Dapper, you have my most favorite and my least favorite on your list. We love working with Christopher. It blooms, and blooms, and blooms. The rather nice thing about this one is that it produces both small and medium flowers. I just cannot say enough nice things about this one. The Bert Pitt we always have terrible problems with Japanese Beetles on it. Don't know why they are so attracted to this one. And, the edges turn brown before we are able to use it. We have a small garden in the middle of our front yard. I was going to plant Bert Pitt there this year. Alas, I see it has been planted in the field once again. If you have better luck with it, please let us know. The other dahlia name on your list that we grow is Rip City. It's a medium, and nice to work with. I don't know the sizes of the others on your list. Do you have mostly small and medium? You asked a question at the bottom of another thread regarding filler in dahlia bouquets. This is your first year. I would not fret about this at all. Filler is not absolutely necessary. I know a lady who sells dahlia bouquets at two markets other than the ones we sell at. She uses no fillers. I think there are about 10 dahlia stems in her bouquets. They are colorful. Customers love them. She always sells out. Next year you could possible try adding fillers. Sounds like you have your hands full with the dahlias. Remember to make them colorful. Don't be afraid to mix those colors.......

Well, I've lost a dahlia to a much more easily identified suspect - DH! He feels really badly about it. I had too many tubers for the space I planned, so I popped one in the ground in the yard near a Gardenia that is still small this year, and he didn't know it was there (despite the 4'tall stake right next to it). I was told after this incident that fluorescent tags should now be applied to any new plants not contained in clearly marked and bordered beds. Ha Ha. He reduced it to 4" stalks with no foliage using the weed whacker. I'm hoping that it recovers, but I'm not going to hold my breath...just thought you guys would get a laugh out of this one. He's cuter than the squirrel in the photo, so I'm going to let him live.

Thank you so much Poochella :) One major drawback for the plant material (except the seeds) is that it requires special packaging and phytosanitary certificates involvement with customs (our customs are ruthless along with plenty of agonizing paperwork). Seeds do arrive safely here, I will write them an email, lets see what they have to say about it.. Regards, Izhar BTW I haven't seen you sharing your beauties here for this season..

It did not crack during delivery from the stone yard to the fabricator. It was not cracked on their lot while it sat there for quite some time. I went to match paint, tile, etc. MANY times. It was fine- other than the sticker that caused the stain. It is NOT marble or onyx - the delicate materials. It is quartzITE which is harder than all of the stones, thus what the stone people are highly recommending for kitchens to those who want the look of marble but the durability of granite. SO that's what I got. I felt confident in it's durability and it's gorgeous, so I paid a good bit more per square foot for that beauty and durability. He said the insurance covered dropping the slab on the crane when it arrived at his lot from the distributors. He said nothing about it cracking DURING fabrication. I interpreted the insurance as neither the distributor wanting to accept responsibility for transportation nor the fabricator - so they ask the customer to cover that gamble. That is what I thought I was declining. But the more I think about it, granite companies should have insurance for dealing with delicate materials and subcontractors that break them. Why should the customer Pay for their breaking of a slab!? If I ordered a 5000 dollar appliance and it arrived damaged, the appliance company replaces it. I'm not asked to pay extra insurance for transportation on a refrigerator! The warranty begins once the perfect condition refrigerator is on your property. NOTHING in life works this way. Something is wrecked. The person at fault has THEIR insurance pay for it. They broke it. He has yet to tell me exactly what happened, but during the day of installation I was at the house painting the laundry room and something secretive seemed to be going on in a different language amongst the subs. I think that it happened during fabrication. When offered the insurance, breaking during fabrication wasn't mentioned, and no I didn't think about that. And I would have thought that absurd. I thought he was referring to the changing of hands. I had never heard of such insurance so I knew nothing about it. I was already paying a lot of money for a slab that they told me was the hardest stone of all the stones. I was also agreeing to paying him a good bit more per square foot for its hardness and how that hardness affects his tools. So the distributor and the fabricator are telling me how HARD the slab is and charging me more for that hardness, so paying insurance for fragility didn't make sense. He presented the insurance as if it was for dropping it from the crane when moving from the delivery truck. Now if my 2 year old beat the slab with a hammer and broke it, would I expect the fabricator to pay for that? No. So how is this any different? My point about the range is that immediately when he informed me of the broken glass he offered to buy an entirely new range. I didn't ask for that. Those were the first words out of his mouth. So if he's willing to spend 2500 on my range then why won't he be comfortable forgoing the 2500 bill while I handle the range? That was my thinking because there's no way I'm trusting them to repair the crack. If I get the crack repaired, I will find another company to do it later on. This company does not have the leather finish tools. The slab came from Brazil with a leather finish - it was not fiished by the distributor or the fabricator. To the poster who said I seem worn down--- I AM I AM!!! Before this renovation we purchased a lot to build on. Had blue prints drawn up and ended up selling the lot to the builder that said he could build 2600sf in our budget then later says he couldn't after we spent 10,000 on the blue prints. It's all been very stressful! A lot of lessons learned but nevertheless, very stressful doing all this with 4 young kids. Not asking for sympathy. Just saying that I am worn down. However, I will fight this last fight. I'm not paying that bill. If he wants to replace the slab then I will pay him in full. But otherwise, the more I think about it in terms of other situations - appliances, furniture, windows, doors....The customer isn't left with a damaged item! Wish me luck. I'm calling him now to discuss our options. Hopefully we can come up with a solution that we are both comfortable with.