They've been struggling for years, haven't they? It's a tough business even in a good economy, and this is a terrible economy.

They fought a good fight, and can be proud, bite the dust or not. They made a lot of people happy and a lot of gardens beautiful.

grim news. over here, even Beales roses had to put out desperate calls for ideas since no-one is dipping into their pockets in a time of deep insecurity. We are seeing businesses amalgamate in order to save on marketing and admin costs and will probably be left with old established companies such as Harkness and Austin roses, plus some very small semi-amateur growers and breeders while many medium firms are going to the wall.

I have never purchased from them, but do respect their fine reputation. In their case with so many specimens that need to be preserved, one would think that there would be benefactors to come through and help with maintaining what they have.

I had this thought when Ashdown closed, but nobody came through to help. Since I am no longer a member of the ARS, I do not know what their objectives are, but it seems like helping to fund the preservation of older roses would be an objective.

They will be missed.
Sammy

The rose world will never be the same.

campanula, the news about Peter Beales made me feel awful. I visited the nursery and the garden in May but I didn't buy any roses, only garden stuff. I thought I had already got too many plants from other Norfolk nurseries for me to take roses back on the plane. I should have anyway. I'll spread the word in Sweden. Beales is a popular source over here.

Oh my. I wish I could find the right words to comfort all of us. I guess that as so many of the valued nurseries close, our personal gardens become more important.
Love,
Jeannie

wow... this only leaves Rogue Valley and a few other nurseries.

Rogue and Vintage and Antique Rose Emporium are always the first three I look for roses at. and Rogue and Vintage have the biggest selection...

a lot of roses just simply aren't going to be available for sale anymore.

I'm running to the end of space for roses in my small yard, even for smaller roses... but if one of my roses fail, or if it doesn't end up being a good fit for my situation... the options will be very few for replacement... and some of the roses I have now might be irreplaceable... :( and I'm sure other people are even more in this situation as I'm a new gardener with a relatively small yard.

and then what about others who are just now getting into older roses or future people who get into it...?

Very sad. :(
I feel really bad for the nursery owners themselves too... you spend all this time and effort and money to build such a huge beautiful garden... and then it simply can't be maintained. such a loss...

Gardens and nurseries seldom outlive their creators. That's always a difficult, sad thing to witness. These are particularly painful because they've predeceased their creators. They have to endure the pain of watching their loves go away.

As has been written here, rose growers get older and less able or willing to take on more roses. Gardens fill up with plants, leaving no room for more. Lots get smaller providing less room for "gardens", with more of us settling into condos and apartments. Disposable income evaporates as does free time and energy. Shipping costs soar, making even the most cost effective plants too expensive to justify.

The "Dark Ages" are upon us. When those who have done it so right, for so long can't endure, what hope is there for others?

"Gardening" to any extent, was long the past-time of landed gentry. They were the ones who created, fostered and populated the great Societies now languishing in their final throes. "They" are becoming fewer and farther between, leaving roses and other specialty plants to revert to the "pass-along" subjects they once were.

Unfortunately, the conditions which created the prosperity that resulted in gardening as the hobby of the masses , with its proliferation of wonderful specialty sources, aren't likely to be seen again. At least, not for a very long time to come. Kim

I can see that I am going to have to rapidly upgrade my gardening and propagation skills. Not to mention making use of trading networks.

It is quite alarming to think that I might become one of a very few persons in the entire USA to be growing certain extremely rare cultivars.

I went to the vintage list this afternoon intending to place a custom propagation order for Charmian, the finest English rose you can't buy anywhere, and it was right there on the currently available list! I just hope I got my order in soon enough to be in line before the last one gets sold.

I sure wish there were a rich Silicon Valley type that loves roses who would endow some type of Foundation or something to keep the Vintage collection intact. I wonder if Vintage has pursued something like that. There are some very rich people living in Sonoma County and other Bay Area locales.

I think at this point, when you think of how many people are here on the forums (not that many)... and then think about how many people must be buying these older roses...

almost any of us could have one of the very few remaining roses of a particular cultivar. That's kinda scary. What if I kill it by accident? And I'm a newbie gardener, I don't know how to grow cuttings, etc.

I think it would be great for those who are more knowledgeable to make a list of roses they think are special that Vintage now has.
It's hard to look at a daunting list of roses you might not be familiar with.
I really tried to narrow it down to a few criteria... and even then, I've spent almost all day looking at rose names. I can only afford (space and money wise) to pick up a very few.

nastarana, I bought Charmian from Vintage about two and a half years ago and so far it's been a poor performer with an occasional fairly unremarkable, although fragrant flower. I may not have the right conditions for it but would love to know why you consider it so special.

Ingrid

When I read Kim's thread title, a shiver went up my spine.
This is so very, very sad.

Aimee, that's a lovely idea...however, from thirty people right here, you're likely to get at least 28 totally different lists, as long as you discount the new imports which aren't available yet anyway.

There were far fewer "endangered" varieties when we also had Ashdown, Sequoia, EuroDesert. Who would have ever guessed that things commercially introduced by J&P just fifteen years ago would have so quickly become "endangered"?

The best anyone can do is add a few which aren't shown in many gardens on HMF to their list, then LIST what you have on HMF and keep it current. Open what you have to people for cuttings. Include yourself as having the varieties and willing to share cuttings. A small Flat Rate box can be run through the self service postal machine at any Post Office and costs just $5.20 to anywhere in the Continental US. Under most circumstances, it only takes three days maximum to get there. The boxes are free at any Post Office and you can use dampened newspaper or toweling in regular old plastic bags to wrap them in. I've even prepared cuttings, treated them with hormone and wrapped them before shipping so all that needed doing when received was to remove them from the boxes and put somewhere cool until time for unwrapping. It isn't hard and you can fit a decent number of up to three varieties in the Small Flat Rate box. The medium will hold a ton of cuttings and costs less than $12 to ship. If you don't want to wait for reimbursement for postage, ask for it up front. With Flat Rate you'll know what it costs before you ship it. Pay Pal works wonders, too. I recently mailed seed to a breeder friend in Australia. I invoiced him for postage when I got back from the Post Office and my postage was in my Pay Pal account within an hour.

Jeri has the right idea...offer cuttings for those things NOT offered by the remaining specialty nurseries. Don't compete with them, but definitely keep the treasures you might well be the steward of in circulation. Practice rooting things as often as possible. Reproduce the choice and rare things in your gardens. Come spring, offer them for trade or postage on the Propagation forum if they aren't on availability lists from the specialty growers. If there are rose events near you such as The Heritage, Sacramento Cemetery or some other rose gathering, donate them for fund raising and let people know what will be there, when and where it is. The Ventura County Rose Society has such a meeting in about two weeks. Details, including the roses available for sale there are on both the Antique and Roses forums.

It's easy to figure out what is endangered. If there aren't any gardens listing it and it isn't on any nursery's availability list, you just might have one of the last ones.

You probably don't have to worry about anything Austin. If someone is willing to pay for it, he'll make sure it's available. Older moderns probably run higher risks of disappearing than anything or merit in an OGR class. OGRs have the romance and momentum behind them. Someone is going to grow and promote them as long as there are gardens and gardeners. It is the modern classes, particularly the earlier cultivars through the mid century mark that we stand to lose most. Kim

Well since no one seems to care if we lose the U.S. mail system and our space program I guess the rose business is just one more thing to fade into history.

This economic downturn, like the others, will end. I only hope that Vintage and the other growers of old roses either keep their collections together so that when prosperity returns they can reopen or distribute their roses to collectors who will preserve, propagate and distribute them.

Cath

Ingrid,

I had Charmian in CA in the mid 90s. It came from a local nursery and was grafted, onto Dr. Huey, I imagine.

It grew into a fairly large bush, with canes that arched up and out. A back of the border plant, and that is where I had planted it.

I grant you that the flowers are not so well shaped as many others, but for whatever reason, I loved the color and growth habit. Color did not fade in the hot sun, and it did not seem to need as much water as, eg, Graham Thomas, which simply refused to bloom without winter irrigation, It also rarely showed any trace of mildew, though there were times when Zephrine and Reine Victoria were covered with mildew. It may be a weak grower that needs to be budded onto a rootstalk. The plant I later had on its own roots died for no discernable reason over one winter, also in CA.

I admit to eccentricity in my likes and dislikes about roses; I find Knock Out to be dull of color and form. I can't abide the Mcgredy handpainted line but I have been buying up every garish Tantau floribunda from Eurodesert I could get my hands on.

don't most people find knock out's dull of color and form?

but I'm sure some of my likes are eccentric, too. :3

Oh, this just breaks my heart, but doesn't surprise me. My son has a landscape construction company, and is hurting, too, along with so many others. He just has installed a 70' bed along the east side of my house which is 40' wide at some points. I plan to use a lot of ornamental grasses, but at hearing this, may fill the rest of it with roses, the ones I have had come through our Texas drought quite well, considering...

One part of what Kim says -- LEARN TO PROPAGATE.

It might be that you could have the only plant of a rare cultivar in your area. Learn to propagate, and share that rose, and others, even with just a few friends.
And ask THEM to do the same.

We may not save everything, but saving some is better than saving none.

Jeri

Kim's instructions for sharing cuttings are very useul, thank you Kim. To keep the collection intact, is there any kind of land bank program in CA? I have friends who have put properties in trust to keep natural/scenic wonders intact. And the idea of a nonprofit taking over management of the garden might work--a private group, or a collective of nonprofits, or a municipal/county entity, though the actual "work" would have to be done by a volunteer force given public budget constraints. There may not be enough time to start a new nonprofit to do the job, if there's interest in going that route. The IRS was taking up to a year to review apps for nonprofit status and the wait time is probably getting longer. I wish I wasn't all the way across the country in Louisiana so I could help. Are there any CA rose societies that would be up to the job and close enough?

Lovely ideas. At least in California, once you give any land to a municipality, they are free to do with it as they wish and substitute a "comparable" piece of land for your desired use. Ralph Moore considered donating the six acres the nursery occupied for seventy-plus years for use as a park, but reconsidered for a number of reasons. Not the least of which was the high value of the land and knowing they would probably sell it for the money and swap the use to six acres of river bottom.

The Master Gardeners in Visalia pushed to create the Ralph S. Moore Memorial Garden in a small public park not far from the nursery. In approximately five years it has now become an orphan as they are no longer maintaining it. Plant societies of all kinds are dying out for a number of reasons. The graying of the membership is a large one. Younger people don't have the disposable leisure time once more common, nor do they have the disposable incomes the more mature members more often do. Those who do, appear to have different interests. Membership across the board is dwindling rapidly and those left are of a much higher average age.

Donating money to any institution is as futile as giving land. Once in their possession, it is theirs to do with as they please. You can request what you wish done with it, but there is virtually no way to make them use it as you desired.

If you could secure the land and funds, you'd then need a charismatic leader to get the ball rolling and maintain momentum. Unfortunately, should anything happen to that person, the results would very much be what we see all the time...the creation seldom outliving its creator. Kim

Kim is so right above.

A friend of mine left his entire estate to a library he had loved and worked to improve. Between the time that he wrote his will and the time of his death, the formal name of the library changed. That meant that his estate went to the town and they used it for something totally different.

I could cite major money grabs from New Orleans, but won't. They are just too sad.
The only one that I know that worked for at least 50 years was by the creator of the massive pumps that dewatered New Orleans and the Netherlands. He left his fortune to Tulane with the stipulation that they maintained his beloved sailboat Nidia in Bristol condition for a hundred years. He also left nieces and nephews who would inherit if Tulane failed to comply. Most recently the boat is going from the Tulane Campus to a museum; I'm not sure about the money.

Many people my age (early thirties or younger) who are my friends either can't afford to buy a house with a yard... or simply aren't interested in roses that much, despite my best OCD efforts. A lot of them are really busy. I gave one friend of mine a rose,... I think it died. :\

Usually when I go to gardening events or clubs, etc, I'm the only one about my age by about 10 years.

PS. I've idly thought about somehow prostelatizing to neighbors about roses somehow... but I've yet to think of a good way to do it that would actually work and not be irritating.
It makes me sad to see almost bare yards that could instead have roses in them! D:

As many have said, it's a very tough time for roses. The economy, smaller gardens, less people gardening, and RRD have all hurt the rose trade. I think RRD might be the worst thing, until we find a way to stop it...many people are giving up on even growing roses.

I hope other nurseries will buy the inventory (as I believe Rogue Valley did with Ashdown?) to save the roses they have collected. As stated earlier, we need Bill Gates or some other 'big money' person to discover a passion for roses and preserve some of the beautiful gardens that are in jeopardy.

The only "gift" I know of which has almost worked the way it was intended is Griffith Observatory. The land was given with the stipulation the public would forever be able to view the stars free of charge. When the recent renovations were completed, one of the City's money schemes was to charge admission. According to insiders, what prevented it was a legal notice from Col. Griffith's heirs that if admission to the facility and telescopes was charged, they would exercise their rights to take it back. You can enter the building and see the stars free, but for every other "presentation" there are admission fees.

A very dear friend who designed and installed gardens in the Santa Clarita Valley was quite successful in proselytizing surrounding neighbors into taking the overflow of roses and perennials. In several communities, you can still see the after effects of her efforts a decade and longer after she made them. It's sad to see the homes change hands or the owner's decide it's time to have lower maintenance. Where there were gardens, there is now just lawn.

I don't hold any hopes of another nursery rescuing any of Vintage's inventory. Rogue Valley was swamped by Ashdown's just as they were when they bought "he who shall remain nameless". Interesting, the site refuses to permit mention of his name a decade after the ugliness, threatening to permanently ban me if I try to mention him here. EuroDesert's inventory nearly capsized Vintage. No major concern like a Monrovia would dare take it on. There just isn't enough money to be made for the intense labor, space and time necessary and finding personnel knowledgeable enough to handle it would be impossible. When the rose sales in this country have shrunk nearly 60% in the past decade, leaving the majority of what IS sold Knock Out variants, no one in their right mind would even consider it. Kim

I think Kim's right. The future of roses -- rarer, more interesting roses -- probably lies with folks like us.

LEARN TO PROPAGATE.
Share roses. Share them forward when you can. Passalong, passalong, passalong.

It's the best we can do.

Jeri
(Off to harangue the Board of my local rose society about giving programs on propagation.)

Though Vintage sadly must end there is still hope for the collection to remain intact. There are some complications to the non-profit going forward but they are not impossible to overcome. It costs nothing to be a Friend of Vintage Gardens. I believe a lot can be accomplished by a group of people passionate about something they value. It's worth trying certainly.
I have to say that I am so impressed by everyone's comments, especially Kim.

I totally second Kim's thoughts. Keeping a small boutique nursery afloat is hard in the best of times. In these times it comes down to a labor of love by someone of Independent means who is also willing to work their butt off for no money.

IMO for what it's worth I feel it's time to move beyond thinking of a rose collection as existing in one location. That is why I totally with agree with Kim on posting your collections to HMF regardless of how big or small it is. Then do as Jeri suggests and learn to propagate and trade those roses not protected or available by another small nursery.

Think of the data on HMF as a cyber rose garden collection. Perhaps we can get Steve to set it up so paying members can quickly identify which roses do exist in only one or two locations. Then the holders of those roses could propagate and share.

Heck, I'll donate $100 to HMF for Steve to set that function up.

Paul Zimmerman

As painful as the closing of Vintage might be, the loss of helpmefind to the rose world would be even harder, don't you think? It would mean the loss of easily available information about roses, vendors, information, growers, breeders, gardens, locations of roses. That would be devastating, I think.

If anyone is not currently a member, it would be reallyreallyreally helpful to join.

If the hmf effort is dependent on one person's work, I hope that they/he/Steve is thinking about training some others to work on this too or making some provision for its long term existence. I'm just sayin' ...

Ooooh no, I can't believe that Vintage Gardens is closing, too. I actually don't want to believe it! It really makes me sad to read this. I truly hope that they are at least able to rescue the garden with their rose collection.

I surely don't need more roses right now, but under these circumstances I will have a look at their web site and order my last "final four".

I support the idea to propagate the rare roses that we have already in our gardens, which are not sold by other small rose nurseries and also list our rose inventory on HMF to share it with others. Otherwise I think it comes down to that we all are as active as we can in our efforts to grow and therefore rescue rare and OGRs, and tell people about them as much as we can.

It occurs to me that even this forum becomes more important as a place where people trying to keep rare and OGRs around.

Christina

Here is a link that might be useful: Organic Garden Dreams

Terrible, terrible news to be losing Vintage. I will miss the hours deliberating over what to order (so much to choose from once upon a time...) and the anticipation of the new releases. Plus the joy of opening up those boxes full of big, healthy plants.

I am sad I did not order more when there was the chance.

Marks the end of an era, IMHO. Rare roses will fall into obscurity, many lost to US commmerce.

greybird wrote:
"I am sad I did not order more when there was the chance. "

Not picking on just you GB, but hey folks, YOU CAN STILL ORDER!

Yes, you can order for nearly the next two years. Send them as gifts. Send Vintage money in the name of your local public rose garden with instructions they may order suitable roses for your area in your name, or that of a loved one.

Yes, this forum can be used to make sure things remain available, but even as populated and enjoyable as GW is, Help Me Find IS the resource you NEED to accomplish this. Please, list your gardens and their contents there and share cuttings. Kim

I want to second and third the suggestions to propagate roses; sell, give, and swap the resulting rooted plants; share cuttings; send cuttings by mail; and give roses to whichever of your neighbors is willing to have them. I do all these things and they all work. I've been lucky here in Italy that I have a handful of precious gardening friends who are totally generous with their plants, and we all swap cuttings and rooted plants, roses and others, systematically sharing every good thing we have with each other. A good portion of my three hundred varieties of roses came to me this way, and many other plants as well. Kim is right that mailing cuttings is perfectly feasible; I've done it with good success for some years now.
Well, with changing economic conditions we're going to be doing more things for ourselves, right? The garden will become more of a homegrown project. I don't like the economic hard times I see settling down on us like a black cloud, but at least the garden is one place where, working and sharing, we can have good things even on a tight budget.
Melissa

Sad news indeed. Does anyone know how to sort the availability list to see their fall release pls?

This is very sad. If I can echo a few other sentiments already posted, it is an unfortunate and not altogether surprising sign of the times.

There is often a lot posted about the younger generations needing to get more involved...as someone in my mid-30s who has had the same experience as Aimee (being the youngest by about 20 years when attending any local garden society meeting) it's a bit disheartening.

I always wish I could do more...but with 2 kids under 5, well, I'm lucky if I have the time to do my own weeding! I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way in my generation...it's the attendance of society meetings that is most problematic as a busy mom.

Well, time to find a few remaining spots that I could put some more plants in.

I was planning to take next year "off" after this fall's bulb planting, but VG announcing their closing is a bit of a wake-up call...

~Anika

Here is a link that might be useful: Gothiclibrarian.net

Anika, one way you can help as time goes on is to nourish your kids interest in the garden - sports and ballet aren't the only activities kids can have. Gardening can also teach responsibility, especially in the age group too young for pets - no water, no plant!

I like to say that I've been gardening since I could make a mud pie. Seeds, cuttings whatever. My mom was mostly interested in ornamentals like azaleas, so I was lucky later in life to have an older neighbor who taught me how to plant vegetables, can and make jams & jellies. I'll never forget those times.

At under 5, a fun project is to take a milk carton, cut off the top and a window in the side and drainage holes in the bottom. Put clear plastic inside of the window and fill with soil. Put a couple of lima or other bean seeds in the soil in front of the window, then they watch the window to see where the top and roots come from and how they grow. (Bean sprouts in a jar aren't the same connection without the dirt.) Just a thought.

Hearbreaking news... how devastating this must be for Gregg to start the process of winding down.

And how devastating it will be to the rose collecting/gardening world that such a huge collection of rare roses will potentially be lost. When I think it's essentially the largest collection of antique roses in North America, I think, surely there's a PR angle in this. Something about the loss of biodiversity. Some national lifestyle piece about how young gardeners are taking up antique roses and bringing life to European heirloom roses. Surely, I think, some generous benefactor, somewhere, some rich silicon valley mogul or vintner should swoop in and buy up and preserve the property. Or perhaps the local junior leagues, or the various Bay Area garden clubs could provide grants. Hell, I'd even pay cold hard cash as admission to visit Gregg's garden a couple times a year, just to commune with those beautiful roses.

But I also realize it's his home, not a tourist ride. He may not want that either.

So on the one hand I'm torn between wanting to come up with some fabulous ideas to stimulate sales and enable him to keep his doors open. The flip side of that is trying to be more realistic, and maybe read between the lines that Gregg himself might be feeling like he is getting older and he just can't keep up with the garden the way he used to.

Compared to so many of you, I'm very new to antique roses. My mom collected them for at least the last 20 years and has been nagging me for at least 10 to try them myself. I went to a couple of the Celebrations in El Cerrito over the years and have been to Gregg's garden, and only in the last year or so finally started buying, researching, planning, and planting. But I love them, and mostly I love the stories behind them, the fact that they have persisted since the 1800s, that they've been brought here from Europe and other parts of the world, with delightful names and colors and scents. The sheer loss of biodiversity if these roses disappear---from a horticultural standpoint---makes me sad. I am an avid veggie gardener and pretty, er, passionate about the distribution of food in this country, and I am shocked to find myself feeling as passionately about these roses as I do about the future of home-grown food. Who knew I'd get so attached.

And I feel so much compassion for Gregg... who is just the kindest, sweetest person I've met in my 40-ish years. Such an example of someone who is doing something he truly loves. When you meet people like that, you know they're living the gift of doing what they were meant to do.

Of course, it's not closing tomorrow... and we all have plenty of time to update HMF with our collections, learn and teach how to propagage, and get more roses distributed so they don't disappear forever.

And perhaps Pamela or other folks in the know might know whether Gregg and Gita are actively looking into ways to stimulate more sales---i.e. are they open to suggestions---or whether this really is the "slow goodbye" because it needs to be that way for them personally.

I'll also be eagerly awaiting more information on the effort to turn the garden into a foundation. How lovely it would be to have that garden live on. It's absolutely incredible.

Boo hoo.

Well...I am very sad, and there's only one thing I can do to combat depression; I will turn to gratitude for what I have received from Vintage, and a pouring out of love to Gregg and Gita. First to them, for they've both been so kind to me over the phone and through emails....I've never met them but they have a place in my heart. Then the roses! Ah what beauty they've brought to the abbey. Cymbaline, Halloween, Miss Atwood, Souvenir de Pierre Notting, Marechal Niel, Maman Cochet, White Maman Cochet, Etoile de Lyon...and friends, I'm only scratching the surface here...Huntington Pink Tea, Mrs. Foley Hobbs, William R. Smith (Best clone in the world!), Mrs. B.R. Cant, Mme. Berkeley, Mme. Lambard, Condesa de Sastago, Devoniensis, Alliance Franco-Russe...

This is nowhere near exhaustive...but I am filled with joy every day as I walk through the gardens and see these plants, put in with my own hands as tiny bands, now towering 5-8 feet high and some 12 feet wide. Mme. Berkeley! I thought she'd never put on heft...and now, what a giant plant. I just had a dinner party to attend last night, and brought an armful of Etoile de Lyon, Maman Cochet and William R. Smith roses to my hosts, all from Vintage. How blessed we are at the abbey for the years of selfless service Gregg and Gita have given us all.

Thank you many times over - your legacy will live in my gardens forever.

That's a lovely way to look at it, Jerome!

And as I was walking around today, thinking of Vintage...I ran across Bouquet d'Or - so great and....and....*drum roll* Le Pactole! How could I forget that rose. Magnificent, bullet-proof and a bloom machine here.

I feel like the loss of Vintage is tantamount to (ultimately) losing many roses from commerce. Selfishly, I'm upset that I didn't make visiting the gardens and nursery in its heyday a bigger priority--a visit there was on this gardener's "bucket list" for sure. Even though I knew they've been struggling I guess I always took for granted that Vintage would soldier on. I feel good about supporting the nursery and purchasing roses there over the years as I've been able (and enabled!) but I realize I still guilty that I took such a fantastic treasured resource for granted.

I can also feel this scarcity/urgency coming over me, that all these roses I've admired and planned/hoped to add "one day" need to be ordered/bought now, which I think is a natural, but not necessarily healthy, impulse. We joke here about pot ghettos and rose hoarding, but this could really push some of us over the edge into justifying it for posterity/history of roses, etc.

It's encouraging to read the things many of you have said, that we can keep the roses alive/circulating and especially what Jerome wrote about focusing on being grateful for all the beauty Vintage has made possible in our own lives. Thank you Jerome that really made me feel better and thank you Vintage for all the beauty you've brought into the world. :)

I enjoy being a member of the Texas Rose Rustlers and I look forward to our annual Fall Cutting Exchange (October 22) more than ever. It is truly exciting to have access to so many cuttings that fellow rosarians are so willing to share. It saddens me to see the ever shrinking variety of roses available when there are so many gorgeous, healthy, fragrant roses that many people are completely unaware of. The world of OGRs reminds me of "The Secret Garden" where its beauty is only appreciated by such a small audience.
Molly

Kristi, I know that Gregg has knocked himself out over the years working on ideas to stimulate sales. He's fought on and on to keep Vintage alive. Knowing the ins and outs of it and knowing Gregg as I do, I can tell you that for a long time it's been more like a gift to the rose world than a profit making operation. What he said in the newsletter is correct, that the world is changing, even apart from the economy. A specialty nursery of rare roses doesn't have much chance to profit. I'd love to think of some small way to keep some form of Vintage alive. To think of it entirely gone is heart breaking.

I had not thought to say it, but in the midst of my sadness, I have been feeling what Father Jerome expresses, and that is, gratitude.

I am so very grateful that Vintage ever existed at all. It so easily might have never come to be. How very fortunate we were, and at this point, still are. Pamela was right. This nursery has been a gift to the rose world.

What ever happens in the future, I wish for Gregg (and everyone else affiliated with the nursery) these blessings: prosperity, contentment, good health, and an abiding sense of a job well done.

Rosefolly

I hope some of these good ideas take root, from preserving the garden 'virtually' as Paul Z. suggests, to increased emphasis on sharing cuttings, to ongoing nonprofit custodianship of the existing garden, depending on what Gregg wants. And I've placed the biggest rose order of my life with VG. Now, how to explain to my dear significant other when the semi-trailer truck pulls up...

Good for you, SpiderLily, at this moment that is the best, most concrete way we can help Gregg and his tiny staff to hold on a little longer. I've ordered only eight roses for this year and am removing some lesser roses to plant these, but it's worth it to me. Whatever any of us can do, no matter how little, will be a help to them.

How wonderful of you to make such a grand gesture. I hope your signicant other will recover from the shock soon....

Ingrid

It's my pleasure, Ingrid. I'm also working with a local historic preservation group, to add antiques and OGRs that are historically documented to have been grown in our particular part of Louisiana. (Harder than one would think, there are lots of sources for New Orleans but much sparser west of the Atchafalaya Basin.) I've got to ramp up that primary source research, to zero in on more cultivars that we need! Hmm, maybe that's worth another post...