Is the point of your post that the prices at Wayside are too high?? You don't say that you found it cheaper, just that you purchased from someone on eBay instead...

I haven't done price comparisons, but I will say that though I have ordered from Wayside Gardens in the past, I probably will not do so again. I have purchased both Hostas and Clematis from Wayside. The plants received were pretty puny and they all eventually died.

Holly

"Is the point of your post that the prices at Wayside are too high?? "

That is one of my points, as you should get what you pay for. They should not have a monopoly on this tree and that is why I searched for a "Summer Chocolate" Mimosa at a lower/friendlier cost!

"You don't say that you found it cheaper, just that you purchased from someone on eBay instead..."

Yes I have bought it on ebay $40.00 plus S/H - It is a deep purple mimosa. I did email Forest Farm, recieved their answer, and bought 2 @ $69.00 each, plus S/H.

I did some googling plus emailing and am satified that I could "get around" Waytoomuch Garden's prices!

Previous years 5 gallon pots of this item at garden centers here were about 100 bucks. Since then gas and diesel prices have shot up, resulting in significant price increases for nursery stock.

Seeds taken from this cultivar - where are they getting them? - should be expected to produce variable seedlings, with perhaps few, if any of them being as purple as the parent plant. It depends on how much of a tendency there is for seedlings to resemble the parent, this varies with the kind of plant.

I have seen one gallon silk trees offered here that had a couple purplish ones mixed in among the green, so maybe purple-leaved seedlings are not that rare with this species. There was no indication on the sign that the plants were seedlings raised from a purple-leaved parent, but maybe they actually were and this aspect of their background did not make it onto the sign at the garden center.