Forest farm is my source of choice for anything unique Whaas.

I have used the missouri department of forestry to order a 25 regular cornus floridas to practice grafting and they survived at a high rate despite my rookie grafting attempts, putting them in pots and the like.

Musser Forrests sent me good live plants once.... Even silly Arbor Day has been acceptable to me.

Have you checked out the garden watchdog site? I found a bulb company through them and all seems well. They review tree sites as well.

Conesium.biz was tempting me this year tooo

i like girards for price.. and size ... plus i have been there.. and the peeps are just super ... see link

also.. gee tree farm .. their online list is usually behind the times ... so if you really have to have something ... you have to call ... they are basically local to me.. and also great peeps ....

copy paste this: http://www.geefarms.com/

for trees i have never had a problem with jung or henry fields .... and stark bro's for fruit ... though not much rare stuff there ...

with all bare root trees ... PROPER TIMING on delivery.. and then proper planting .... are the key issues ...

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

Cold Stream Farms has a large selection of decent sized cheap trees. In the spring Iam getting a 4 foot tulip poplar from them for around 5 bucks.

Oikos tree crops is a really great place, They have alot of rare varieties like hybrid oaks, timburr chestnuts, and fruit trees.

Forest Farm seems to have one of the best varieties out there. ForestFarm.com

Several places I haven't heard of, I'll have to check them out.

Everyone always talks about ForestFarm but I'm skeptical about ordering boderline zone 5 plants from the PNW. More so about shipping a $50 specialty plant half way across the US.

Is this something I shouldn't worried about...or should I order something and make my own call.

This is my current wishlist that I have to mail order.

Acer pseudosieboldianum
Acer triflorum
Aesculus 'Homestead'
Amur maakia
Chionanthus virginicus
Cladrastis kentukea
Evodia daniellii
Heptacodium miconioides
Korean Stewartia
Persian Parrotia
Pinus koraiensis (Silveray)
Pinus strobus (Stowe Pillar)

I've bought many plants from the PNW. Both spring and fall. Forest Farm is good but you need to "fill a box" (of various sizes) to make shipping worthwhile. Other places not already mentioned are Greer Gardens and Porterhowse (conifers).

tj

It does not matter where it comes from if it is otherwise hardy in your area. The only problem with ordering from a warmer climate is the spring starts earlier there, so you have to time your ordering with that in mind. I think forestfarm used to say they would send at the right time for your area, check their rather lengthy discussion of such things.

I doubt anyone else in the USA presents a bigger selection, before they were hit by cold recently I believe they were listing something like 5,000 plus items. The nursery is planned to form the basis for a new botanical garden.

If nobody mentioned it Greer Gardens should also be investigated. There's also Colvos Creek nursery, they usually have some neat rarities.

I think I was more concerned with the distance the plants have to travel...good point on the timing.

One thing I need to look out for is bare root trees. I need potted plants.

My soil is at least 40% rock, so I plan to remove that when I plant. I don't want to go and purchase a different soil meidum to make up for that as the plants would be rooted properly.

Although some what limited with trees, Colvos Creek nursery looks like a good one that sells potted plants that are nice sized and priced well.

Forestfarm is a pretty good place I usually order from every year. I think the main problem with them is that I've gotten too many misidentified plants in the past. But I've noticed any of the bigger nurseries having that problem because of the hired help.

My personal experience from Forest Farm as not so good. In fact if I can get what I want elsewhere, I will do so. On a side note, I got a few trees from "Oregongrown" on Ebay last winter, was VERY happy with them. Got a paperbark, and triflorum maple that were very healthy and exactly as advertised, along with a couple of Japanese maples. Shipping was CHEAP too.

Arktrees

My personal experience from Forest Farm as not so good. In fact if I can get what I want elsewhere, I will do so. On a side note, I got a few trees from "Oregongrown" on Ebay last winter, was VERY happy with them. Got a paperbark, and triflorum maple that were very healthy and exactly as advertised, along with a couple of Japanese maples. Shipping was CHEAP too.

Arktrees

What I'm running into now is I can't find a source beyond 1z or twozy orders.

Forest Farm was the only one that had all 8 plants I wanted...no one had more then 3 of the plants I wanted.

Acer pseudosieboldian
Acer triflorum
Maackia amurensis Starburst
Chionanthus virginicus
Cladrastis lutea
Heptacodium miconioides
Stewartia koreana
Quercus robur Argenteomargin

Whaas, I ordered a bunch of trees and shrubs from Forest Farm this past year for the first time. They had everything I wanted and when I had an issue with a particular tree (questionable in my zone anyway) they gave me a credit without any problem. I found them easy to deal with and they have a great selection.

The trees were delivered in great shape and they were packed extremely well (in pots) for shipping.

Trees are the main focus at Colvos, after that shrubs. Herbaceous plants are definitely a minor component of their inventory. A few years ago they were up to over a thousand items, since then not so many. When the economy falls off the public shifts to smaller, cheaper plants like flowering annuals and vegetables.