While Bower and Branch may tout this partnership, there is no indication on the Raintree website that such a partnership exists. And I must admit to some raised eyebrows at B&B's comments about "plant whisperers". Really?? That seems a bit gratuitous and silly IMO. Their other "trusted garden partner" is Nature Hills Nursery, which causes more concern as they have a horrible reputation in the mail order nursery world.

I do very little mail order plant shopping as there has previously been little need. But the past few years has seen a marked decline in availability of less common plants at my local nurseries. Not sure if wholesalers are contracting operations and growing less of a selection or if there are less seriously avid gardeners/plant collectors out there looking for them.

"Not sure if wholesalers are contracting operations and growing less of a selection or if there are less seriously avid gardeners/plant collectors out there looking for them."

Gardengal, this dovetails with something I almost put in my original comment! Let's divide mail order nurseries into two categories: ones I order from regularly, and semi-regularly. An example of the regular category would be Camellia Forest...probably the only one in that category anymore. (And this spring I won't be ordering from them, it will be my smallest spring order season in years for a variety of reasons) For an example in the latter category: it's been a while since I ordered from, for example, Far Reaches. Maybe two springs, so, spring 2024. But I still visit their website quite often when I'm looking up a certain plant and it comes up in a google search. This happened recently as I formulated my first Jelitto seeds order in several years.* I'll browse around to see what they are offering an kick the tires, so to speak. And guess what? For almost every mail order website I've visited in the past year or so, including the two I named, I see more 'sold out' notifications than ever!

Two ideas: people like you are having more trouble finding interesting plants in local nurseries, so are having to turn to mail order retailers. OR...it's a marketing thing...nurseries are just realizing if they leave up 'sold out' webpages it creates a cachet that makes it seem like 'time is running out' and fuels impulse buying. For me it's created the impression that the COVID gardening boom hasn't died down as some might have expected it to. I sure hope that's true. HOWEVER, if that was the case, I feel like nurseries like Appeldoorn and Quackin Grass would be finding buyers, not closing outright. Just as we assume most parents want their children to outlive them (!), I'm going to broadly assume most nurseries owners would like their nurseries to outlive them. For those of us old enough to remember, that used to happen quite often. (nurseries being sold to other parties) But now you're telling us that in one of the gardening hotbeds of the country, the PNW, it's harder to find rare and quality plants at local nurseries. Hhhhmmmmm....so there are mixed messages out there, to be sure!

I placed an order with Rhododendron Species Foundation this spring, and it just occurs to me that, as a registered non-profit, they might be the only mail order nursery whose [financial] books are open. It _sure_ would be interesting to see their plant sales over the past 10 years and how they've grown (I would be almost certain**). But I'm not going to bother going to their website and trying to find those financial disclosures. If anyone else does, please report back!

* I will footnote my own post here to say that, one reason I will be ordering less from certain PNW perennials retailers is I've pretty much 'explored' the 'corpus' of plants available from them; there's hardly a major category I'm interested in now that I haven't at least tried. And what I'm finding with unnamed 'wild' varieties of perennials, is that it is better to plant scads of seedlings from Jelitto or whoever, with the hopes that genetic variation will bestow upon you, a form or two that likes your garden. The PNW retailers, whether they like it or not, have no choice but to be selecting cultigens that grow well in their radically different summers.

** even 15 years ago, grumpy old Harold Greer, the one time I met him, complained to me about the economics of having to 'compete' with a non-profit mail order nursery. Well, first of all, there's a lot more to that story. But it must be said, they mail out a very nice product.

Forestfarm was an excellent source of many of my trees. Like most online nurseries, their depth of varieties has rather plummeted since COVID, but they still seem to be a reliable source, at least. Received 2 plum yew selections from them last couple yrs -- transport packing of them was very good, which is a good sign. Their catalog would have a "surplus" section of left-over/discontinued plants, and that's where I got my pond pine (which has thrived) some yrs ago.

" their depth of varieties has rather plummeted since COVID, "

In their case I don't think it was just COVID, they had been less interesting in the years before as Ray & Peg Prag aged and got less involved. I remember speaking to him on the phone around 2008, he talked about driving to somewhere in vicinity of Tacoma, WA - hours away for him - just to collect seeds from an old Pinus pinea that he knew had survived many cold winters. I just don't think whoever runs it now has the level of passion...their list is starting to seem like they are just selling the same wholesale liners everyone else is selling.

Don't get me wrong, though, I'm glad it's still around. I do check their list once in a while, I just don't see much anymore that says to me "I gotta have that plant". For example the first time I tried Woodwardia fimbriata well over 10 years ago, I got it at Forestfarm. When I wanted to try it again, I looked for it for the past 3-4 years on their list, and never saw it. I finally got it from Oregon Native Plant Nursery. I think it was the second PV winter (2014-2015) that killed it. I'm hoping to get one established enough in a more sheltered spot this time. It grew very fast that summer and clearly could become gigantic if happy. It will be the last time I try one - they are rated zone 8 so I know it's a gamble.