I still don't think the tax is the real, core issue here. Big but horticulturally significant (more on that in a moment, though) wholesalers like Foxborough Nursery or Marshy Point are perfectly able to sell plants at the Ladew Garden Festival event. Almost any modern POS system they are using to sell to their wholesale customers can flip a switch and start charging state sales tax. Heck, I seem to recall the cheesy "CLIPS" program a landscaper I briefly worked for in the late 1990s used could easily charge or not charge taxes on invoices. It's an entrenched mentality. Given the massive failures of wholesale nurseries since the housing recession started, not one that seems to be guaranteeing success and financial stability. Again, we don't really know what tlbean was looking for so I'm kinda shooting in the dark here. I don't mind if someone producing truly mass-marketed garbage wants to be a wholesaler since that isn't what I want anyhow. I used to be annoyed by wholesalers locking up difficult to obtain plants until I realized it's part of a bigger picture, that of a kind of blundering industrial obliviousness of the American landscape/garden industry. Yes, your local nursery would rather you buy something "on the lot" because that's the only thing that helps their bottom line. They don't care about the preciousness of your horticultural being. (haha) It's a subtle difference but clearly more people go into horticulture in Europe out of a genuine passion and hence can understand yours than do so in the US. Not that some in the US don't, but there's definitely a different mentality overall. Eisenhut doesn't have to offer every known magnolia cultivar. It would be cheaper and more profitable just to mass produce 15. Now, we are lucky to have a few nurseries that are exceptions and/or strike a balance like Rarefind or Forestfarm. But late 1980s Foxborough's catalog - that of the original founder who has long since died - had tons of ridiculously obscure cultivars. I sadly lost it but I do recall cross referencing the beeches with those in Wyman's Encyclopedia and they had almost every one listed, and a few others. Well, the progeny come along and decide it's not worth selling retail anymore, and it's not worth having so many cultivars. The bottom line becomes more important than the founder's legacy. And, that's fine...that's their choice. Now their online feature pages highlighting what's available are comparatively dull. Americans wholesalers see that, when the going is good (real estate bubbles rising) they can pump the market full of mid-prestige trifles that aren't very costly to produce but easy to mark-up, and make a killing. Cheesy upscale "landscape architects" are complicit in this nonsense by promulgating a ridiculous, over-planted style. I know of a McMansion in the Philly Mainline where the new owners just tore out absolutely everything that was crammed in front of it 10 years ago and had overgrown; my friends said it looks 10X better. Then they get bitten when the gravy train comes to a screeching halt. Sorry, fact is, this is clearly the way many of them prefer to operate, rather than cater their operations to fulfilling the horticultural dreams of the 1% of people who actually know plants. It's the same problem as with American car companies. Save 25 cents on a part now even though in might cost lives later and millions in lawsuits. (and, again, this is all overall patterns. Unless he was independently wealthy, Martin Gibbons seems to have been doing very well for himself selling palms to Londoners. It's not like all nurseries owners in Europe are living in abject poverty because they carry 2-3X as many cultivars as equivalent North American nurseries.) This post was edited by davidrt28 on Wed, Sep 24, 14 at 18:04

I'm tardy to the party, but I wanted to make an input for anyone else to see this: Re: Dean Cook/Flytraps- A good 85% of my current collection is from Dean Cook, and I've NEVER had a problem with him. Patience is required, because he does have a day job, and on the website, it does state that it can take 7-10 days to process an order. I've had some difficulties with communication, but again, patience is required. They do get back to me eventually. Yes, sometimes the plants received aren't the best, but I do believe the season has alot to do with it. Since figuring out what I'm doing, I'm yet to lose anything he's sent me, and they've all grown nicely! I did lose one plant from them during shipping, and they sent me a replacement with the next order I placed. I wouldn't say they're out of the game yet, nor "gone bad". 4/5 Re: Lois Ochs/Raccoon Ridge-I found her on eBay, and purchased a Dana's Delight, Hummer Hammerhead, and 15 (received 18) lost-tag Sarracenia. The Danas, Hummer, and 16 of the rhizomes were all rotten! Talk about spotty communication, and when I finally heard back, they refused to reimburse me or send replacements because "plants are perishable". When they're received in such shoddy condition, I think the sellers should be responsible. It seems the only people that've received good things from her were physically at her nursery. Total crap, and I'll never order from her again. 0.25/5 Re: Sarracenia Northwest- This is where "you get what you pay for"- between the plants being potted and the associated shipping, it was hard on my wallet, but they are worth every penny. I guess people that don't know what they're doing are better off buying from them, but for me, it's just silly to buy anything from them that I could buy from Dean, and make flourish with a little TLC. 4.5/5 (.5 deducted for price) Re: KillerPlantShop- These guys are new on the scene, and they don't have a huge variety, but they've got great prices and quality which rivals Sarracenia Northwest. 5/5 Re: Kristi King/MKFarmsofMS- She's an individual grower with a busy life, but she ships orders within a week. I've found her prices to be very reasonable and her plants are always in very good condition. 4.5/5 Save for Lois, I've bought from everyone else atleast twice, so I have more than "one experience" to judge.

Jeff's website: http://www.localharvest.org/elsys-plants-M41595 He is a very helpful and accomodating individual. I plan on picking up some more plants from him next summer. The website is not very detailed. It is best to contact him by email to discuss the plants you want. If you are shipping to the US and then picking them up personally and taking them back over to Canada, you do not need any certificate. I had ordered two mangoes (Julie & Carrie) and a carambola from Jeff and did not have any certificates when I picked them up in Nigara Falls, USA and took them back to Canada. I showed the border guy the CFIA regulation and he was ok with it. You can google "us address ship to canada" & you will find lots of places that cater to Cdns. for this sole purpose. Here is a forum that discussed this - I just googled it: http://forums.redflagdeals.com/us-shipping-address-canadians-514393/ and on it, a person specifically asked about Montreal and the reply: "Hi, What is the best one or nearest one to Montreal? Thanks. Freeport Forwarding 1320 Route 9 Champlain, NY 12919 518-298-8582"

Not box stores driving nurseries out of business here but the seemingly unstoppable rise of that US import - the Garden Centre. True, everything is under one roof and you can buy an (overpriced ) drink while browsing...but their inventory is limited to maybe 2 types of certain perennials, a handful of common and popular favourites such as the hardy geraniums and absolutely nothing which has slipped off the top 40 list. Meanwhile, our wonderful nurseries, run by real expert plant growers, offering an unsurpassed range at half the cost (overheads) are vanishing because people apparently want to go on a coach trip - buy ornaments and jewellery and other tat and spend a morning in a coffee shop whilst being served by a clueless school-leaver on minimum wage. Even so, I can choose from a dozen small nurseries less than 25miles away which are often specialised and always a source of valuable advice. I think most of these will have vanished in my lifetime - although I still have faith in the egalitarian nature of gardening and the deep passions plants arouse in British gardeners. I have been a reluctant convert to mail order but on the plus side, I have become a lot more capable of propagating and producing my own stock. Seeing a much loved nursery close it's doors seems like a sad defeat for the free gardening spirit and a victory for capital driven, market solutions which do not sit well on this anarchist's shoulders.