I just wanted to add that anytime I want something out of the ordinary I use mail order nurseries. Specialty nurseries are often excellent, since they sell to those in the know. Very few retail nurseries, even those of excellent quality such as Yamagani's, can have depth as well as breadth. They can't afford to, since their market is the general gardening public. Perhaps their typical customer is more discerning than that, since they are shopping at a real nursery instead of a box store, but still they cannot specialize too much. One thing about fruit trees is that you may want to concentrate on California-based mail order businesses, if you decide to go that way. A couple of out-of-state nurseries I called were not allowed to ship the fruit trees I wanted to California. I believe that some of the really big ones (Stark) have less problem with this. Apparently there are all sorts of expensive agricultural inspection hurdles to mount for a nursery in another state to ship fruit plants to California. This is California protecting its agricultural base. Kinda surprised me, thinking how fast we are paving over the best agricultural land for expensive housing, but so it is. Rosefolly

eleeny - I've seen complaints about PC Richards online, but here are some of my positive experiences: - I bought a TV, the bottom of the picture was ever-so-slightly distorted. They sent a repair man out who tried all sorts of adjustments but could not fix it. So they sent some guys over to pick it up and left me a loaner. A couple days later they called me to say it was not repairable and gave me the option of a replacement or exchange for another TV. - I bought a DVD player that they didn't have in stock. They were honest up front that it would take several weeks for them to get it so they offered me a loaner in the meantime. - I bought a 3 handset phone system, for some reason I "wasted" my money and bought the extended warranty. When it stopped working a couple years later I brought it in and without question they looked up what I had paid for it and gave me that amount credit towards a new set. - Wife bought me a camcorder for Father's Day. She hadn't shopped around at all. I found an internet price of about $150 less, took a copy to the store, they shrugged their shoulders and refunded the difference. - A month or two ago my parents bought an LG Fridge from them. There were several different creaks and groans and misaligned parts, etc. Within days they came out and fixed them with no issue. Here's the one negative: The icemaker seemed to be working incredibly slow, they didn't seem to know how to correct that so they said they'd just order a new one. To date my parents haven't heard back, but they haven't pushed the issue because now that the tray is full they never have a shortage of ice for their needs. And at this point they aren't really sure if there is in fact an issue anyway. One word of caution on their extended service, should you choose to go against everyone's advice and purchase a policy. When I exchanged my phone they asked if I wanted to buy a new policy with it. I asked why, since I already had a 5 year (or whatever) policy. They said because the exchange "satisfied" the original policy so it was no longer in effect. I'd want to be real clear on their policy with an appliance, which will likely get repaired not replaced.

Very late to the party on this one, but... I have a kitchen full of Miele products (induction stove, oven, steam oven and dishwasher)...all great except the induction stove (KM5773). Since installation we have had the issue of the stove shutting off during operation. At first it happened only occasionally (every month or so) and was of course inconvenient when cooking dinner. However, the frequency of this issue has increased dramatically; happening every few days a few months back and now happening every. "Resetting the touch controls" as outlined on page 18 of the User Guide usually worked (~70%) with a trip to the basement to flip the breaker usually working the rest of the time, so this was more of a nuisance than anything. And my general thoughts at the time were that it's embarrassing for Miele to have designed such a high end stove top that costs $3000 be prone to a ridiculous DESIGN AND ENGINEERING FLAW. However, over the past several months we have had instances in which we could not even reset the stove...ruining meals, plans, experiences, etc. The capper was when my wife hired some chefs to come and cook for eight of us for a birthday celebration. A night half ruined when only some of the dishes were already finished. I'm appalled by the reliability of this unit. From the posts online, I'm of the mind that this is NOT isolated to just me and that Miele should consider a product recall...or at least a solution. I'm at wit's end with more ruinous experiences when I should be enjoying the not inexpensive equipment. Note -- Miele has a website with very positive reviews of their products...all suspiciously submitted on either September 5th or 6th of 2012. I've submitted the above review twice to no avail. You've been warned...caveat emptor

If you aren't already tapped into it, Berkeley Parents Network can be a useful resource for such things. BPN is a list-serve that sends out a few weekly emails--advice, recommendations, childcare, etc. People post questions and give responses. They archive the recommendations, and I've linked below to the kitchen designer page (you can find other service providers as well). I suspect that some of the recommendations are not real, as in the service provider or their friends and family are pumping them up, but mostly it really is people posting their experiences. Here is a link that might be useful: Berkeley Parents Network