Dedicated to Friends of Vintage Gardens

Thank You to The Friends of Vintage Roses
Photographers
Marilyn Hartley
Our Website
Whence came these Roses?
Phillip Robinson
Provenance

A Thank You to The Friends of Vintage Roses!

The collection of roses we have grown and offered the past thirty years would not exist were it not for the good will and support of many people beyond those who work in our nursery. The Friends of Vintage Roses above all deserve our thanks. This intrepid band of old rose lovers have for more than a decade helped to keep an unruly collection of plants in order, spending a few days each year to assist in the weeding, digging, planting and mulching of roses in the ground and in pots. This glorious tribe recently inherited the collection of roses that was created by Phillip Robinson and Gregg Lowery over a 35 year period. As the uncertain times threatened to close our nursery, and resulted in the sale of the house and garden where the roses have grown, The Friends of Vintage Roses established a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving that collection of roses. Their mission statement: "preserve and enhance the unique and extensive collection of historic roses developed by Gregg Lowery and Phillip Robinson, to establish the collection in a garden, and to share the collection with other public rose preservation efforts, all for the purpose of educating the public about the importance of the rose to human history, cultures, technology and science."

The Friends of Vintage Roses have provided a way forward for the preservation of this amazing collection of roses, and an avenue of opportunities for sharing the roses and their history. Many of my efforts now are in support of developing this organization and aiding their preservation work. A Friends of Vintage Roses website is now under construction to share the story of this group, the roses they care for, and the ways in which you can help too. The Heritage Rose Foundation is maintaining a fund to be turned over to The Friends of Vintage Roses, and you can make donations directly to this effort at www.heritagerosefoundation.org.

Won't you help the Friends to save one more rose? Join in our Dirt Days to help stabilize and preserve the rose collection, check out the Friends website and see how else you can help. Check our the Vintage Gardens Events Page for more information on upcoming Dirt Days in my garden!

—Gregg Lowery

Thank You, Photographers!

A Special Thanks to Marilyn Hartley

We have been very fortunate in our friendships over the years, but none so much as that with Marilyn Hartley. She came to us in 1998 asking if she could help us out with our roses and our nursery. Marilyn began coming every weekend to lend us a hand in 1999. She helped with customers, with our plantings, with our rose labeling in the garden, and with organizing our disheveled collection of slides. Thanks to her we began finally to include some photos on our website. Most recently Marilyn has worked on the downsizing and uploading of nearly a thousand photographs to our site. She has us well prepared for this coming season to complete the photography of our collection, and will be photographing alongside Phillip, Ron and others who are working on this immense project. We are honored and very fortunate to have such a steadfast friend, such a devoted contributor to this collection of roses, and such a loving and generous friend.

Our Cyber Home!

Whence came these Roses?

Our collection has grown from a deep and abiding love for roses, but it is more that the creation of one or two people, for it is made up of all of the great and small loves for roses that have come before us. None of the beautiful creations we have gathered would be here were it not for the chain of owners who have cherished roses. It is a pleasure to be able to provide you with information on the provenance of our roses, and following these words you will find a list of those people and nurseries from whom we have received our original plants. As we revise our print catalog for 2006 we will update this provenance listing.

We owe thanks to so many friends, but these few cannot go unnoticed; Siegfried Hahn, Carolyn Lanphere, and Lee Sherman of New Mexico; Joyce Demits and Virginia Hopper of Heritage Rose Gardens; Miriam Wilkins and Barbara Worl whose encouragement and generosity we treasure; Charles Walker of the Heritage Rose Foundation; Malcolm Manners, Steven Scanniello, Muriel Humenick, Frances Grate, Jay Williams, Conrad Alexander, Fred Boutin, James Sagmiller, Kathleen Jagger, Machrina Blasdell, Peter Klement, Cindy Graebner, Sidney Charles, Helen Grier, Crystal Squires, Denise Gilmer, Michael Bates, Don Vogt, Phil Edinger, Anna Van Houtten, Mike Tallman, Don Gers, Anne Kahle, Carl Luhn, Marion McKenzie, J. E. Murphy, Don Myers, Katie Watts, Freeland Tanner, Dabney Sanders, Linda Street, Genie White, Margaret Brown, Frances Bowers, Karen Gustafson, Joe Ghio, Mel Hulse, Jim Joannides, Elaine Sedlak, Roger Zielinski, Stuart Lauter, Carolyn de Rouen, Jim Connolly, Nancy Moorhead, Jason Derer and George Matson, all of whom have shared their gardens with us, and particularly Kim Rupert whose hard-won collection of roses of unusual coloring he has generously shared with us. We are also grateful to Ed Wilkinson and Mel Hulse of the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden, who have shared that collection so selflessly.

Several very dear friends have supported us with their encouragement, their presence and their backing when the road has been rough: Helen Miles, Jim and Dotty Walters, Lanie Young & Taffy Glasner, Cappie Garrett, Robert Doyle, Gene Peck, Rosemary Sims, and especially our dear friend Brenda Pagliari. And finally a special thanks to our inspired friend, rose collector Ruth Knopf of South Carolina.

Lastly, but far from least, Vintage Gardens has been very fortunate in the support of its business partners, Dea Freid and Cynthia O’Connell, and owes a special thanks to Richard Saran who in his life saw so much potential in the love of roses.

And A Very Special Thank You to Phillip Robinson

Vintage Gardens’ roses began as a collection created by my friend, Phillip Robinson. Phillip’s gifts of observation and knowledge of roses are unparalleled, and we are extremely fortunate to have his generous support and friendship. The real catalogue of this collection is still maintained in the amazing computer of Phillip’s mind! Thank you, Phillip, for everything!

—Gregg Lowery

Alexander             Conrad Alexander, OH
ARE              Antique Rose Emporium, TX
Arena                                Arena Roses, CA
Armstrong              Armstrong Roses, CA
Bailey                                  Mrs. Bailey, CA
Barnwell                        Cleo Barnwell, LA     
Bates                                Michael Bates, CA
BBG           Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, NY
Bell                                       Léonie Bell, PA
Belogorsky           Shelby Belogorsky, CA
Berkeley          Berkeley Rose Garden, CA
Bermuda                 Bermuda Rose Society
Blasdell                   Machrina Blasdell, CA
Bonfiglio                      Tom Bonfiglio, CA
Boutin                                Fred Boutin, CA
Bowers                       Florence Bowers, SC
Brooke                   Humphrey Brooke, UK
Brown                        Margaret Brown, CA
Burbank      Luther Burbank Gardens, CA
Bush's Pasture Park    Salem Rose Garden, OR
Butler                                Marie Butler, VA
Charles                        Sidney Charles, CA
Chatwood             Chatwood Garden, NC
Chet's Plantarium                                CA
Cooper Hse   Cooper-Molera Adobe, CA
de Rouen                Carolyn de Rouen, LA
Demits                             Joyce Demits, CA
Derer                                  Jason Derer, GA
Edinger                             Phil Edinger, CA
Edmunds                     Edmunds Roses, OR
Eisen                                 Louise Eisen, CA
Forest Farm      Forest Farm Nursery, OR
Gardner                           (Kim Rupert, CA)
Grate                               Frances Grate, CA
Gers                                        Don Gers, CA
Ghio                                         Joe Ghio, CA
Gilmer                          Denise Gilmer, CA
Golden West            Golden West Nsy, US
Gonzales        ARE (Martha Gonzales), TX
Graebner                   Cindy Graebner, CA
Hackett                             June Hackett, CA
Greenmantle  Greenmantle Nursery, CA
Gurney                    Gurney’s Seed Co., SD
Gustafson                  Karen Gustafson, OR
Hahn                           Siegfried Hahn, NM
Harrison  Carolyn & Terry Harrison, CA
Harrison's                 Harrison’s Roses, MS
Heck                                 Ritchie Heck, CA
Heirloom Heirloom Old Gdn. Roses, OR
High Country    High Country Roses, UT
Hillier                    Hillier Arboretum, UK
Historical Roses       Historical Roses, OH
Hortico                      Hortico, Inc., Canada
Hopper                     Virginia Hopper, CA
HRG               Heritage Rose Gardens, CA
Hulse                                    Mel Hulse, CA
Humenick              Muriel Humenick, CA
Huntington      Huntington Botanic Garden, CA
J&P                Jackson & Perkins Roses, OR
Jaeger                          Kathleen Jaeger, CA
Jensen     Ingwer J. Jensen Nsy., Germany
Joannides                       Jim Joannides, CA
Kern    Joseph J. Kern Rose Nursery, OH
Kahle                Anne and Theo Kahle, CA
Klement                        Peter Klement, CA
KMart                                          KMart, CA
Knopf                                  Ruth Knopf, SC
Korbel           F. Korbel Bros. Winery, CA
Lakeland                  Lakeland Nursery, FL
Lanphere               Carolyn Lanphere, NM     
Lauter                               Stuart Lauter, CA
Lehman                        Margi Lehman, CA
Leloy                               Leloy garden, CA
Lettunich                   Kleine Lettunich, CA
l'Häy                  Roseraie de l’Häy, France
Liggett                              Tom Liggett, CA
Lowe           Lowe’s Own-Root Roses, NH
Lowery          Gregg Lowery (found), CA
Luhn                                      Carl Luhn, CA
Lykke       Lykke’s Rosenplanteskole, Denmark