Depending upon where you are located in Tennessee, you might be able to find them quite readily in the garden center with the rest of the landscaping plants. They are hardy (easily) through zone 7.

I'm in Nashville. I've always thought about them being inside plants, but you're right... I need to be looking at the regular nurseries and garden centers!! duhh....

I was just thinking about this plant the other day. I literally have hundreds of plants (tropicals, hardy, you name it). Most look gorgeous. So I have this Aspidistra, that I must have gotten over 20 years ago in the floral/plant district in Manhattan. This plant doesn't seem to do ANYTHING (i.e., grow). I have it because it is such a classic plant (so Edwardian). Now it's got some kind of yellow spots on it. Still, I understand the collector urge. Have you tried eBay?

A co-worker inherited a beeeaaauutiful cast iron plant (at least that's what I've ID it as) and I daily covet it. I have looked high and low for one like it. She won't let me take it home and try to get a cutting because she's afraid I will kill it. I can't find one in any nursery around here and I keep asking. The thing is, this plant has a sheen to it that makes it look oiled. But it doesn't feel oily. It just looks gorgeous and healthy. When I went to Longwood Gardens last weekend and saw their aspidistras, they were lighter green and did not look shiny at all. The leaf type was the same though. Are they the same kind of plant??
Nina

If all else fails, we have some four-inch Aspidistra lurida 'Milky Way' at work that I would be willing to buy and mail out to whomever at-cost. The price wouldn't be especially reasonable, it's not Aspidistra elatior (though I like lurida just fine), and it might take some time before everything came together and you actually had the plant in hand, but, like I said, if all else fails. I hate to see a person and plant unjustly separated like this. It's like Romeo and Juliet or something.

I had a Milky Way I bought from Plant Delights online, and then later another I scored at a local garden center that carried unusual plants. The first one I planted outdoors (Plant Delights and I are both big into pushing the zone; it didn't survive the winter).

The second one I grew as a houseplant. Or more accurately, I kept as a housplant. It never grew. Granted it was in low light (that's what they're famous for, right?). After a while, it got spider mites and was looking pretty shabby. I didn't feel like fighting the mites, so it went out in the garbage.

I see clumps of them outdoors in the south and they look nice. But I don't think I'll be trying one indoors again.

I stole mine from the planters in the reception of the flat where I live. They are pretty easy to divide so if you know anyone who has a good big one and wouldn't miss two or three stalks then maybe you can get hold of them... If you look after them right then they can grow at a rate of maybe two extra stalks a year so starting with only three isn't that bad. I think I took 5, and now I have 7.

I bought a few from 'tallpinesgreenhouses' on ebay...they were quite healthy and growing very well.Jim