Gregg Lowery spent more than forty years developing a collection of rare old roses that has become one of the largest old rose collections in North America. For many years it formed the basis of Vintage Gardens, a retail, mail order rose nursery in the small Northern California town of Sebastopol. Vintage Gardens began selling on a small scale in 1984, and in 1991 the first mail order crop was planted. By 1994 the business had developed such a following that Gregg opened a retail store, which in 1997 moved to a larger location nearby. In 2006 Vintage Gardens returned to its roots to operate only via mail order. In June 2014 Vintage Gardens closed permanently.
A former High School teacher and Social Worker in London and Paris in the 1970s, since 1984 Gregg has designed and developed gardens and landscapes in Northern California that have covered a spectrum from old-fashioned and historical plantings to native Western gardens. Gardens he has contributed to continue to thrive in Seattle, Albuquerque, South Carolina and Louisiana. He has consulted on a number of historic rose garden plantings including Boone Hall Plantation in South Carolina, and Hearst Castle at San Simeon in California. His most current projects include the redesign of a garden surrounding the 1870 MacDonald mansion in Santa Rosa, California, known as Mabelton, and a new rose garden for the Albuquerque Botanic Gardens. This latter garden, a garden of ‘Desert Roses’ aims to educate the public about species and hybrids which are at home in low-rainfall climates with hot summer temperatures.
Founding member of the Heritage Rose Foundation, a non-profit society that promotes education about old roses and their preservation, Gregg served as Vice-President for publications from 2005 through 2014. After organizing the HRF conference on California’s Rose History in El Cerrito in 2005, Gregg and his fellow editors of the conference journal, ‘California’s Rose Heritage’, conceived and developed a new heritage rose magazine, Rosa Mundi, Journal of the Heritage Rose Foundation. It featured news from around the world about old rose preservation, found roses, cemetery gardens, and rare roses and rose literature.
In 2011 Gregg co-edited Mystery Roses Around the World, a new book published by the Heritage Rose Foundation. This anthology of stories from around the world about finding, collecting, and preserving old roses includes contributions from China, Japan, India, South Africa, Italy, France, Sweden, Bermuda, the USA and Australia. In 2014 the HRF produced a companion book, Old Rose Survivors: Wild and Untamed. That anthology focused on wild roses and their near offspring. He lectures frequently throughout the USA, and has addressed conferences in Western Australia, Lyon, France, Sakura, Japan and Dunedin, New Zealand. In 2016 he addressed the Chinese Rose Society in Beijing at the conference co-sponsored by the World Federation of Roses on the subject of ‘Chinese-American roses.’
In 2012 he handed over his historic rose collection, a passion for 40 years, to The Friends of Vintage Roses, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving these roses for their educational, cultural, and scientific value. Gregg currently serves as curator of that collection of 4000 varieties of heritage roses which covers a spectrum from wild roses to late 20th century Hybrid Tea roses.
That s what you can get from his bio. But Gregg is more than that. He makes people come together, create a rose family around the world, a community which fights the destruction of our past and culture.
Consumption societies are based on mere profit, whereas Gregg is for generosity and sharing knowledge and plants, so to keep valuable roses from extinction due to fashion.
He states that flower shapes have cycles, and the old fashioned shape is loosing its appeal. In the last Chelsea Flower Shows old fashioned flowers are loosing popularity , after decades of the predominace of David Austin s and its copy cats. The death of David Austin this year, and of Peter Beales and André Eve in the last years is a sign of the end of a generation who were the fierce defenders of the old roses and in the case of Austin a massive producer of old looking new roses.
The closure of Paul Barden s site this year and him stopping hybridising some years ago and the closure of vintage gardens shows that old roses are again under threat by fashion.But Gregg non commercial attitude towards saving old roses maybe it is the real key to do the job.
Generosity and volunteering is the key of the Friends of vintage gardens where people spend their time and money to safeguard what is considered as a common treasure and not as personal collection as most of rose breeders tend to accumulate for their own pride and to show off. As I wrote in the Italian post , he is very much as a Prometheus, stealing fire from the Gods.
In this case he saves, beauty, culture and scent from oblivion .
Roses are not only about growing thing but it is about culture in the sense of knowledge. Many old roses are linked to historical facts and people , but also concerning art and culture.
Furthermore Gregg work has a vernacular historical role, his obsessive Robin hooding of demolished cottages in order to rescue prickled and scented damsel from the havoc caused by new developements, which are cancelling the immediate past of the last century.
Everything has to be pristine and every trace of the past should be erased.
Roses are monuments of people who have lived in those old houses, and several roses carry the name of places which are gone, but thanks to Gregg a piece of memory is kept from the never ending turmoil of modern life .
Gregg is not a snob and he has even recent introductions, but his originality is a collection of old hybrid teas which are more rare, than some old garden rose varieties, and some are of extreme beauty.
Please go to the Facebook page friends of vintage roses and like the page and donate directly to the Facebook page . It would help to preserve this enormous treasure.
The rose garden in the pict is the great treasure of Gregg s garden in Sebastopol , California
Gregg Lowery spent more than forty years developing a collection of rare old roses that has become one of the largest old rose collections in North America. For many years it formed the basis of Vintage Gardens, a retail, mail order rose nursery in the small Northern California town of Sebastopol. Vintage Gardens began selling on a small scale in 1984, and in 1991 the first mail order crop was planted. By 1994 the business had developed such a following that Gregg opened a retail store, which in 1997 moved to a larger location nearby. In 2006 Vintage Gardens returned to its roots to operate only via mail order. In June 2014 Vintage Gardens closed permanently.
A former High School teacher and Social Worker in London and Paris in the 1970s, since 1984 Gregg has designed and developed gardens and landscapes in Northern California that have covered a spectrum from old-fashioned and historical plantings to native Western gardens. Gardens he has contributed to continue to thrive in Seattle, Albuquerque, South Carolina and Louisiana. He has consulted on a number of historic rose garden plantings including Boone Hall Plantation in South Carolina, and Hearst Castle at San Simeon in California. His most current projects include the redesign of a garden surrounding the 1870 MacDonald mansion in Santa Rosa, California, known as Mabelton, and a new rose garden for the Albuquerque Botanic Gardens. This latter garden, a garden of ‘Desert Roses’ aims to educate the public about species and hybrids which are at home in low-rainfall climates with hot summer temperatures.
Founding member of the Heritage Rose Foundation, a non-profit society that promotes education about old roses and their preservation, Gregg served as Vice-President for publications from 2005 through 2014. After organizing the HRF conference on California’s Rose History in El Cerrito in 2005, Gregg and his fellow editors of the conference journal, ‘California’s Rose Heritage’, conceived and developed a new heritage rose magazine, Rosa Mundi, Journal of the Heritage Rose Foundation. It featured news from around the world about old rose preservation, found roses, cemetery gardens, and rare roses and rose literature.
In 2011 Gregg co-edited Mystery Roses Around the World, a new book published by the Heritage Rose Foundation. This anthology of stories from around the world about finding, collecting, and preserving old roses includes contributions from China, Japan, India, South Africa, Italy, France, Sweden, Bermuda, the USA and Australia. In 2014 the HRF produced a companion book, Old Rose Survivors: Wild and Untamed. That anthology focused on wild roses and their near offspring. He lectures frequently throughout the USA, and has addressed conferences in Western Australia, Lyon, France, Sakura, Japan and Dunedin, New Zealand. In 2016 he addressed the Chinese Rose Society in Beijing at the conference co-sponsored by the World Federation of Roses on the subject of ‘Chinese-American roses.’
In 2012 he handed over his historic rose collection, a passion for 40 years, to The Friends of Vintage Roses, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving these roses for their educational, cultural, and scientific value. Gregg currently serves as curator of that collection of 4000 varieties of heritage roses which covers a spectrum from wild roses to late 20th century Hybrid Tea roses.
That s what you can get from his bio. But Gregg is more than that. He makes people come together, create a rose family around the world, a community which fights the destruction of our past and culture.
Consumption societies are based on mere profit, whereas Gregg is for generosity and sharing knowledge and plants, so to keep valuable roses from extinction due to fashion.
He states that flower shapes have cycles, and the old fashioned shape is loosing its appeal. In the last Chelsea Flower Shows old fashioned flowers are loosing popularity , after decades of the predominace of David Austin s and its copy cats. The death of David Austin this year, and of Peter Beales and André Eve in the last years is a sign of the end of a generation who were the fierce defenders of the old roses and in the case of Austin a massive producer of old looking new roses.
The closure of Paul Barden s site this year and him stopping hybridising some years ago and the closure of vintage gardens shows that old roses are again under threat by fashion.But Gregg non commercial attitude towards saving old roses maybe it is the real key to do the job.
Generosity and volunteering is the key of the Friends of vintage gardens where people spend their time and money to safeguard what is considered as a common treasure and not as personal collection as most of rose breeders tend to accumulate for their own pride and to show off. As I wrote in the Italian post , he is very much as a Prometheus, stealing fire from the Gods.
In this case he saves, beauty, culture and scent from oblivion .
Roses are not only about growing thing but it is about culture in the sense of knowledge. Many old roses are linked to historical facts and people , but also concerning art and culture.
Furthermore Gregg work has a vernacular historical role, his obsessive Robin hooding of demolished cottages in order to rescue prickled and scented damsel from the havoc caused by new developements, which are cancelling the immediate past of the last century.
Everything has to be pristine and every trace of the past should be erased.
Roses are monuments of people who have lived in those old houses, and several roses carry the name of places which are gone, but thanks to Gregg a piece of memory is kept from the never ending turmoil of modern life .
Gregg is not a snob and he has even recent introductions, but his originality is a collection of old hybrid teas which are more rare, than some old garden rose varieties, and some are of extreme beauty.
Please go to the Facebook page friends of vintage roses and like the page and donate directly to the Facebook page . It would help to preserve this enormous treasure.
The rose garden in the pict is the great treasure of Gregg s garden in Sebastopol , California
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