I used to get very nice one gallon plants from Larry Stanley, but the last bunch I bought from him was in '07, so don't know what sort of an availability he currently carries. I've heard Song Sparrow has nice plants, but have never personally seen their maples.
Marshall

Yeah Larry's offering is looking pretty slim this year for everything.

I always forget about Song Sparrow. Little pricey but they do have good stock. Not too many dwarfs available right now through them.

Davidsans looks to have a great selection and the owner is passionate about what he does but they are quite pricey. I wonder if you get bushier better branched plants.

Whitman Farms and Oriental Garden Supply seem to be the best that I've found so far.

Not sure what size you're looking for, but Fantastic Plants has numerous larger sizes offered. I've never received any JM's from them but all other plants were nice sized, very good quality, and packed/shipped well. Problem with larger weeping plants is they need to be tied up for shipping and you always run the risk of some broken branches.
Marshall

Their shipping is extremely reasonable. Too bad they only have one cultivar of Acer shirasawanum. These are more hardy than A. palmatum.

Have you looked at Whitman Farms. Fair prices for good sized plants. Gotta call or email about availability. i'd recommend calling.

She lists a number of shirasawanum cvs

Keith

Here is a link that might be useful: Whitman

Yep! I have 'Jordan' on order. I found 'Bashful' as oriental garden supply.

I love that Whitman is very reasonable for shipping.

I like my Jordan a lot. If Id read a little more closely, Id have seen you already mentioned Whitman. Others have reported getting nice plants from Topiary Gardens

Keith

The best of the lot, in my experience, are:

Eastfork Nursery on the west coast. Excellent for the beginning collector. Superb shipping.

Topiary Gardens on the east coast. Extremely affordable, almost 500 varieties available, good shipping rates, healthy plants. Located in upstate New York, so you know a plant you get from them is going to be cold hardy.

I agree that Whitman farms is great value, especially on her field grown plants. Other good vendors are "Mendocino Maples" (www.mendocinomaples.com) and "Wildwood Farm" (wildwoodmaples.com)

After digging around Whitman and Topiary Gardens are the top choices for overall value. Both of the owners are quite pleasant and responsive which something missing from other mail order sources.

I'm ordering from them to get started. Whitman is a somewhat limited but has enough to get me going.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Hey Wass, Ive bought from all of the places mentioned above at one time or another and i find that they are all good.Mail order trees has grown quite a bit over the years and if these guys want the buisness the have to run a fair buisness. There are many many more than what is listed above. The only problems i have had in the past is not with the boxing,selection or seller it has been with the rough handling of the carrier. But even that has been minimal........AL

Whaas, I would recommend Lucile at Whitman Farms as well. Received A very nice Acer Pal. 'Fjellheim' from her in Jan. She will send you a picture of what she has as well.

Jack

Whaas, I would recommend Lucile at Whitman Farms as well. Received A very nice Acer Pal. 'Fjellheim' from her in Jan. She will send you a picture of what she has as well.

Jack

I was at Larry Stanley's this summer, and although his selection may not be what is was in 07 , he had some really nice 1 gal plants. And I bet you will not get a potted plant shipped better.

For larger plants you should also look at Bloom River. Their maples are really nice and they do a great job shipping too, but they may be a little pricier than some of the other sources suggested here.

They do seem to have a nice selection. I've seen some nice conifers from them as well.

The only thing I don't like about them is that some plant combinations end up gouging you on shipping.

For example I just tried (3) 12" maples and the shipping is $50. That is highway robbery in my opinion.

Lucille from Whitman is charging me $30 to ship (7) 1 gallon plants. Oriental Garden Supply charged me $15 to ship (1) 2 gallon plant and (3) 1 gallon plants. Western Evergreen just sent me a massive 50 lb box of plants for $50. So it just aggravates me to see some places overcharge for shipping. BlueRiver nursery just told me about shipping a 25 gallon plant on a pallet for only $80!

Ok, my rant is over!lol!

I think their website calculates shipping based purely on a percentage basis of the cost of plants. West of the Mississippi is 20% of plant cost, east is 30%. This works out in your favor for large but (relatively) inexpensive plants, but you'll overpay for small expensive plants like dwarfs and miniatures.

They are really nice folks though and if you think the shipping is overpriced, you should contact them and ask about it - maybe they'll work something out. They offered to for me recently.

I will say that their shipping is extremely professional - I've never seen more carefully packaged plant material, especially for large plants. And they don't cram all the small plants in on top of the large plant either. I've always been very happy with size and quality of their plants. And the one time something died after planting, they replaced it right away no questions asked.

Gotta get past this technology thing as you bring up a good point....getting on the phone is important.

I just ended up calling another mail order source and they offered shipping cost based upon the exact order. They were able to get a few more plants on the order without increasing shipping too.

I love Whitman Farms. Got so many JM from her.

I did a search on 'Davidsan Nursery' and this topic came up but I don't see any reference to this nursery.
Has any one dealt with them personally? Have a great selection and are located in the Midwest - Springfield, IL.

Passionate guy but you pay the IL price.

I purchased nearly all of my JM's through Eastforknursery.com... operated by just 2 people I believe. Great selection and there maples arived in great shape. I only ordered 2 maples this year and I got them through SongSparrow to combine shipping with my conifers. Otherwise I would have went back to EastforkNursery.

Rick, do you happen to have a sampling of your plants?

Its seems like $30 is the normal for a 1 gallon plant but so many sources have lanky/loose branched specimens versus well branched.

Here are the ones from Topariy Gardens
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Here are the ones from Whitman
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I think it depends on a particular type of maple.... some get full while others stay bare. Just like some of mine are more delicate. 'Waterfall' didn't make it through the freezes... where as 'purple ghost' did fine. 'Waterfall' has thinner branches, smaller leaves and was more open. I've ordered maples from 4 different places. All places I've received at least 1 maple that was 'thinned' out.

Here are some from Eastfork. These photos were taken after planting in spring/fall 2011. These two are very full. I received 'waterfall' (no pictures), but it was thinned out. It's already lost 2 sets of leaves this year due to the cold, so I don't think it will return.

Acer shir. 'Autmn Moon'

Acer palmatum 'Purple Ghost'

Here are the new ones from SongSparrow
Left: Acer palmatum 'Geisha Gone Wild'
Right: Acer palmatum 'Orangeola' - The front finally turned red after leaving it in the sun all week!

You can see a huge difference in the two coming from the same reputable nursery. Geisha Gone Wild has a very delicate appearance to it, its very thinned out. Where as Orangeloa is more full and has thicker leaves/branches/etc. Both are of the same age. (If you look closer you can see I still have 'girards special #1'. The other 'specials' are further to the left in the picture. Poor trees... they have been sitting there all winter with no care, yet starting to bud out lol.

I think Davidsan's in IL is a great place to deal with. I have several coming. I hope to make the drive up there some day to see it in person.

If you're on the west coast, mendocino maples, mentioned earlier, and greer gardens are great sources.