Scottsdale must be the place to go for big-ticket, high-style old furniture. Right? Nope. We head to downtown Tempe and Rare Lion, really the best place to find Napoleonic desks, a Virtuoso bookcase, or a pristine Paimio settee. Vintage smalls also are available at this superb shop filled to the rafters with exquisite old jewelry, super-collectible high-end ceramics, and even some vintage paper products. Rare Lion also offers appraisals of your collectibles, and its on-site gemologist can help you determine whether that 90-year-old cocktail ring is clad with gemstones or just pretty glass.

When it comes to Retro Ranch, the priority is given to quality over quantity. The store is not as big as some of the others in Melrose District, but that just means the midcentury finds are more concentrated. The staff fills the limited space it has with the best pieces it comes across when hunting for midcentury furniture, clothing, and accessories. But then Retro takes it to the next level by creating eye-grabbing displays with its wares. Its slogan is "Swagger on in . . .," but we think you'll be walking with more of a spring in your step when you're walking out with something you just can't wait for your house guests to ask about.

When you walk into Modern on Melrose, you may think you've walked into a midcentury design museum instead of an antique store. The staff has created such well-designed miniature room setups with all of its midcentury furniture that it's difficult to walk away from each one not wanting to purchase everything and re-create it exactly the same way in your own home. Because, c'mon! Would anything go as well with the pattern on that 1953 couch than those orange wool throw pillows? Plus the staff is helpful and knowledgeable without any of the pretentiousness too often found in high-end specialty stores.

Here is what you need to be happy (and to furnish that groovy Ralph Haver home you just closed on): Six Mario Bellini for Cassina leather cab chairs, an Adrian Pearsall walnut slate and upholstered sofa, and a Carpathian elm and brass sideboard designed by Harold Schwartz. In that case, there's only one place to go, and it's to Red. This longtime purveyor of high-end, pristine-quality midcentury furnishings and art has what you need if what you need is a little better than the stuff at the local antique mall. Beautifully restored sofas and chairs, still-perfect end tables and lanais, and that chrome bar you've always fantasized about. It's better to be Red.

When it comes to Midcentury Modern, Arizona is a gold mine of mint-condition treasures. Tapping into the retro resource is professional picker Dominic Fasano. The chef turned home décor hunter has an eye for all things Atomic Age and collectible, thanks in part to his job at vintage furnishings store Modern Manor. When he's not refurbishing products for retail or reclaiming them as his own in his 1965 Al Beadle Boardwalk condominium, Fasano finds an eager market on Instagram. Followers of Fasano are privy to his most recent finds: Eames chairs, Bitossi ceramics — pretty much anything that looks as though it came off the set of Mad Men. And though Fasano may never disclose where he gets such retro goods, he is willing to sell them directly to his social media-based customers. Midcentury without the middle man? We'll take it.

What should we do if bitten by a venomous snake while hiking? What if our car breaks down in the middle of the desert and we have no cell service? What wild plants in our backyard are edible and which ones will kill us? Well, you can learn the answers to these questions by taking any of Ancient Pathways' desert survival classes. The company is based in Flagstaff but teaches all over the state. You can sign up for a one-day course in primitive and modern desert survival tactics, and you'll learn about building emergency shelters and locating water. If you're more adventurous, you can sign up for a three-day intensive course and learn all about tracking animals, capturing wild game, and using the stars to navigate. There's plenty of outdoor hands-on experience, and head instructor Tony Nester has taught survival skills to Army Special Operations and U.S. Border Patrol agents. If you want to impress your friends — or just make it out alive should disaster strike — then Ancient Pathways has your back.

After stints working in nurseries and the Department of Agriculture, Michael Lanier couldn't contain his knack for raising plants to the confines of his home in downtown Phoenix's Garfield neighborhood. Lanier took his green thumb public this year, opening The Bosque inside monOrchid gallery on Roosevelt Row. Living up to its botanical name, the plant boutique offers apartment-friendly greenery with an assortment of cactus and succulents, as well as pothos plants. Though Lanier's focus is on low-maintenance desert flora, he also offers such non-native oddities as coconut trees and coffee plants and takes special orders. With a little water and some guidance from Lanier, aspiring horticulturists can go green with ease.

You may think that getting a cactus in Phoenix is an easy feat. They're everywhere, right? This may be true, but don't you even think about touching that saguaro down the block. For one, it's illegal to move a saguaro without a permit and, two, messing with those spines is risky, at best. Instead, leave the dirty work to the professionals at Phoenix Desert Nursery. Besides saguaros in various stages of growth, this nursery has almost every cactus you could think of. Looking around the property is like gazing over a vast ocean of terrifyingly spiny beauty. You'll find everything from chollas to organ pipes, aloes to prickly pears. Hoping to add some hip succulents to your windowsill and Instagram account? Yep, Phoenix Desert Nursery's got your back.

Readers Choice: Moon Valley Nursery

There's nothing quite like getting in your car at 120 degrees and playing hot potato with your seatbelt buckle before clicking it into place and bracing yourself for the slow and steady burn of the nylon belt. Let's face it: Cars are not made for the desert, but Local Motors is on a mission to change that. The hottest car on LM's Phoenix roster is the Rally Fighter, a car specifically designed to take on off-road desert terrain and catch the eyes of anyone cruising down I-10. But to get your hands on one, you'll have to help build it. Every car purchase comes with a commitment of either one week or two three-day stretches in which the buyer builds the car alongside one of Local Motor's mechanics — everything from laying brake lines to assembling the Chevy E-ROD LS3 engine. Yield: a uniquely badass (desert) experience.

Whether you have a plot at a community garden or a succulent on your countertop, you're likely contributing to the growth and longevity of plants suited to the Arizona desert. And though seeds of these plants can be snagged at hardware stores and online depots alike, Native Seed/SEARCH hopes to educate the public and support native (and increasingly endangered) desert flora that could disappear faster than a terrarium at a hipster boutique. The Tucson-based nonprofit is home to 1,900 accessions of native arid-lands-adapted crops. And as a hopeful antidote to Monsanto and climate change, NS/S opened a seed library in its retail storefront where library members can check out seeds, grow their own plants, and "return" seeds harvested from their plants so they can be used by other members. Get planting, Phoenix.