On May 30, Kingston’s world-famous Heronswood Nursery went into lock-down. In a surprise move, W. Atlee Burpee & Co. president George Ball announced the nursery’s closing to a shocked staff within an hour of opening. Employees were then escorted from the property. The gates closed and guards were posted.

As stunned as their employees, Heronswood founders Dan Hinkley and Robert Jones are struggling to come to terms with the abrupt end of their masterwork, 19 years in the making. Although Burpee purchased the business six years ago, both men have continued to oversee day-to-day operations.

“We’re feeling a bit shell-shocked. It’s a very ungraceful end,” said Hinkley. “We’re hearing a collective sigh from around the country.”

If the country is sighing, then local gardeners are weeping. Even non-gardeners in Kitsap County recognize the name Heronswood. The botanically significant establishment and globe-trotting botanist/explorer Hinkley brought Kingston to the attention of world, and garnered prominent clients such as Martha Stewart. Hinkley frequently gave back to the community with fund-raisers supporting local libraries, environmental groups and other charities.

Carolyn Hipskind, owner of Zard’s Nursery located a short distance from Heronswood commented: “This has very far-reaching effects. Heronswood had the kind of name recognition that attracts customers and tourists.”

On the market

In simplest terms Heronswood was a three-branched entity: mail-order/online sales, on-site retail and open houses, and the famous gardens. The plants remain available by mail-order at this time, though much of the nursery stock will eventually be moved 3,000 miles to one of Burpee’s sites in Pennsylvania. All on-site events have been cancelled including classes, tours, open houses and a Stillwaters fundraiser. Ironically, the only remaining Heronswood event is the Hydrangea Open scheduled for July at Burpee’s Fordhook Farm in Pennsylvania.

For many, including Hinkley himself, the future of the gardens and its 10,000 plant species is the real concern.

“It’s unlikely the gardens will be maintained unless the right buyer steps forward,” he said. “These are good and rare plants; I hope with all my heart they’re not sent back east. Each plant has a story: a person who gave them to me or a place I’ve visited. Those gardens have layers of memory.”

Sheri Kiley, Kitsap County Master Gardener and Heronswood docent said, “There are plants in the gardens so rare that, if you step on them, you might never see their like again. There’s just no price you can put on it.”

Burpee has yet to make a final determination as to the fate of the property.

“We are not moving the garden,” said Ball. “And if we sell we will be very picky. It’s unusual to have a botanical garden for sale. Possibly someone may step forward in the fall to own a piece of paradise. Perhaps it will stay by-appointment; perhaps a developer may preserve it as a middle-class retirement village or industrial campus. We’re going to take our time and do the right thing.”

Finding a buyer for the high-profile gardens, viewed by many in the plant community as a national treasure, may be problematical. For one thing, a large staff is required to keep the gardens in top form. Might a high-profile personality such as Bill Gates be interested?

“Well, I know Martha has been approached,” said assistant nursery manager Sally Stubberfield, “and it’s not happening.”

Heronistas without a nest

Stubberfield is one of more than two dozen Heronswood employees, known affectionately as “Heronistas.” Stubberfield and several other staff members have been with the nursery more than 10 years. A handful of employees have been retained to wrap up final details and pack nursery stock. The sudden closure has been not only a financial blow, but an emotional one as well.

“The Heronistas were, well…are, a family,” said Connie Lammers, employed 10 years as Hinkley’s right-hand woman. “It wasn’t just a business, it wasn’t just a place to work – it was heart and it was family. Dan was devastated.”

The root of the legendary nursery’s demise may have stemmed from Hinkley’s and Burpee’s disparate ideologies of plant propagation: that of explorer vs. entrepreneur. The Heronswood model may well have been at odds with the business expectations of a large seed company. Whereas the nursery’s reputation was built on a wide variety of unusual plants not commonly known or grown (some rare offerings selling only 15 to 20 units per year) corporate growers look for popular selections that will sell en masse.

“Heronswood is completely and utterly unique. For the community around here it was great,” said fourth generation seedsman Ball. “But we tried for six years to serve a national market out of a remote location and it just isn’t efficient. The retail part of the nursery wasn’t profitable.”

Ball also cited the problem of plants poorly acclimatized to other parts of the country.

“A lot of these plants aren’t adapted to other areas of the country as well as they are the Northwest. At first customers blame themselves if a plant won’t grow, but after a while they start to ask themselves ‘who’s promoting things that I can grow?’ We plan to thoroughly evaluate the plants and continue breeding and research programs. Heronswood isn’t closing, it’s moving.”

An uprooted future

The move to Burpee’s two 50-acre sites in Pennsylvania is expected to be completed by the end of summer. Any remaining nursery stock may be donated to non-profit agencies or offered to the public in some form, according to Ball. The company plans to continue the mail-order service, both online and through a full-color catalog bearing the Heronswood name.

Whether or not that name can survive without Hinkley remains to be seen. At this time he has no plans to start over, especially since a non-compete clause with Burpee is still in effect. There’s no doubt, however, that he will continue to be a popular fixture in the gardening community as a speaker, author and, of course, plant hunter.

Two days after the closing of Heronswood, Hinkley accepted the American Horticulture Society’s prestigious Liberty Hyde Bailey Award for “significant contributions to at least three areas of horticultural activity including teaching, research, writing, plant exploration and business.”

When he looks ahead, one thing seems certain: “Something tells me that plants are in my future.”