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California Gardening

Heronswood Nursery closed for good

17 years ago

The 15 acre nursery and gardens in Kingston, WA were closed abruptly on Tuesday. All operations will be moved to Pennsylvania and the beautiful gardens will be sold off. On Tuesday, the employees showed up for work only to be told to go home. No notice was given.

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Comments (11)

Heathen1
17 years ago
Well, that's a bummer! I was just looking at their site yesterday! :o(
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moschata
17 years ago
Bummer. I ordered a few plants from them this season and one of the rarer ones never emerged from dormancy. I guess I can kiss that one goodbye.
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Heronswood being moved to pa.!!!!!! oh nooooo
Q
Comments (2)
Shock. Denial. Anger. Grief. Acceptance. Going to Newbury Perennial Gardens to drown my sorrow. Typical of a big corporate buyouts. At the purchase time, the line is always that "we like it the way it is. If it ain't broke don't fix it." But in a few years, that always changes. Don't let the fox in the hen house, no matter what it promises before about not eating the chickens. You know it's the nature of the fox to eat chickens. Big businesses are about cranking as much profit as possible, and finding ways to make an already profitable business more profitable usually involves a very big change, as Dan Hinkley discovered. I hope he starts a new operation after the no-compete period is over.
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Chinese Salvia spp. purchased from Heronswood Nursery
Q
Comments (9)
If you need information on optimizing the growth of Chinese Salvias, contact your friends in the local chapter of NARGS (North American Rock Garden Society). They would know if anyone would how to grow tricky Chinese plants. There is a listserv called Alpine-L, open world over to anyone interested in growing alpines. Growing tips for difficult plants is one of their main topics.
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Heronswood has CLOSED !
Q
Comments (4)
Apparently not all is lost at Heronswood, as a local nonprofit, Pacific Northwest Horticultural Conservancy,has been formed with the intention of preserving the garden and turning it into a research and education center in partnership with the University of Washington. For those interested in contributing, or more info, go to www.weloveplants.org. I haven't heard what Dan and Robert are up to recently, but imagine that there new property and landscaped gardens and speaking engagements are keeping them both busy. At the vert least, the sale of the property to Burpee afforded them the means to create a new dream house and garden, and completely new challenges. I wonder if Dan will get back into the nursery business again, anyone heard? Or do you suppose there was a non compete clause to the sale, which would probably be about due to expire about now...
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Peter Engels nursery closing down
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Comments (3)
For a few years we lived on the other side of Main North Road from them in Salisbury East and they were the most expensive place to buy from. Then Bunnings opened up down the road a bit and they took a big hit and drop in sales. Funnily enough the staff at Bunnings were far more knowledgeable and open with their knowledge than at Engels. I had only gardened in Melbourne where anything and everything grew in my garden so wasn't aware of soil differences - (alkaline rather than acidic )and not long after moving there bought a whole lot of Azaleas from Engels to plant in my new garden. Not being told of that difference of course they all died even in the shade with water and mulch. I mentioned this to them and they said " Well of course they will die if they are planted in the ground here as they do better in pots. That was it......no mention about them really only growing well in the Hills and not being suited to the Plains. Don't think I ever bought from them again in all the seven years we lived there. I do remember the enormous Lavenders I grew and the stunning roses also when I was put right about the soil conditions tho'. Bunnings recommended so many plants that would do well in that area I was almost sad to leave that garden when we returned to Melbourne Cathy
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CA Kate z9
17 years ago
How sad.
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youreit
17 years ago
Interesting article below. I guess Burpee has owned Heronswood for 6 years. They claim it's not closing, just moving, and that it might be online-only soon. :(

Brenda

Here is a link that might be useful: World-famous Heronswood Nursery closes
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kellied
Original Author
17 years ago
Even if it is online, no one will ever again get to tour the fabulous gardens. That alone was an experience.

Expect the plant inventory to homogenize without Dan Hinkley's influence in keeping the focus on the unusual rather than the pedestrian.
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davissue_zone9
17 years ago
Noooo... first Western Hills, now Heronswood!!! If Tony Avent closes Plant Delights, or Annie Hayes sells Annie's Annuals, I'm going into a serious depression. Sue
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moschata
17 years ago
Yeah, the gardens are awesome. When I lived in Seattle, I used to drive over to Heronswood for inspiration. I'm hoping that someone buys it and keeps it available to the public.

I was honestly disappointed when Hinckley sold Heronswood to Burpee in the first place. I'm not surprised that this happened.
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socal23
17 years ago
I remember when the sale was announced and Hinkley tried to allay fears that this would happen (I still have the catalogue somewhere; I'll be sure to find a safe spot for it, could be worth something someday).

Unless I'm mistaken, the nursery would have had to close if Burpee hadn't bought it. The market has spoken, think about that the next time you decide you want a hard to find plant but don't want to purchase it.

Ryan
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CA Kate z9
17 years ago
Same thing... where are you going to buy your everyday plants? Home Depot? Lowes? Walmart? Kmart? Target? OR one of your local nurseries? Pretty soon there won't be anything left to us but the Big Box stores.
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tuesdayschild
17 years ago
I'm so sad about this one, because I never had to be disappointed by the "can not be delivered to California" message that I get from so many nurseries back east. Pennsylvania is not going to cut it for most of my orders unless they go to some extraordinary methods which I sincerely doubt. This is a big loss for my orders I'm sure!
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Dick_Sonia
17 years ago
Part of this, I think, has to do with the size paradox: specialist nurseries have always tended to be "boutique businesses" run by one or two people. They struggle to survive and imagine that growing the business is the way to profitability. But they easily become too big, have to charge too much, and are then too cumbersome to make a go of it. Given the fuel surcharges that the package delivery companies are having to charge, a number of mail-order nurseries are undoubtedly poised on the precipice right now.
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