Steve, I would buy as many of these as possible from Pickering, and I even got a lovely Sweet Juliet from (shudder) Hortico last year. They offer the lowest prices and the most viable plants. I loved Palatine's Austins, and the ones from Pickering and Hortico are almost as nice, but avoid Hortico if you can. One of the Austins they sent me last year was mislabeled.
http://www.pickeringnurseries....
I've had bad results with Heirloom and mixed results with Chamblee's. Both of the Austins I ordered from Heirloom were mislabeled. Chamblee's used to sell great Austins, but the Austins I've bought from Chamblee's in recent years have been woefully inferior.
I've never ordered any from the David Austin website. My local nurseries buy their Austins from that place wholesale. Not only are the prices appreciably lower because their retail markup is not as high as DA's (currently $19.95 as opposed to $26.95), but the local places also subject the plants to close scrutiny and return all of the duds to David Austin, where I suspect they're sent out out to mail-order customers. It's that possibility of buying a nursery reject at an inflated price that's kept me from ever ordering from David Austin directly.
