What a beautiful and much-deserved tribute, Lorene!

And indeed: THANK YOU, Mr. Lowery.

I also owe you and everyone at your nursery thanks. So far I have went thru 3 of your catalogs because I read them so much...make notes..and dream about all the roses I would grow if I had the space. Your catalog, which is a book to me, has taught me more than any other, and showed me roses I'm sure I would have never heard of if not for you. Your love and commitment to roses is greatly appreciated and has changed my life.

What a beautiful post. It speaks for all of us. I do hope Gregg knows what a difference he has made in the world!

Thank you for honoring Gregg with this post.
Vintage has always been a labor of love.

What Lorene said.

Also, thank you for flying all over the world frequently to speak about old roses, and educate people and share your knowledge of them.

Jackie

Greg and his Vintage Gardens will be so greatly missed. We can be thankful that his wonderful legacy of roses, and the love thereof, continue on in many, many gardens to give comfort, beauty and joy. -Nancylee

Everyone has expressed so well all the gratitude that I and my clients have felt over the years. Gregg and everyone at Vintage, thank you from the bottom of my rose loving heart! Other nurseries will come and go, but the place you held in the world will remain uniquely yours.

Carol

I can hardly add any more to the appreciation here already for Gregg Lowery and Vintage Gardens and Gita and crew, except to heartily second it all. My garden would have been a much poorer and less interesting place without Vintage and the unique roses collected, preserved, propagated, and sold there. I will remember gratefully, too, how gracious and helpful Gregg was in helping with a rose ID inquiry from a rose-nobody like me. Vintage propagated invaluable rose knowledge, not just roses.

Gregg is a uniquely special person who with his roses has enriched my life immeasurably. Even the way he described each rose on-line was special in that he somehow gave a special character to each rose. Vintage is a huge personal loss, although I understand that Gregg will continue to be active in the world of roses. I wish him all the best with a grateful heart.

Ingrid

Heartfelt thanks to Gregg and Gita for all their years of devotion to the greater rose community. I had the pleasure of meeting Gregg thru Miriam Wilkins back in the early heritage rose days. Some of my fondest memories are shopping at the nursery when it was in business and spending time with Gregg in his garden when I did some photography for his website. He always had wonderful stories to tell about the roses.

My garden thanks you and so do I.

Diane

Yes, thank you and happy, rosey trails to you!

You all have already said it, starting with Luxrosa's eloquent tribute. I never bought from Vintage, as I didn't discover them until I was living in Italy, but their knowledge of and work with roses benefits everybody in the world who shares their love for this plant. Their wonderful--superb, outstanding--catalog has been one of my most-used references for years.
So, from me as well, thanks for all the years of your inspiring labor of love, and the fruit it has borne.
Melissa

My roses from Vintage Gardens are so special to me. Thank you for the joy you've brought to my garden!

The eloquence of the above posters speaks for the wonderful impact on OGR gardening that Greg and Gitta have had. They will certainly be missed by so many of us.

I wonder in which direction their journey will continue.

Preyers of peace to both of these wonderful caring rosarians.
Jeannie

Thanks to Vintage for my only order, which I received recently in good shape. I'm sorry to see a nursery like yours close. I can't say it better than others have, thank you again for being there.

What a beautiful and heartfelt tribute, Lorene! I too am grateful to Gregg and Gita for opening my eyes to a wider variety of roses and for sharing their love of roses through Vintage gardens all those years. I'm also grateful for Gregg's work in establishing heritage gardens of these roses, so that they can survive the sad demise of Vintage Gardens and continue to inspire gardeners in the future. If you don't already have a copy of the Vintage catalog, you really need to order it while you can, to save those priceless descriptions of all those Vintage roses before their website shuts down.

We'll all miss Vintage!

Cynthia

I've had some good ones from Vintage & passed them on so I could sample some more of the unique collection they kept. For that I'm thankful!

When I discovered Vintage it felt like opening the door to Aladin's cave. A year later the door slammed shut or so I then thought. But the Vintage garden itself survives and its many cultivars have been preserved and passed on to others and maybe, in time, it will be possible for other nurseries to propagate and pass on the unique varieties at Vintage. In our time on earth we do our work and then pass the torch and so it is with Greg and Gita (who BTW were a joy to deal with). Thank you so much and yes I do very much like Cymbeline, one of your favorites, even though as a baby it has hardly begun to"strut its stuff".

Cath

What a gracious, well-spoken post, Lorene. And what a wonderful tribute to Greg & Gita to have inspired such love. What a legacy--to have spread beauty & preserved history.

Thank you & best wishes.

(Oh, & DO get the catalog--it's a fantastic OGR reference & very educational)

This post was edited by bluegirl on Fri, Jul 5, 13 at 1:45

I can only add to this heartfelt tribute to Greg and Gita that I have enjoyed visiting the nursery and Greg's garden many times over the years. So many of my roses have came from you. I have lost days to your website looking at rose after rose to choose my next treasures. The website, along with your print catalog, are a truly valuable guide for rose information. How will all of this information be continued, help me find? Thank you for your passion and devotion, you will be missed.
Sondra