This is not the place to discuss the quality of plant material bought from the Web, or the quality of information there; but, if you try hard enough and persist long enough, you can probably find plants of big bluestem and indian pink on the Internet, and the situation will only continue to improve.
On the Internet: it is here, and it is here to stay. This is not the place to discuss the quality of plant material bought from the Web, or the quality of information there; but, if you try hard enough and persist long enough, you can probably find plants of big bluestem and indian pink on the Internet, and the situation will only continue to improve. As wonderful as this resource is, however, real shelves with real plants, and real people in real garden centers, will continue to be the principal means of attracting gardeners to native plants. That is not as big a problem as it appears; simply marketing the native plants already being sold at retail centers would go a long way to attracting interest in others.