TRUE CONFESSIONS OF A PLANT AHOLIC OK Prairiemoon2 here is a slightly abbreviated list of what I brought home yesterday from Avant Gardens. Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Ceramic' A miniature Golden Hinoki Cypress. aka Golden Ceramic, and Lynns Golden. Tight undulating golden evergreen fronds slowly form a darling miniature sculpture. New! Chamaecyparis psifera 'Tsukumo' A miniature bun-shaped evergreen with fine textured fern-like blue-green foliage. Cryptomeria japonica 'Tansu' This miniature evergreen reminds one of a sea urchin with its textural spiny green foliage. Slow-growing, it ultimately forms a 15' mound, and therefore is good in troughs.New! Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Gold Fern' A unique form of Hinoki Cypress displaying golden fern-like juvenile foliage on a mounding compact shrub. We found the foliage color is best in part shade. Growth rate is slow, only 3" or so a year. Ultimately a shrub of 4' x 4' Ilex crenata 'Jersey Pinnacle' Valuable for it's upright, dense, yet irregularly branched habit and it's glossy dark green evergreen foliage. 6-8'. Magnolia grandiflora 'Edith Bogue' Considered the most cold hardy of the evergreen magnolias, 'Edith Bogue' has survived -24° F albeit with some defoliation. It has a tight pyramidal form, reaching 40' or more with a width of 15' and narrow, lustrous dark green leaves with brown undersides. In June and July, the creamy 9-12" blossoms fill the air with a sweet, lemony fragrance. Hydrangea anomeles petiolaris 'Miranda' Description: Hydrangea petiolaris 'Miranda' is a new variegated selection of the popular Climbing Hydrangea. Leaves have a gold margin in the spring that fades to creamy white as the season progresses. White Lace cap type flowers. Bark has an interesting exfoliating quality. Slower growing than the species. Zone: 4 Code: hydapm Exposure: sun/pt shade Sedum telephium 'Bon Bon' Pink flower clusters and chocolate colored fleshy foliage adorn tidy 16" clumps. Blooms Aug-Sept. Plant in poor soil and full sun for best results. New! Sedum sieboldii October Daphne. A tidy blue gray hardy succulent with rounded foliage on sprawling wiry stems. The leaves take on pink tones when the cold weather arrives, which compliment the clusters of rosy blossoms in Oct. Prefers lean well drained soil. 6"H x 12"W Regularly $6.95 Sedum cauticola 'Lidakense' This Sedum forms compact mounds of rounded blue to bronzy-red foliage with terminal clusters of starry budded pink flowers in late summer. Sedum telephium 'Red Cauli' A compact sedum, smaller than Autumn Joy with bright red flower clusters above blue-grey, purple tinted fleshy foliage. 12" Sedum platycdus zone 4 sun/pt shade A distinctive Sedumthat forms rosettes of fleshy-blue-gray foliage that has delicately notched edges. Pale yellow flowers in summer on 4" plants. Slowly forms colonies to 15". Euphorbia amygdaloides robbiae Grow this Euphorbia in a protected site with well drained soil in sun or shade. It will reward you with handsome somewhat glossy evergreen daphne-like foliage and airy sprays of yellow green flowers in spring. Mulch in colder zones. Cunninghamia unicanaliculata- Known as Chinese Fir. Leaves are steele blue. Huge triangle leaves to 2 ½ inches long. Can take shade or full sun. This tree is in question by taxonomist. They believe it to be just a variation on the species cunninghamia. Zone 6 height and spread in ten years 12ft 8 ft. Acanthus spinosus Tha hardiest of the "Bear's Breaches", this bold accent plant has large shiny green thistle like foliage and 3' flower spikes with soft mauve blossoms. We have found that siting it in a well-drained protected spot and a winter mulch encourages blooming. Orostachys fimbriata A curiosity for the rock garden or troughs having narrow gray quilled succulent leaves with a purple flush. Chamaecyparis lawsoniana Treasure Island A yellow, miniature, globe of Port Orford Cedar. Found as a sport from Treasure Very tight little ball with yellow foliage. Found in Southern Holland by Wiel Linssen. Height and spread in ten years 1ft by 1 ft zone 5 part shade. Chamaecyparis obtuse Golden Sprite a miniature bun form of Hinoki Cypress with tiny golden yellow leaves on twisted stems. Height and spread in ten years 4" x 1 Chamaecyparis obtuse Emelie a miniature variety of Jap. Hinoki Cypress. Nice green foliage on a small bun shaped plant. Propogates well and looks great. Plant named in 2005 in loving memorie of Emelie Snyder, wife of Marvin Snyder ex-president of American Conifer Society. Height and spread in 10 years 10inches by 10 inches. Chamaecyparis obtuse Leperchaun A miniature variety of Jap Hinoki. Leaves emerald green and very small. Plant is a squatty conical form. Leaves have a tuft appearance. Plant found and introduced by JW Spingarn of Long Island NY. Height and spread in 10 years 1ft x 14 inches zone 5 The beginnings of a tender succulent collection that I wont embarrass my self further by listing. kt

My 13 yo daughter and 10 yo son share a bathroom... obviously too old for a fishy or ducky theme. We went with a medium tone wood-look tile on the floor, 4x4 white tiles with white grout on the walls (almost 5 feet up). The rest of the walls and ceiling are a semi-gloss white. The vanities are 3 white cabinets, bead-board style. The countertop is quartz- the black one with a silver sparkle in it. We went with drop-in sinks and it hasn't been an issue. The biggest 'HATE' is the brushed nickel faucets. They always look really dirty, even though it's just water spots. Those are going to be replaced, for sure. The floor hides EVERYTHING. For the most part, I've cleaned around the toilet and vacuumed. My 2nd regret is not putting a subway tile on the walls. I was nervous about messing it up and the cost was much more than square tiles so I blew it off. The semi-gloss paint has been very easy to clean... same with the white wall tiles. We went with a curved shower curtain rod and the curtain is a map of the Chicago "El" system. We stayed with the chicago theme by adding a wire Sears Tower and a cool Eddie Vedder concert poster. After all that, my pics are on the other computer! lmao!

I think you should have gone with a wood stove, your garage is ideal for that,brick walls, small size, and no insulation up top. I have 25'x22'x8' garage with only insulated walls and lots draft from my big garage door. I use 30"x17"x20" wood stove and within 40 mins I can work very comfi and it gets better as time passes. I installed my chimney by myself and found it very easy to do if you are handy with a miter or skill saw and own a drill. It was my first installation and hardly any challange to it. I wouldn't consider any other type of heating in my garage. Used wood stoves are cheap and easy to find.You don't need to spend more than a 100-150 for a good used one. The chimney, you buy as a kit ,which will give eveything you need to install it up to code. The most important part is building a frame for the chimney support. The rest is just putting stuff together. The basics of operating "safely" a wood stove is something you learn in a week and in time you will get better and become real good at it. You should install a damper in your stove pipe, for better use of the heat produced by the stove and a fan behind the stove will help you alot. If you or anyone else need more info just ask. Vic

I just saw this last night and contacted 2 color consultants in NJ. I think one or two meetings would be fabulous to pick the cab color and then paints, fabrics, etc... Maybe even which cabs to paint yellow and how it will all go with the dining area. I did get 6 or 7 yellow cabinet swatches from a couple of kitchen places I stopped into. I found most have a green hue to them but one I did like looked like a nice buttercream color. Shockingly, when holding it next to my paint boards & chips it was actually deeper/dirtier/browner than I would have expected. I'm thinking that to make a yellow less juvenile/bright it has to be dirtied up somehow. I held that cabinet swatch up next to BM BARLEY and it was actually similar. SO, now I repainted Cornsilk & Barley on a loose cabinet door and I'll see how that goes. I think I'm liking Barley! I ruled that one out at least 3 times prior b/c it looked too brown but maybe that's b/c it was painted among my super bright yellows. Now I can look at it on it's own. I know there are many who love Vellum (even browner) and still say it looks yellow! That one is too much for me I think but Barley and maybe Golden Lab might be good and it goes well with the gold in the danby marble. I just want it to still read yellow so I'll keep checking it out. I think I've ruled out Sundress & Squish Squash for being too bright. Then I have Cornsilk, Barley, Good Vibrations and SW Banana Cream. Depending on how I view Cornsilk/Barley today in my (town down) kitchen I may look at Mushroom Cap and Golden Lab. ( I think Mushroom and Cornsilk are a little light though). BTW, I meant no offense to those of you with Hawthorne. It's not a bad color at all- just not what I am picturing for my kitchen : )