"Deception can occur, but it is not an element of capitalism."
I would say deception can be an element of anything...and certainly any political philosophy!
Anyhow I was maybe being a little cynical, but maybe not. Since fancy PNW grown rhodies have been sold by DC area nurseries for > 35 years now, trucked across the country by the hundreds each spring, and yet one hardly ever sees mature ones in landscapes...it's safe to assume it's a known fact they aren't long term plants south of the Mason Dixon.
Similar thing with Monkey Puzzles. They were sold by prestige nurseries since I was a little kid...I was given a catalog from 'Betty's Azalea Ranch' from the mid 1980s that listed them for something like $400! (used to be a really nice nursery, looked like hell the last time I was there almost a decade ago*) That was a lot of money, and to a 9 year old me, I probably thought I would need to win the lottery to buy one. Alas, there's only one in the entire DC area above 30' tall, and it's actually the only one on the east coast that big! Yet local nurseries still sell them, so I guess fools and their money are easily parted!
* - update about Betty's Azalea Ranch nursery. I don't want to seem unfair. Found myself with some time to kill in the 703 recently and stopped by. It's not too bad. Probably about as best as can be hoped for, for a nursery in NoVA these days. "Local nurseries", period, aren't what they used to be. Except maybe Weston in Massachusetts and a handful along the west coast like Berkeley Horticultural Nursery.
