I'm as big a fan of capitalism as anyone else, but when I read what happened to Timber Press (even though we've been promised that things will continue as before--this is the same promise we were made about Heronswood Nursery 6 years ago), and now this, I don't much like what it sometimes does to things that were functioning perfectly well as they were. In fact, it irks me a lot. --Lee Poulsen Pasadena, California, USDA Zone 10a ==================================================== SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/… World-famous Heronswood Nursery closes Owners plan to relocate it, but new site may be online only Wednesday, May 31, 2006 By GORDY HOLT P-I REPORTER It was barely 2 o'clock Tuesday and the news had yet to sink in, but Dan Hinkley was already on his second beer. Heronswood, the world-renowned Kingston plant nursery founded by Hinkley, and a place treasured across the Northwest and around the world for its collection of exotic plants, had just been closed by the Philadelphia-based Burpee seed company. The famed Heronswood Nursery is home to a number of exotic plants. These Helleborus are from the Baltic states. After hearing of the closure, Hinkley was not without words although he was, he said, "still in shock." "Yeah, obviously, it's very sad for me," he said. "They didn't even afford me the opportunity to see the news release." The organization had bought Heronswood Nursery from Hinkley, a world-class plant hunter, and his partner, Robert Jones, six years ago with a promise to keep things as they were, with Hinkley still hunting down rare plants for the nursery's collection while Jones ran the business end. Well, things change, said George Ball, president of the W. Atlee Burpee & Co., the nation's oldest and arguably most successful home-gardening company. "But we're not closing it, we're just moving it," he said. Turns out the move may be to online only. Hans Miller, Burpee's vice president, said Tuesday that the company has no immediate plan to open a Heronswood nursery in Pennsylvania, where the company has a 50-acre nursery at Willow Hill and a similar-size test and display garden at Fordhook Farm in Doylestown. Burpee will test the market for a Heronswood facility at an event dubbed the Heronswood Hydrangea Open at Fordhook Farm, July 14-15. If it doesn't test well, Miller said, "Heronswood will just be a Web mail-order site." As Ball spoke into the business end of his cell phone from Kingston on Tuesday, the Burpee president said he was helping with the packing. "When we purchased this six years ago," he said, "we were anxious to make it a profitable company that would be fulfilling our ambition to serve a national audience of gardeners, which is predominantly on the East Coast. For six years we worked away at it. But finally we decided the best thing would be that we relocate." Among Hinkley's associates hard hit by Tuesday's news was Sarah Reichard, a specialist in the biology of invasive organisms at the UW's College of Forest Resources. "This is not a good thing for Heronswood," she said. "I'm a major customer, but I guess I won't be anymore." In recent years Hinkley leaned heavily on Reichard to determine which of the plant species he had been gathering might threaten the Northwest's native species. "He has been very responsible," she said. "Going through his catalog -- what, now, seven or eight years? -- I've identified 15 or so species I was concerned about, and he took them out of his collection and marked another 200 as potentially a problem. At no time was there any pushback. He simply said, 'It's up to you, if that's what you think.' " Hinkley said he won't be wanting for things to do, even though his contract with Burpee included a five-year non-compete clause that will keep him from creating another nursery during that period. His lecture schedule and two more books will fill the bill for a while. Less is known about the future of Heronswood's famed display gardens. Burpee's president was circumspect. "Oh," he said, "we're not digging things up to ship back East. No. I'm hoping to keep this as long as we can, hoping to find ... let's say ... someone who wants to buy one of the few first-class private botanic gardens certainly in America if not the world. "But I haven't figured all that out yet." Heronswood was founded on little more than a leaf and a prayer in 1987 while Hinkley taught horticulture classes at Edmonds Community College, and Jones, a University of Washington-trained architect, kept his pencils sharp at a Seattle architecture firm. In dribs and drabs, one species at a time, the nursery's catalog was built and its display garden took shape. Then, almost before either knew it, their knowledge and expertise earned them recognition throughout the plant world. The photoless catalogs Hinkley produced annually had become collector's items. And through essays, books and his Heronswood Web site, Hinkley has kept the public abreast of his Indiana Jones-like hunt for fine but little-known plants. China, Nepal and South Africa are just some of the places Hinkley and his trowel traveled after he graduated with a master's degree from the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture. From China, for example, came this communique: Truly, there is no excuse. I should have been more mentally prepared for what they meant. "Road Bad," we were told. "Road Bad" embraces a great deal of plasticity across this planet. I knew this. "Road Bad" in China translates to 180 miles of barely passable terrain, all of which is under construction, though no one seems to be working on it. Then add three days of torrential rains." Did he get his plant? He goes on: Our minds drifted from the moment, fast-forwarding to the most aggravating part of the process. Phytosanitary certificates, inspections, lost packages, changed rules at the USDA. Our bellies hurt down deep with anxiety. We know these hurdles possess the potential to mar the polish of the days we have experienced in Sichuan. Yet, this time at least, the buff and shine of this most incredible journey has remained intact. The seeds are now safely to Heronswood and sown. But now there is no longer a Heronswood where they can set roots and produce offspring for the rest of the world to enjoy. LOCAL REACTION The reaction to the closure Tuesday of Kingston's world-famous Heronswood Nursery: Sarah Reichard, UW professor and invasive-plant specialist: "Dan Hinkley is a hero in American horticulture. He's made an enormous contribution. I've seen the impact. So this is a shocking way to treat a hero." Marty Wingate, P-I garden writer: "Dan Hinkley expanded the number of plants available to gardeners. This has been our showcase nursery for new and unusual plants, plants few had seen before Dan introduced them." Duane Kelly, founder and owner, Northwest Flower & Garden Show: "It's hard to see their business logic." Ciscoe Morris, P-I garden columnist: "It's a bummer." Jens Molbak, CEO of Molbak's garden center in Woodinville: "We feel sick." P-I reporter Gordy Holt can be reached at 206-448-8356 or gordyholt@seattlepi.com. © 1998-2006 Seattle Post-Intelligencer ========================================== Here's what Scott Kunst of Old House Gardens has to say about this: "On May 24, Bob Conklin of Timber Press announced that he had sold his company to Workman Publishing. Over the past three decades, Bob and Timber Press have earned the gratitude of gardeners across the country by publishing a wonderfully wide array of books that are beautiful, useful, and above all expert. Although Workman owns Storey Books and is a fine publisher in its own right, it’s hard to imagine anyone else filling the colossal garden boots Timber Press has left behind... Almost as jarring was the news that Burpee and Co. which bought the renowned Heronswood Nursery outside Seattle in 2000 has decided to close the nursery there, sell the property, and somehow consolidate Heronswood into its operations in Pennsylvania. Founded by Dan Hinkley and Robert Jones 20 years ago, Heronswood became an internationally celebrated source for new, rare, and extraordinary plants and helped to inspire American gardening to new heights. As mail-order plantspeople ourselves, we’ve long admired Heronswood as a model of excellence, creativity, and passion." And here's what Tony Avent had to say about the Heronswood Nursery closing: <http://four.pairlist.net/pipermail/announcements/…>