i use google ...

take the latin name.. and add RETAIL ...

and if all i find is wholesale ... i would write them and ask for some retail suggestions ...

once i talked with such.. and they said they didnt know or have a list.. i said.. do you have a dB of who you sell to??? ... she said yes.. i said can you search if by zip code.. or city name.. she said yes.. and within a few minutes.. i had a list of a few sellers within 50 miles ...

ken

I was just pondering this as well.

Dave's is the only one I know of as well and Forest Farm, Sooner and a couple others have a stranglehold on the vendor choices.

I wish there was a place that had the Forest Farm availablity but without the heafty shipping charges.

I know of all the conifer places but there really isn't a good sources for a variety of decidious plants. Gossler, Whiteman, Forest Farm and thats about it. Broken Arrow has been expanding. We'll see where they end up this fall.

Does the AHS have anything like this?

Here is a link that might be useful: RHS Plant finder

Since the gardening scene is different over here there is no annual publication like The RHS Plant Finder. The Anderson Horticultural Library periodically put out a source book in the past, it was not comprehensive and it did not appear often enough to be adequate either. And I have not seen anything about a new edition for years. The Plant Locator - Western Region (2004, Black-Eyed Susans/ Timber) was modeled after The RHS Plant Finder but was apparently a one-off, as there has been no new edition - and the implied Eastern Region volume never appeared. The fact that The RHS Plant Finder has gone on to list more offerings being made in little olde Britain than The Plant Locator - Western Region had for multiple American states (and part of Canada) probably says it all.

Once a few years have passed such works serve primarily as a record of when particular plants were on the market.

Another combination you can shop the web with is the name of the plant followed by "price".

At approximately 90,000 square miles, the UK is a tad bit easier to cover than the 3.8 million square miles that comprise the US :-)) And given the geographical and climate difference across even the continental US, a single resource is going to be woefully lacking in any sort of detail unless it was encyclopedic in scope. Again, sources here tend to be in flux most of the time with even large wholesale growers going in and out of bankruptcy, not to mention the decline of independent garden centers overall.

It's worth it to accumulate a personal resource listing of smaller, even specialty nurseries that sell online (or by mail order) and that address the type of plants you desire. Specific forums often compile these lists from their regular posters (I know of several - Conifers, Clematis, Hosta, Lilies, etc.) or you can inquire there for input. Or check with your regional forum for similar input from locals - there are a number of great specialty nurseries that carry uncommon plants in my own geographical area that are certainly not widely known across the country.

Major nursery crops state Oregon is about the same size, so if British and western North American horticulture are on par then Oregon nurseries should be offering the same very high numbers of plants that The RHS Plant Finder lists.

Last figure I remember reading for that publication was 70,000 kinds, maybe several years ago. The Plant Locator came up with 50,000 listings in 2004 - for the multiple states plus part of Canada. And that included a lot of names they couldn't validate. Participating nurseries responded to a questionnaire, off the top of my head I can't think of any in business at that time that weren't in it - even some garden centers that do not grow and ship their own plants submitted lists of plants they were stocking.

It is also true that there is a flow of plants back and forth, one time I asked about a tree in a small British nursery and they said the stock came from Oregon.

I'm not sure that the relative sizes of the UK and the US are really an argument for not having a 'Plantfinder', or 'Plantfinders', in the States. It doesn't have to be a US wide publication. It could be Statewide. Here it is compiled from nursery's own catalogues and specialist nurseries ensure they are in it in order to reach serious gardeners. It would seem to be a question of someone or some organisation being prepared to do the administration. The entrants put themselves forward and do not pay for inclusion. Regarding the names this is from the RHS website: 'Work on the annual updates to the RHS Plant Finder led to the formation of APONAT, (The Advisory Panel on Nomenclature & Taxonomy) which strives towards a standardized nomenclature for cultivated plants.'

Back to the OP's question. Googling name and 'cost, 'price', 'sale' etc. should turn up some answers.

Here is a link that might be useful: Plant finder