There really isn't much left on this side of the border. The Americans are all either major producers that don't sell much besides the latest and greatest, and boutique nurseries that have zero to none experience with life below zero. They sell rooted cuttings that will do fine if they are hardy varieties, but those are often few and far between, and their usual offerings are often very difficult to get up to size in this climate. You also can't necessarily trust their advice on what's hardy or what's best for their roses. So the standard source for roses is Pickering in Ontario. They ship from Buffalo, so there aren't any border issues. Palatine is a relatively new Ontario nursery that I've heard good things about. They do mostly modern roses, and I don't know if they charge for a phytosanitary certificate. Pickering doesn't. It's usually $25, which isn't bad for a large order, but a killer cost on a small one. Hortico is the other big Ontario nursery. I've never ordered from them, and they have a very uneven reputation. There are people who have been happy with them, and people who can't stand them. They used to primarily be a wholesale operation, and part of their problem was having absolutely no clue how to deal with customers. A lot of it depends specifically what you are looking for. Pickering is an acceptable replacement. Just don't make the mistake of thinking they are growing roses on the frozen tundra just because they are in Canada. They are on the lake shore, and warmer than most of us.

@Cindy Bolen we are using Windsors here in Salt Lake. they are VERY popular and used widely in the hot dry valleu and the harsher canyons (park city). why? im guessing the climate here is better suited, not as humid. they came highly recommended and we also considered marvins and vinyl kolbes. if i lived in a more humid environment i may have considered the kolbes… but with the local distributor being one of windsors top/largest markets, and having a great relationship with them and our builder, we felt wise in our decision.

glnnj - Certainteed's stained fiber-cement products come in 6 shades: mahogany, cedar, redwood, maple, slate (which is the silver grey of deeply weathered wood) and emerald (which is a deep green). Go to the page I linked to in my post above and pick any of of the stain-finished products by clicking on its name (in blue). This will lead you to a new page with a small picture of that product on the right hand side. The small picture will have will have six tiny "color squares" beside it. Click on a square and the small picture will change to that color. Click on "view larger image" to see it in a larger size. Bear in mind that the colors you see on a computer are determined by the settings on your computer so the best you can get is a general idea of the colors. You'll want to see sample in real life to get a better idea of how the colors look. That said however, I found that Certainteed was extremely helpful. I could not find a distributor in my area and contacted Certainteed directly. I was wanting their pre-painted product and they sent me a sample board with sample of every color at no charge. Also, even tho there was no distributor in my local area, Certainteed indicated they could and would deliver any product I wanted to me. They don't restrict certain products/colors to certain areas of the country. Nichiha also comes in six standard stain colors and 2 special order stain colors. Standard colors are mahogany, maple, macadamia, charcoal gray, caramel, and emerald wheat. Special Order colors are redwood and weathered grey. Below is a link to the Nichiha site. There are two tiny triangle on the bottom left and right sides of the big picture on this page. Click on them to move thru a slide show of houses built using various nichiha siding - some painted and some stained. Hope this helps. Here is a link that might be useful: nichiha

wow. that's one gorgeous tile job, artteacher. young, my grout joint is 1/8", but i wish it was smaller. if you're worried that plain marble subways will be too plain, you can always do something similar to what artteacher did above her range. we considered doing the same tiles we have now, but also framing out something like this: that's tile from the same line, so the marble would match. i thought it would be a great look, but in the end, we decided to keep the backsplash plain. another option would be to frame out a section of the same tile, but laid in a different pattern, like a herringbone.