I don't order them from anywhere - I just visit my favorite local nursery, pick 'em out and take 'em home :-)) Seriously, unless you are looking for something very unique or uncommon, a good local garden center/retail nursery may be your best bet. You will get far larger trees and not have shipping expenses. Plus, you will be looking at trees best suited for your location, rather than something grown (and perhaps better adapted) to a climate quite distant and different from yours. And it is always an excellent idea to support your local independent garden center whenever possible.

As to the coral bark maple, it is unlikely to be very happy in an area of high summer humidity, which I believe would include coastal NC. You may want to inquire on the Japanese maple forum, but many of the regular posters there report difficulty in growing this selection successfully in very humid, very hot locations or those that experience considerable winter cold. It appears to do best in the mild climate of the PNW and can even experience some problems there.

D's Maples is located in NC and is a very well respected (small) mail order supplier of Japanese maples, including some rather unique and hard to find varieties. You might want to look or inquire there for a maple that best suits your situation.

Here is a link that might be useful: D's Maples

Thank you for the info, gardengal. I would not want to order one that would not do well here, and it is very hot and humid here.
The nursery you mentioned looks like a good one, but that is way more than what I am willing to pay for a tree, which is after all subject to various ailments including mother nature. When I think of a Japanese maple, I think of the ones w/ the very finely cut leaves. I bought one recently at a local high school (what an amazing selection of plants there!) and only paid 15 dollars for a tree that is at least 4 ft tall! But it is a different type of Japanese maple- the leaves are more the usual maple shape. Unfortunately, the instructor told me they are small trees, so I guess it would not get big enough to shade my house (and I always understood that the Japanese maples were slow growers, too). It is a very beautiful tree and I am so glad to have discovered this new source of plants. Brandy

There are literally too many mail order nurseries to list. If you google a certain cultivar, you'll usually get many many nurseries listed. If you want something really rare, there are plant locator websites or you could ask in this forum. Always check nurseries you are not familiar with out on Garden Watchdog before ordering. You can also use Dave's Garden Plant Scout to find mail order nurseries that sell a certain type of plant. From Plant Scout, you can do directly to the vendor's Garden Watchdog entry and then to their website if they look promising. One nursery to stay FAR away from is TyTy Nursery (sometimes called Aaron's Nursery). They were so bad, they were removed from Garden Watchdog.

I was hoping for some recommendations for nurseries from others in this region. Brandy

I have had great success with orders from Woodlanders, Nurseries Caroliniana and Camellia Forest. I think the first two will not ship after March 30th, probably due to the heat during shipping. Only a few states away is Lazy S's. Small plants but good people.

There are regional forums as well. You could ask there for some additional local suggestions.

FataMorgana

Thank you, bogturtle. I bought camellias from Camellia Forest last month. I never heard of the others you mention. I will check them out. Brandy