Heronswood goes to auction

KINGSTON, Wash. — Heronswood Gardens, once heralded as the most impressive collection of exotic plants in the country, will go to auction with a starting price about the same as a house on Bainbridge Island.

 

The minimum bid for the 15-acre spread at 7530 NE 288th St. near Kingston is $749,000, down substantially from the $11 million owner W. Atlee Burpee Co. was asking in 2006, before the recession. No bankruptcy is involved.

 

New York investment firm Racebrook and its auction affiliate Sheldon Good & Co., will attempt to sell the property by taking sealed bids until June 15.

 

Closed most of the time since 2006, the property still contains 10,000 plants from all over the world and is maintained by two part-time workers. Three residences and assorted other buildings are on the premises.

 

Whoever gets it is bound to have all types of treasures there," said gardening expert Ann Lovejoy of Bainbridge Island. Get help in identifying the inventory, she suggested, and, "If you buy it, know that it's going to be a labor of love for a long time."

 

David Lewis of Little and Lewis, the garden-sculpture company on Bainbridge Island, said: "It was the end of the era when Dan and Robert sold it. Nobody really looked at it again."

 

Lewis was referring to horticulturalist and builder on the property Dan Hinkley and partner Robert Jones, who founded the garden in 1987. In the next decade, their impassioned staff combed the world in search of exotic plants to nurture and sell at Heronswood. They hopscotched from China to South Africa to Chile, plucking thousands of species.

 

Their collection of plants was world famous and drew the attention of professional and amatuer gardeners.

 

Burpee bought Heronswood in 2000 and had problems of its own a year later when it briefly entered bankruptcy. In 2006, Burpee moved the heart of Heronswood — its nursery — to the company's headquarters in Pennsylvania.

 

To read the rest of the article in the Kitsap Sun, click here.