But - you haven't said what it is you're after...

Hoyas, for scent. Ferns. Foliage plants. Terrarium plants. Cacti.

Unless you want glorious specimens - car boot sales, local markets, autumn church fairs are all possibilities for picking up samples of easily grown and propagated varieties and species.

I do understand you.. I moved to England couple of years ago and I am surprised that choice of houseplants either in garden centres or on-line is very little despite the national obsession of gardening..
Try ebay, I bought my hoya carnosa there. I bought very nice (and not expensive)gloxinia and streptocarpus in bloom from Morrisons, and spider plant from Wilkinsons for J1.80..

i haven't selected any plants as yet. just that there's a load of nice interesting ones that i've seen in books and didn't want to just select a couple. i'd rather see the plants in person/or online so that i can decide on what i'd like. it took me 3 yrs to find the name of the the Staghorn Fern which i saw in a Martha Stewart magazine back then, and then in 2009, my brother drove me to a new garden centre near his workplace, and lo and behold, i found it - at only �5 (US$7, i think). to this very day, this and a bargain-reduced plant at �3, Kalanchoe beharensis at 3' tall also bought in the same year, are the favourites i have in the house. i'm looking for more unusual ones with textures and leaf shapes. i like trailing ones too, and in different colours as well. it's a tall order, i know. i don't mind if they're not flowering types, really. as i know a lot them would require a sunny position. here in winter, with east and west-facing top bedroom windows are where the majority of my plants are living. in spring, they'll be moved back downstairs.

w/o, my own transport, i don't have the means to visit nurseries and garden centres outside my own area, so it'll be a great if anyone can help me. thanks!

I'm not massively into houseplants because my home doesn't have many windowsills. But I am surprised you can't find what you want. As mentioned above quite a lot of supermarkets have houseplants as do big high street stores like Marks and Spencer. Then there are the DIY places like Homebase and B&Q. IKEA does plants too. And finally there are the garden centres, most of which have a big selection in my area, and traditional florists' shops. If you want very unusual ones you will probably need to contact specialist nurseries. Another possibility is to try to get to some of the flower shows where people like Dibleys exhibit. You can also grow a lot of houseplants quite easily from leaf,root and stem cuttings and offshoots if you know someone with what you want - succulents, spider plants, begonias, African violets, Streptocarpus are all pretty easy to propagate. You could even ask for a piece if you see a nice plant in an office or public building.

thanks for your reply, flora uk

i do know of the ones that are commonly bought from s/markets (Morrison's imo, has the better selection of plants in and outdoors), M&S and IKEA. From the latter, i got really excited about some water plants they had for about 3 pounds each and i got the full range of five, kept them on the window sill since the autumn, but sadly, they went a bit sad, and 1 had died on me. i topped up their water with collected, room temp. rainwater, but i don't know what i did wrong. i think they might need a water pump and planted out into a tank.
i already have about 20 different plants that are quite common, inc. the cape primrose and african violet, altho' i've yet not managed to get them to re-flower for me... i think a trip to Chelsea Flower Show might get me a whole lot more choice... but i've just taken on an allotment, and w/o much money, every single penny counts!