To check out a new website targeted towards horticultural professionals in the Northeastern U.S. and provide feedback on general concept. Check out http://www.lmis.org and sign up as a basic member (FREE).
Our goal with this site is to make LAs & designers and other trade professionals aware of nursery availabilities, to foster new local relationships with suppliers and to further strengthen existing supply chain relationships.
The site posts nursery availabilities (updated by the nurseries) and members can search through individual nursery availability or search by a particular species/cultivar to see who is listing.
Once you find an item you are interested in, a request for quotes, pictures, etc.. can be asked directly through the site, however all correspondance is email to email (we do not keep internal records of transactions).
The site also has a forum feature for plant materials where a request can be asked of the entire nursery community – which can be useful for one of kind type requests, specimens, etc…
We also have e-auctions that users can search through for plant material.
Starting in January 2011 we are also going to start listing upcoming public bids where plant material is required in select territories.
This site has been live since August 2010 and we have close to 300 members since launch.
Please check this out and let me know what you think – still very much a work in progress and feedback is VERY appreciated.
View a few video tutorials for a little more info if you would like at http://www.lmis.org/Tutorials.aspx
Cheers,
Matt
http://www.lmis.org
.