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Index : Landscape Plants
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- 45. How To Find Hard-To-Find Plants - Top
- It can be difficult to locate those rare and unusual plants that are sometimes seen or read about. Garden centers cannot always stock them due to expense, extra or specialized care, or unavailability. Most growers cannot risk putting money and labor into an unsure or low-demand item. So, where can you find the hard-to-find?
First, get in touch with local or regional plant societies. Here in Tucson plant societies exist for native plants, cacti and succulents, orchids, roses, iris, African violets, bamboo and bonsai. These groups often sponsor plant sales or make plants available at their meetings. But even if they don't, usually members are quite willing, even enthusiastic, about sharing their knowledge of plants and where to find them. And most plant societies publish some sort of newsletter or journal that will include advertisements for plants.
Secondly, botanical gardens usually sponsor many types of plant sales, and quite often offer the rarest types of plants for sale. We are fortunate here in Tucson to have two excellent botanical gardens; the Tucson Botanical Garden and Tohono Chul Park. Both operate plant shops year-round and have expanded seasonal plant sales, the 1st weekend in October and the 3rd weekend in March. The University of Arizona's Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Superior also offers year-round sales of plants with expanded sales in the Fall (October 16 to November 1), and in the spring. These are great places to find unusual and unique varieties of both native and cultivated plant species.
You may also find specialty growers that focus on a select group of plants. Here in Tucson we have some of the best specialty growers of cacti and succulents any where in the World. So if your looking for rare and unusual cacti and succulents, chances are you can find them here! Local garden centers can direct you to specialty growers, or they may be able to locate and obtain difficult-to-find plants for you. Garden centers are in contact with plant brokers and suppliers who have a knack for locating the unusual.
In the last few years, the Internet has also become a good source of information about plants and where to locate them. It's easy to target the plants you want by doing a key word search. Even if you can't locate a grower, often enthusiasts will have there own web site with lots of information and plant sources. As time goes on the Internet will become a more prominent source of plants as more and more suppliers come online.
Finally, seeds can be obtained through these and other sources. Seed suppliers have begun to offer more and better types and varieties of plants as demand has increased. There are more species and varieties of plants now available than at any time in the past. Native seeds / SEARCH a nonprofit conservation organization here in Tucson, collect, safeguard and distribute heirloom seeds. They specialize in seeds of traditional crops of the Southwest and Northern Mexico. When ordering seeds from catalogs outside the Tucson area, just make sure the varieties are adapted to our unique climate.
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Written by John Begeman, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the University of Arizona, 520-626-5161.
Material originally appeared in Arizona Daily Star gardening column, on October 25, 1998
- Updated: October 25, 1998
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