Vintage Gardens is Closing June 30th
ORDER NOW THROUGH JUNE 30TH
for the last time...

Dear Friends, Customers and Supporters
of Vintage Gardens,
 
A rosy outlook is what I wish for you all during these hard times; and it is what I hope you will try to maintain as I share with you that Vintage Gardens will close its doors to new orders on June 30th, 2013. We have tried to prepare our customers for this announcement over the past two years. I know that with the demise of so many rose nurseries recently, our closing will mean a very significant loss of resources to lovers of old roses, but we cannot continue operating the nursery at a loss.

This is it, then, the final months of Vintage Gardens. Our time table is focused on selling off the large number of roses we propagated in 2012, on shipping spring orders, and on propagating remaining custom orders to ship in the fall of this year.  

  We will:
   • NO LONGER ACCEPT CUSTOM ROOT ORDERS FOR     ROSES NOT IN STOCK.
   • Continue accepting orders through June, and     shipping them.
   • Ship our spring season orders through June.
   • Close our office on June 30th.
   • Prepare all outstanding custom orders propagated in     May and June for shipping starting in September.
   • Ship our delayed French Import roses beginning in     September.
   • Ship a small number of orders to cold climates in the     Spring of 2014.
   • Close our website on December 31st, 2013.  

  As I face the end of an effort that has engaged me for 30 years, I look ahead now to all that must still be done in the name of the rose. Central to my rosy outlook has been the efforts of a group of old rose lovers who have created a non-profit organization to preserve the collection of roses that I developed with Phillip Robinson beginning in the late 1970s. The Friends of Vintage Roses, assisted by the Heritage Rose Foundation, have begun the work of stabilizing and restoring a collection of old and rare roses that once numbered over 5000 varieties. 

  This organization will complete its application to the IRS for tax-exempt status this month. Donations raised by the Heritage Rose Foundation have already benefited the rose collection, including the restoration of more than a thousand lost and nearly varieties.

  The years ahead will keep me busy helping the efforts of The Friends of Vintage Roses to preserve and provide public access to the roses. And my commitment to the Heritage Rose Foundation will continue to demand much from me as well.

  Our Road to Closing Down  
We have set for ourselves the challenging goal of meeting all of our promises to supply roses to our customers, and to retire our business in good standing with our customers and suppliers. We will need your good will, your good words, and your assistance in order to do this.  

I thank you all for your understanding, your support of Vintage Gardens' efforts to keep so many rare old roses in commerce, and for being rose gardeners; the best sort of people I know!

  Thank you for your understanding, your patience and for your support!
-Gregg Lowery

DELAY IN SHIPPING ON FRENCH IMPORT ROSES
On February 12th, 2013, the USDA inspectors arrived for what we expected to be a final inspection and release from quarantine of roses we had imported from France in 2011. The inspectors were concerned about a number of losses and poor growth among the Tea and China roses we received from Roseraie du Desert. These were small own-root plants which have been very slow to grow. By the end of 2012 a number of these roses had died. (Customers who ordered from among the plants that we have lost are being emailed separately.) The USDA inspectors have required one more inspection of our quarantined block of French roses to be scheduled for August of this year. 

  We are very sorry, therefore, to have to tell you that the import roses that are now set aside for you and will be confirmed in March, CANNOT be shipped UNTIL the Fall of this year, after our final inspection of the quarantined plants. 

  We have been told by the USDA inspectors that they could find NO EVIDENCE OF PATHOGENS that would prevent the roses from being released. Their desire is to confirm that the plants that have not grown well show new growth and increased vigor this season.