retailers that don't get it

I'm always amazed by the non-deals offered at MountainGear. Here we are in one of the worst holiday seasons for retailers in recent memory, and they are offering... half off overnight shipping? Mountain gear is a good shop with an excellent selection, but their "deals" are laughable. Sierra trading post is offering 20% off coupons left and right, and Mgear is offering us not-quite-free-shipping? pfft

woot!

A few weeks ago Chloe discovered a small nursery in a very un-commercial part of Montclair. It's called the Thornhill Nursery, and occupies a redwood shaded plot of land with a stream and a bridge. For months I've been searching for nurseries that stock interesting subtropicals, to no avail. Customers don't seem to be interested in them, so stores don't stock them. Some place can special order them, but those that do are either far from where we live or complete ripoffs. Berkeley Hort is an example of the latter. Anyway, I was interested in checking the nursery out, so we walked there and found that the staff are extremely helpful, friendly and knowledgeable and can order from Menlo Growers *without* a 400% markup! Even cooler: they had *four* grafted pineapple guavas in stock and three strawberry guava! I have an order in for a group buy to a wholesaler for both a Feijoa and a Strawberry Guava, but I couldn't resist picking up a red strawberry guava (psidium cattleianum) and planting it in the front yard. Growing these is marginal in our area and would perhaps have been a better choice for a guerilla planting chez mes parents, but I really wanted to get started planting things.