Source of preserved plants?

[Monique D. Reed]

Dear Taxacomers,

I hope someone out there can help!  I'm the lab coordinator for a
course in angiosperm taxonomy.  In years past, we have relied heavily
on purchased preserved flowers of various genera.  This  year, our
supplier discontinued these products without warning.  While we can
gather some materials from the wild, we are left with some disastrous
holes in our teaching materials.

Does anyone know of any source  of "pickled" flowers of such plants
as poppy (Papaver), cactus (Opuntia), cucumber (Cucumis), etc?.  We need
several hundred of each each year, preferably packed in ethanol or
ethylene glycol or some such--not formalin.

Note:  Carolina Biological Supply Co. is the outfit that quit on us,
so don't suggest *them*--they're on Santa's naughty list this year
and are getting lumps of coal...

Grateful for any leads,
Monique Reed
Biology Department
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX  77843-3258
http://csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/tfplab/reedhome.htm