know they have subnames on them but their main name is arctic beauty. Just wondering since many males and females have different cultivar names. And thats good to hear! I heard that deer love to eat them(I guess the deer in your area have weird preferences).