Well, I finally have something to contribute to this thread, as we went and visited a couple of really nice nurseries today, ones which I hope to spend lots more time exploring in the future.
The first is Sandy's Plants,
http://www.sandysplants.com/ , which is just huge, and you ride around in little golf carts from section to section (which is lots of fun.) They advertise selling unusual and rare perennials; I know they grow hostas and succulents and salvias but I only saw a teeny little bit!
The second is much smaller but quite lovely and I wanted to justmove in, place called Lavender Fields,
http://www.lavenderfieldsfarm.... They had a lot of very nice salvias and agastaches in their display gardens and clearly do a lot besides sell plants -- such as workshops and it looked like also some landscaping design and consulting.
Both are places I want to revisit often.