Red Gems

Why are red gems so difficult to acquire? I am no expert in gems, and I only speak in PVE terms here, but 3 of the top 6 gems in terms of generality are red gems. Everyone wants them, but no one can have them. At least not without spending hours mining/prospecting gems or tons of gold at the auction house. I am talking about the spell power, strength, and agility specific gems.

For casters, the spell powers gem is often king. While options like the straight intellect gem (king of yellows) or the spirit gem (1 of 2 solid blues) are quality, the spell power gem is often preferred. For many dps classes in the non-caster arena, the red stength or agility gems is king. In most cases, outside of hit/expertise or maybe crit, there isn't much use gemming otherwise. Tanks are probably the only group that is fine my not being screwed by the gem fairy. Stamina gems are always plentiful. In fact, blue gems are often the cheapest gems on the market.

For the most part, red gems are not only in high demand, but very short in supply. Again I ask why. I won't theorize why, nor do I really care why. I only want there to be more. So that when I go to transmute an epic gem I don't have to pay 3 or 4 times in the AH for a red gem as I do for another. So that I don't have to waste so much time mining only to be disappointed with green quality gems...and never any reds.

Wanting Maple

By changing skin tones, Blizzard now allows druids to look different in bear/cat forms. While I am pleased with this change thus far, I'm not completely happy. They still need to change trees. Although, since you can only change skin tones between the ranges of white/brown/black, you'd suppose the concept of an all white/black tree is something that developers wouldn't like to deal with. So making my preferred maple tree happen would involve the shade of red/orange that currently don't exist.

So no I don't expect to be a maple tree any sooner than I'd expect to turn into a purple cheetah in travel form. It won't keep me from wishing for it.