You are entirely right about Van Veen Nursery, www.vanveennursery.com. It is one of the most popular nurseries among American Rhododendron Society chapters. Many order truck loads of rhododendrons for their members. Also, many have Vickie and her crew root plants for them. Her reputation is that she can even root a popsicle stick. The book Rhododendrons of America was written by Ted Van Veen, bless his sole. They are located in a very nice older part of Portland near Reed College and Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden, which is a city park with an excellent rhododendron collection.

A couple other nurseries that are also very popular with ARS chapters are:

Rare Find Nursery, www.rarefindnursery.com, in New Jersey, founded by Hank Schannen. Besides having many rhododendrons and azaleas, Hank has many other plants that are hard to find. He has excellent descriptions of all plants and photos of most of them.

Greer Gardens Nursery, www.greergardens.com, in Eugene, Oregon, is operated by Harold Greer. Harold has excellent descriptions of most every rhododendron in the trade and sells all of them. His website is probably the most complete listing of rhododendrons and azaleas. He has photos of some plants.

Another good place to look up information on plants and has many photos is the American Rhododendron Society website, www.rhododendron.org.
ARS rhododendron data base
ARS azalea data base

The ARS also has a list of good nurseries :

I just received back 20 rooted cuttings of Fragrans Affinity and Mary Flemiing that I sent to Van Veen last Fall. They all took and are doing fine. I agree that this is a good company. I have purchased rhododendrons from them in the past too.