Okay, with the crazy economy in Calgary, I've been doing some plant shopping outside of my usual garden centres. Here's what I've found so far:

Walmart:

The clear winner this year. A decent selection of hardy and tender roses in 1 and 2 gallon sizes. The 2 gallon sizes are $10!! The 1 gallon size is hardly worth it at $8. Get these while you can. The exact same roses are being sold at Canadian Tire for $24!! Lots of different mordens, explorers and rugosas.

Also, upright junipers, hoopsi spruces (an absolutely beautiful evergreen) for cheap.

Sobeys:

The aformentioned 2 gallon roses are $15. A good alternative if your Walmart is sold out.

Canadian Tire:

Perennials are always a good deal here. Good sized peonies for $9. Vines are $13. Evergreen shrubs are also well priced, but there is a limited selection. And, amazingly enough, the garden centre at the CT near me is very well taken care of - even at the end of the season everything is quite healthy.

Costco:

Huge, HUGE hardy clematis for $23. They come with a trellis in a 2-3 gallon container. They're about five feet tall. They had a good selection of hostas for $10. There was also a small selection of deciduous trees at reasonable prices.

Sunnyside:

Hostas in a bag are 3/$9. Best deal I've seen for them anywhere.

Golden Acre:

Okay, not a great price, but the lilies they have in this year are AMAZING. $9/each is ridiculous, but if you want some unique asiatic lilies, this is the place to go.

Home Depot:

They didn't really have anything when I went. I'll go back later this week for an update.

Generally speaking, I have to say that I'm aghast at some of the pricing at the garden centres this year. Some shrub prices are up 100-200%. I have to wonder how many swedish columnar aspen are going to be sold for $400 (yikes!).