Oh how I wished I lived in Wisconsin!!!! I am going to move there someday anyway because DH's job but I'm stuck in Maine for now!

Gosh, wish I lived close to them, but then again, I have no more room.

That will surely be some sale. Sad news though they are discontinuing sales.
Pam

WOW!!!

I wanted to order from them earlier this season and didn't.
They said "have decided to discontinue hosta sales at the gardens".... I wonder if they'll continue with internet sales?

The website mentions nothing of the liquidation.
Hmm....

How sad, that another of these excellent independent gardens no longer will be in business.

How sad. It is really a special place, and some real quality of plants. Our Hosta Club was just up there last weekend on a field trip. I sure am glad that I was able to pick out a great selection of 16 plants at my leisure and at a great club price! I did take pictures that I can post later. The sale will be crazy, especially with people trying to dig up mature plants that are very close together!

oh my.

Foxfire is a two hour drive from me. this is not good. :-)

I wonder how much streaked plants will sell for? i suppose there will be a mad-dash for the best specimens. it would be a great chance for me to pick up a streaked plant, to actually be able to see the specimen in person.

hmm....

I'm not sure how to post the pictures of the garden from last weekend. I put 25 pictures on my webshots page labeled Foxfire

http://community.webshots.com/user/poberbeck100

The last time I was there this summer, they told me that the neighbors were trying to have the area rezoned so they could no longer sell plants. They already had their commercial zoning taken away and were going to have to close the gift shop by fall, but were hoping that they would be able to sell hostas under their agricultural zoning. They had also been involved in a lawsuit and owed money for that. It was a beautiful place and they were very nice people, and I feel really bad for them since this was their passion.
Jen

Just got an e-mail from a friend about this.
I checked out their site and what a lovely Botanical Garden they have.
Jen you are so lucky that you could visit them and or live so close.
It seems UnAmerican that they can rezone someones business like this. It's just not right.
It will be heart wrenching for them to witness the distruction of their beautiful gardens. I hope they can still live and hold on to some of it.
The people behind this rezoning tsk tsk...how sad! How can you sleep at night.

Hello all,
just got this update from them:

WOW! It seems I am deluged with emails and phone calls. Let me first thank all of you who have sent good wishes our way. It is truly appreciated and totally unsuspected. Both Linda and I thank you.
There have been many common questions so let me try to answer them for the benefit of all. If you have sent a previous email and this does not answer your questions, please send me a new on and I will try to answer.

1) The Foxfire line of hostas will live on through the wonderful initiative and cooperation of Bill Silvers in Conyers, Georgia. He has many in tc as we speak and more in the pipeline so the plants will become available in the future. Palm Sunday is looking good in TC as is Night Skye. There are a few more that will be new to you also. Foxfire Green Lantern, Foxfire Irish Moon, Foxfire Night Skye, Foxfire Off Limits, Foxfire Sidewinder, Foxfire Shadow Dancer will be available as liners in June 2010 with more to follow. Palm Sunday may be a little later.

2) I cannot mail order at this time and do not think I will be able to in the near future, but I will keep all of your addresses available and notify you in the future as plants you may be interested in become available. Who knows exactly what will happen in the future so we will just have to find out together.

3) Concerning availability of hostas for sale prior to Saturday: I extended an offer the past week to hosta groups and wholesalers of buying any ten or more hostas for $10 per plant. It has been well received and I extend that now to any of you who might want to come before Saturday due to scheduling problems. I feel in fairness to all there not be early sales at the $5 price. That way everyone has the same opportunity come Saturday at the lower price. You may certainly come earlier in the week and look things over, but the gate will open Saturday at 8:00am sharp. We will have additional help so check out will not be long or complicated (we hope). It should be rather fast and easy math and we will designate an area beyond checkout where you can bag your plants at your leisure for transport home.

4) For the big plants in the grower area, breeder area, and display area it is a bit more complicated. I think a minimum price of $3 per plant for the first 1-3 eyes and then $1 per additional eye up to a maximum of $25 would be fair. You will have to dig and cut off leaves (I will have some extra knives) but I will assist with pricing for easy checkout.

5) Hostas will not be sold that are in the Garden proper--only the ones down in the retail area. I will 'rope' off any 'no dig' zones (Wally's Garden) with yellow caution tape.

There! I hope that answers most of your questions. My emails keep coming in as I write. Thank you my friends for your kind words.

Sincerely,

Steve

I went to Foxfire with the MN Hosta Society a couple of years ago. I was surprised that this operation was in a residential neighborhood. There were numerous big tour busses the day I was there. These gardens are also rented out for weddings. I can't imagine having this kind of traffic in my neighborhood on a regular basis. There is a house across the street from me that was on a pond tour a few years ago. The tour was held on Fri-Sun over 2 weekends. There was a substantial amount of traffic on my dead-end street over the course of the tour.

While it is a shame that they have to close, I can see why Steve and Linda's neighbors wanted to put an end to this.

Tolerance is the key word. Not in my neighborhood is the usual cry. Some are scared to see their neighbor (the little guy) get ahead. Just what our countrys are built on.

In this day and age when everyone is trying to make a living, a lot of places just do not have jobs. Think about how many people would be employed by those gardens, the tour buses, just the attraction must be bringing money
to the area, the food, the gas, gifts to take back home, taxes paid. Maybe someone else there could have capitalized on all those people coming in.

I bet a lot of gardeners would love it, helping with tours, imagine meeting gardeners from all over, right next door.

A great loss to all the gardeners in that area. Guess everyone is entitled to there own space.

How very sad.

Betty

What a loss! I visited Foxfire last year for the first time and was very impressed. IÂm tempted to drive up there next Saturday, but itÂs quite a trip from Chicago. Although Foxfire is in a residential area the lots are huge. Foxfire is 15+ acres I believe. In addition, across the road is a place called Jurustic Park. A husband and wife operate it, Nancy and Clyde Wynia. He's a retired lawyer. He welds and sells whimsical sculpture. SheÂs a retired nurse and she works with glass beads and sells a variety of jewelry and other pieces. I sure hope they are not being put out of business too. I would gladly live next door to either establishment.

Mark

You know, a local private grower I go to usually sells at the Farmer's Market. But he has a driveway sale twice a year. I wonder if the city has some sort of ordinance about retail sales from home ???

Interesting. I think I'll ask him next time I go to his sale.

My guess is that is was less about retail sales and more about traffic. Foxfire hosted weddings/receptions up to 300 people. How many of us could tolerate crowds of that size coming to our neighborhood on weekends throughout the summer?

I think that tolerance would wear pretty thin - really fast...... and Margo, back me up here......... Wisconsin weddings usually involve a bit of alcohol and a lot of revelry, don't they?

I wish these people well. The gardens were spectacular and the use of "downed" trees as garden art was very creative. I won't be attending the sale but good luck to all who make the trip!

Do you think I can fly out? I had just prepared an order for Foxfire last week - had not sent it yet....

I don't know that they have had many weddings lately. It's true that they have a huge lot, and across the street from them is the Jurassic Park business. The two businesses worked together to bring in customers. None of their neighbors are really close to them. Marshfield has a huge hospital that is renown for it's cancer treatment. Many of the new neighbors to Foxfire are doctors from California and have the money to force a rezoning.

I live about an hour and forty-five minutes from there, and now I have to decide if I want to go this week since I don't have to go back to work until Thursday. Or do I want to wait until Saturday and get the better price but maybe not the ones I want??? Decisions, decisions!
Jen