Last spring I found a rose I really want, Schoen Ingeborg, on Palatine's website--naturally after they were sold out. I fully intended to place an order for it this fall, only to find that Palatine wasn't offering it. Rats! You are lucky they have some of your Pickering choices Tammy. They don't have any of mine. However, Antonia d'Ormois looks absolutely stunning. I'd like to know how she does for you. It may be possible to find some on my Pickering order elsewhere like Nevada and Golden Wings, but others will be difficult to find in stock at any other nursery. I may opt instead to go ahead and buy more lovely species from Forest Farm and wait to get my Pickering order from Pickering next year. I do want to make a point of giving them return business next year as I think they will be in special need of orders. Wish there was something I could do to help them now. Melissa

If you only ordered your plants a month ago and one is possibly dead, I would pick up the phone and call Jim's Hostas to see if they would give you a replacement. It can hardly benefit their business to be panned in a popular hosta forum. I asked them to please send me nice specimens because it was my friend's introduction to hostas altogether. I got several hostas from them a couple years ago. Not the most giant of specimens, but they were OK. They sent me a bonus hosta called "Yellow Eyes", which I never really liked, and when it died, I didn't cry.

For a change some pretty good news! We met today with John's transplant surgeon and he has decided that he will remove John's polyp. Dr Yoshita says he believes there is a 70% chance that John will survive the surgery so he can receive his transplant. Dr Yoshita is going to first get John on the transplant list and then do the surgery, that way, if his recovery does not go as planned and he goes into full liver failure, he can immediately be transplanted when the first liver becomes available. We understand his risks are very high (as in 30% he won't make it) but it is much better than 100% that he will not survive. As for our daughter-in-law, Shawna, she is going to have to have surgery to remove her ovarian tumor but the doctor is pretty confident at this point that it is not cancer based on the tests he performed. We don't have dates yet for either surgery but I am sure it will be soon for both of them. I told them I'm going to put them both in the same room for recovery and let them hassle and whine at each other. Anyway things are looking a little better on our end and I am sure all the prayers are the reason. Kim

Shannon, I'll post photos soon. I've been hesitant to post pics in the meantime while I wait for resolution. The Tile of My Dreams is very distinctive, i.e., not to everyone's taste, and I know some posters tend to criticize anything that doesn't fit the One True Kitchen mold. Also, I didn't want to "out" the company before I got resolution. If you're familiar with major tile manufacturers, you'd see it and probably know from whence it came. (Hint: It's from a cuerda seca collection and contains shades of aqua, green, red, black, off-white, and gold in a fleur-de-lis pattern. This one row of tile will be the star of my kitchen.) As of today, they're making TTOMD and sending a return label for the other tile (which is also lovely and unique but not of my dreams). Thank you all for providing perspective on what I should expect.