If you are interested in a mail trade I have Christmas palm seedlings, sago pups, and some other things. Here is a link to my trade list. http://members.gardenweb.com/members/exch/southlatropical Here is a link that might be useful: trade list

Where abouts in a west coast zone 8 are you located? Phormiums are not uncommon plants pretty much anywhere along the west coast and I'd have a hard time imagining too many of the local larger retail nurseries not carrying a good selection......you can even find them at my local HD!! One caveat, however :-) I'd suggest that rather than looking for very specific cultivars - which may not be all that readily available - take advantage of whatever cultivars offered that fit your requirements. Phormiums are really only borderline hardy in zone 8 and if you live in the PNW zone 8 with our routinely wet winters coupled with a good arctic blast or two, it is unusual to find phormiums surviving more than a couple of seasons. In fact, a good many PNW nurseries now treat them as more or less seasonal plants. It would be a shame to invest too much $$ into a lot of different and hard to find phormiums to not have them survive for very long. FWIW, I have never seen phormiums offered bare root. Not a common sales method for an evergreen plant :-)

You'll have more luck if you refer to it as Phormium, rather than NX Flax. Green Delights Nursery sells it online: http://www.greendelightsnsy.com/search.php?page_no=8&searchfor=&by=conditions&selected_content=10,0,0,0,0,0

I'm in Prince William county VA - I read on the Hardy Palms & Subtrops. Board that someone in NJ had kept this alive. So I tried the plain green form this winter. It was planted in a well-draining, afternoon-sun area, and reasonably mulched (3" of pine mini-nuggets around the crown). It survived. It is growing back now from the roots and lower couple inches which stayed green through the winter. The highly variegated forms ARE NOT as hardy because the plant is weakened by the variegation. BTW the green form seemed pretty heat resistant although last summer wasn't too much of a test. -David