Specifically for conifers only at a nursery...88 miles to Rich's Foxwillow Pines.

tj

I have made about a sixty mile trip because of a tree.

Ever since I had a job dispatching/routing a few years back I have been obsessed with finding things "on the way" so it is not like I even drove straight there.

3 hours for a wholesale nursery but this isn't a fair answer because it's to make money, not necessarily for my own garden. I've ridden with Bob Fincham about three hours, mostly to look and covet(and buy a few beauties), but I'll say about 100 miles for specimens for my own garden. Someday I'll be making a trip of hundreds of miles to canvas dozens of nurseries and retailers and I hope to squeeze in a couple days this year at the West coast ACS meeting as well.

-Will

Round trip about 200km (1.5h each way) to two conifer nurseries that have great stock so the fuel cost is absorbed into the big spend. 2 maybe 3 times a year.

Most places here charge about UK15pounds - $23 for shipping by mail order up to 10kg so it can pay to travel if you buy enough that it costs less than the multiple shipping would be. Plus seeing all the other stock, big specimens and stuff not posted for sale online is adventure and education.

My first trip to a conifer grower will be in September, when I run up to the wilds of Connecticut to visit Bethlehem Nursery. Dennis says there will be plenty to see, so I guess I'll take the F250 instead of the Honda.

~120 miles each way.

The only conifer nursery anywhere near me that I am aware of is Foxwillow Pines near Chicago... I am in Saint Louis, so that would be a 5 hour drive. Maybe I'll do a weekend up in Chicago sometime and check it out while I'm there. Chicago is a fun place to visit, minus the incessant horn honking downtown which goes on for no good reason that I can see and the dog-sized rats near the lake....

Here in St. Louis, we don't have any conifer nurseries, so I have to pick from the handful of nurseries which carry a small selection of unusual varieties... and I usually have to drive a bit for those. About 45 minutes for a few interesting thujas... maybe a half hour for a few neat Hinoki or a weeping Omorika.

254 miles one way to gee farms in michigan this april, got to meet with gary and he showed me some sciadopitys that he was working on for next year, well worth the trip

200 miles each way to save on high shopping charge for 2 large maples and a magnolia

mark

This Spring I flew out to Houston, rented a car, and drove almost 100 miles to get a Pinus taeda 'Nana', and returned home to SC the same day. Last Fall did a similar day trip up to Michigan to visit Gee Farms and Arowhead Alpines and came home with goodies. Working for an airline has its benefits.

1,943 miles for me to go to Porterhowse Farms (during a family vacation last summer...)

With the ACS meeting in Oregon this summer there will be a lot of miles racked up by those going from the east coast.

gawd i hate a typo in the title ... makes me so proud.. to open my email and see however many mis-spellings.. lol ..

my point on this post.. was for newbies to understand.. that we do NOT shop at the bigboxstore... we either mail order..

or suck it up and make the trip ...

you are NOT going to find most of this stuff 'in town' ... no matter how good your local nursery ...

UNLESS ... you talk to a manager .. and they are willing to order stuff in for you .... from the west coast suppliers like iseli .... and others ... and those are going to be big and very expensive.. but if you got the budget.. all the power to ya ...

ken