'Lac la Nonne' at the Fairbanks Botanical Garden
Dear Friends and Customers of Hartwood Roses,
I have written and rewritten this message many times in my head over the past few weeks … it’s probably best that I just come right out and say it … effective immediately, I will no longer be propagating roses for sale.
"Lac Majeau'
'Jens Munk'
Hartwood Roses has always been a one-woman operation. I plant and care for the gardens, and propagate and grow all the roses in the catalog, mostly by myself. I also present rose programs several times a year for groups and garden clubs, consult on historic roses and gardens across the country, search out and preserve roses found at abandoned home sites and in cemeteries, and work plant sales and other events throughout the year. This has become too much for me to do, and I must make some changes.
Unknown rose at our hotel in Talkeetna, Alaska
I have been spending a disproportionate amount of my rose gardening time and energy producing and caring for each year’s crop of new roses, while my own roses are all but ignored. My gardens are overgrown and neglected, and this is putting much of my collection of rare roses at risk. I cannot, in good conscience, continue to propagate and sell the same popular roses over and over when the rarest and most unusual of my roses need to be preserved and distributed to reduce the chance of their extinction.
Unknown rose in Ketchikan, Alaska.
I have already removed the online catalog from the Hartwood Roses web site. There were not very many roses left there, because this has been a good year for sales. I am also disconnecting the Hartwood Roses phone line … email has always been the best way to reach me anyway.
Unknown Alba rose in Ketchikan, Alaska
Everything else around here will remain the same. I will continue to welcome visitors to the garden, especially while the roses are blooming each spring. I hope to expand the number of rose programs I present … to continue to teach gardeners that roses are not rocket science, to show that anyone really CAN have the rose garden of their dreams.
Unknown rose in Ketchikan, Alaska.
This has been a very difficult decision, one that I have made after months of consideration. I got into the rose business to educate people about rare roses from the past … and this is what I will be concentrating on in the future. Hartwood Roses has been a success because of your support and encouragement ... for this, I will always be sincerely grateful.
Thank you very, VERY much.
Sincerely,
Connie Hilker
