diff --git a/src/colors.jl b/src/colors.jl
index dae296d4..dc703a84 100644
--- a/src/colors.jl
+++ b/src/colors.jl
@@ -86,9 +86,10 @@ immutable ColorGradient <: ColorScheme
     # new(convertColor(cs,alpha), vs)
 
     # interpolate the colors for each value
+    vals = merge(linspace(0, 1, length(cs)), vals)
     grad = ColorGradient(cs)
     cs = [getColorZ(grad, z) for z in linspace(0, 1, length(vals))]
-    new(convertColor(cs, alpha), collect(vals)) #collect(linspace(0, 1, length(cs))))
+    new(convertColor(cs, alpha), vals)
   end
 end
 
diff --git a/src/utils.jl b/src/utils.jl
index a6e65c78..68f20583 100644
--- a/src/utils.jl
+++ b/src/utils.jl
@@ -217,6 +217,7 @@ limsType(lims) = :invalid
 Base.convert{T<:Real}(::Type{Vector{T}}, rng::Range{T}) = T[x for x in rng]
 Base.convert{T<:Real,S<:Real}(::Type{Vector{T}}, rng::Range{S}) = T[x for x in rng]
 
+Base.merge(a::AbstractVector, b::AbstractVector) = sort(unique(vcat(a,b)))
 
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------