I've ordered from Conifer Kingdom several times and highly recommend them.

Coenosium Gardens
Broken Arrow has a wonderful selection of hardwoods and beautiful plants.

Dax

Here is a link that might be useful: Link to Thread

From the ones I've used Westernevergreen.com is by far the best. You'll NEVER get a conifer that is root bound because of the type of soil they use. The roots are big & healthy, no root separation required. You can take the tree from the pot to the ground. Plus they are the cheapest... being the best and the cheapest usually doesn't go hand in hand. The only downside is their website isn't user friendly. I enjoy seeing multiple large pictures of trees before I buy. So you almost have to look on WesternEvergreens site to get the names they have available and plug each name into google to see what it looks like.

The second best would be ConiferKingdom.com. There plants are very large and healthy. They also have great sales... I've bought 3' tall conifers for just $15 before. They do offer great sale items throughout the year plus usually always offer a free plant with purchases over $100. Plus there website is great... each conifer has multiple pictures + the size information. Some of the root systems are more tangled and aren't as free as Westernevergreens. So you will need to spend a good 10+ minutes to untangle some of the roots, but I haven't received anything from them that were root bound.

Those are the only two companies I now use... I don't even look elsewhere.

Western Evergreen and Conifer Kingdom are by far the best.

I echo what Rick said about Western and the root systems.
3-4 year plants are in at least 3 gallon containers.

I just got a Buchholz order, what a f'ing disaster and waste of great plant material. Same goes for the jokers at Iseli. Not even worth my time to post what horrendously pot bound (and expensive) plants they are sending out. I cound't even get the stock out of the pot just shipped to a nursery. Beautiflul 4' Taylor's Sunburst Pines that where a good 6 years old stuffed in a 3 gallon pot. If you swung the media ball as hard as you could against the ground it would still maintain the same potted shape.

The nursery even said they were very disappointed and they are known to carry over stock year over year without uppotting to begin with!

Ok, rant over.

There are then several other sources like Coenosium Gardens with somewhat smaller stock but very interesting selections.

Topariary Gardens is a good one for Japanese Maples. Not always the perfect specimens but good prices, service and shipping disounts.

Thanks guys! I am definitely going to try Westernevergreen and Coniferkingdom when I'm ready to buy. Love the info about the root system from specific places and the sales. My next step is to follow Ken's and other members advice and visit some gardens to see what I like. Then I'll take and post some pics here with names and see what more insight I get before making some purchases and planting in the fall.

I had no idea that mail order was sometimes cheaper than nursery and garden centers-- always assumed anything in a catalog was a unique or special specimen that would be very expensive. I'm sure that must exist too but this is all very exciting news to me..