I learned about this from (I think it was) Terry last year, and it has come around again for this year. Here is what I got in an email from King Conservation District:
The King Conservation District is accepting pre-orders for the 2008 Bareroot Plant Sale until February 8th. Plants are available on a first-come-first-serve basis.
PLANT PICK-UP: Friday February 29 and Saturday March 1, 2008.
PLANT SIZES: Plants are 1 to 2 years old and range in size from 8 inches to 2 feet
and come bareroot. Salal and kinnickinnik are smaller "plugs."QUANTITIES: All plants come in bareroot bundles and are sold in groups of 10.
This is for ease of handling and simplicity in filling orders.AVAILABILITY: All plants are sold on a first-come, first-serve basis. Quantities are limited
and some species always sell out so please order early.
* If we cannot fill part or all of your order, a plant substitution will be offered.SURVIVABILITY: Generally, mortality should be no more than 10-20 percent.
Here is a PDF file that you can use to get more information about plants, descriptions, and prices. It downloads automatically, i.e. it may look like you're just getting a blank web page. http://www.kingcd.org/pdf/new_cal_bar_12-27-07.pdf
They will have additional plants available for sale at time of order pickup, in case you wanted more than at the time you pre-ordered.
I ordered a bundle of 10 of just one species (ninebark), as did a few other neighbors. Then, someone brightly suggested that we do a bit of horse trading among ourselves: one or two of this species for one or two of that. It worked really nicely.
The plants were all healthy and "took" really nicely. Even that one mock orange that looked like just a dried up stick got lots of leaves by the time summer came around.