P. pubens is more accepted nomenclature, I think. It's particular about the type of conditions in which it will grow, which is why it is so rare....both in the wild and in the marketplace.

It's particular and short-lived. That means that the plant will be attractive to specialty collectors and botanical gardens. There are nurseries that cater to such customers, but they are few and far between.

See if Woodlanders (in Aiken, maybe) is still in existence. If they don't have this plant, they might know who does.

Woodlanders very much seems to still be existing...they did an order for me back in early March! Which as usual, I was very pleased with. But, yeah, time is probably limited for them and various other specialty nurseries. I'd say I've seen them list it every 3 to 5 years...going back to the 1990s...and they are the only mainstream mail order nursery to have ever offered it, as far as I know. I wouldn't rule out Forestfarm having had it once upon a time...the original owner/operator Ray, would really go out of his way to get unusual stuff. I think these days there's less of that going on...but they still have an impressive collection.

Anyhow, yes this species is known to be hard to grow, short-lived, and really more like zone 8 hardy though it will probably be fine in 7b SC. I tried one and it hardly grew even during the summer. Not sure why. Then one of the polar vortex winters almost killed it. It tried to sprout in spring but petered out. A lot of the rare southeastern native trees are rare precisely because they need all sorts of environmental conditions 'just right' and over millions of years and various ice ages kept losing genetic diversity. For example William and Mary tried to plant a bunch of Gordonias when I was there, and they all died. (The native one of course. The Asian ones probably would have done well until a cold winter!) The late Dilworth Nursery in Oxford, PA, had a huge Franklinia when I visited in the 1990s. When I last saw them in 2012 they said it had died...etc. etc. etc. Which makes Sam's Elliottia, far from home in Harford County, MD, all the more impressive LOL.

Thank you! Woodlanders is still there. Got an email from them not long ago that their Spring shipping season was ending, so I will send them an email. The picture was from the Clemson Botanical Gardens. That’s 45 minutes from me.

Doddnatives.com says the wild population was hammered during the Civil War by people stripping the bark, has never recovered.

It’s also sad to see nurseries closing after being in business for so long. Well, if I get the chance, I will try three (as they say)