About Us
From America’s Expert Source for Heirloom Flower Bulbs
My Basket
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About Us
From America’s Expert Source for Heirloom Flower Bulbs | My Basket |
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| Welcome to Old House Gardens! We’re proud to be America’s only mail-order source devoted entirely to heirloom bulbs, many available nowhere else, and an international leader in the preservation of these fabulous relics. |
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| Our Mission: Save the Bulbs! We search the world for great old bulbs that are at risk, we research their histories, we recruit small farmers to grow them for us, and we share them with gardeners across America through our mail-order catalog and website. We strive to deliver the very best quality bulbs and to serve our customers so well that they count us as partners and friends. |
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| Our Humble Beginnings It all started with the ‘Prince of Austria’. Our founder, landscape historian Scott Kunst, had been collecting antique plants for years, and this red-orange tulip was one of his favorites. Dating to 1860, it’s both impressively perennial and deliciously fragrant. When the last North American source dropped it, Scott was dismayed — and motivated. “It was just too great a tulip to let it go extinct,” he says. So in 1993 he mailed his first catalog — three sheets of paper photocopied at Kinko’s — to 500 people. “Strangers sent me hundreds of dollars in the mail,” he still marvels, and Old House Gardens - Heirloom Bulbs was born. |
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Our Old House (and New Farm?) OHG World Headquarters Our Trial Garden Don’t laugh. Our main trial garden is our neighbor’s former vegetable garden. Since the beginning we’ve grown a handful of every variety we sell every year, along with new varieties we’re thinking of offering, to make sure they’re the real thing and 100% healthy. Though we cram lots of bulbs into our own small yard, there’s never enough room. One day we noticed our neighbor’s abandoned vegetable garden, overgrown with weeds, and — ah-ha! We asked, he loved the idea, and now his backyard is filled with flowers and we have almost enough room for everything we want to trial. Our Incredible Crew Some of the best people in the world work at Old House Gardens! Alexa Lee is our VP for Bulbs. (She also teaches yoga at Ann Arbor's cool new Y.) Jesse Scott is our IT Whiz. (Ask him about his Catahoula leopard dog.) “Kelly” Kelly is our Trial Garden Manager. (Some say she loves coffee and books even more than our bulbs.) Rita Bailey is our Team-Leader for Customer Care. (Everyone should have a mom like Rita!) Jessica Burby is our Order-Entry Expert. (And an honor-roll student at WCC.) Jacqueline Venner Senske is our new Assistant for Bulbs and Jacq-of-All-Trades. (Ask her about her family farm in Iowa.)  May Day 2007 at Old House Gardens We’re also blessed with many wonderful workers who help out during our busy shipping seasons. This fall’s crew was especially terrific and included Doug Dick, Linda Peltier, Lisse Williams, and LKate Rice as well as four women who have been coming back for so long — and contribute so much to our success and fun — that we wanted to single them out for special thanks: “Timmie” Corser (since 1995!), Donna Squires, Arlene Kennedy, and Ann Lyzenga. Yea, team! |
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Our Fearless Leader, Scott Kunst Our Director of Naps Wanting to know more, he ended up getting a masters degree in historic preservation and in 1983 he started free-lancing as a landscape historian, helping museum sites and home-owners research and restore their grounds. An avid collector of heirloom plants, Scott launched Old House Gardens - Heirloom Bulbs in 1993. Scott has taught landscape history and preservation at Eastern Michigan University, spearheaded the successful drive to add historic daffodils to every show of the American Daffodil Society, written articles for numerous national magazines including Horticulture, Fine Gardening, and Old-House Journal, and planted heirloom bulbs with Martha Stewart on national TV. When he’s not in the garden, Scott enjoys antiquing with his wife and watching UM sports with his two grown sons (Go Blue!). |
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| Bulbs from America’s Small Farmers If you order from a catalog based in, say, Virginia, Connecticut, or Wisconsin, you may think you’re getting bulbs grown in those states. But no! Nearly 99% of all bulbs from other US bulb catalogs are imported from the Netherlands. Which makes us a bit weird, because most of our lilies, dahlias, cannas, glads, diverse spring treasures, and about a third of our daffodils come to us from small growers around the US. We love working with these folks, men and women in Texas, California, Michigan, Oregon, Washington, Georgia, Illinois, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Florida who are as passionate about bulbs, quality, and preservation as we are. We do get a lot of great bulbs from growers in the Netherlands, England, and France, but by working with American growers as well we’re able to offer you fresher bulbs, better adapted to US conditions, of varieties you can’t get anywhere else — and we support America’s family farms. It may be more complicated and expensive this way, but we think it’s worth it! |
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| Our Incredible Customers We love our customers! Most of them garden in backyards, old and new, that are probably a lot like yours, in all 50 states. Others garden at famous historic and public gardens such as Monticello, Old World Wisconsin, the Denver Botanic Garden, and Alcatraz. Some have never planted bulbs before; many are expert gardeners looking for something a little different. They send us suggestions, complaints (we want to know!), planting tips, bulb stories, photos, old catalogs, books on loan, Christmas cards, boxes of chocolate, and tons of moral support. It’s this far-flung, close-knit village that has made Old House Gardens more than just a dream — and we never forget that. |
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A Few Highlights from Our First 15 Years
Why Buy From Us? Praise from Customers and Garden Writers |
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| For our print catalog click here or send $2.00 to Old House Gardens 536 Third St., Ann Arbor, MI 48103. phone: 734-995-1486 fax: 734-995-1687 email: charlie@oldhousegardens.com |  |
For our free email newsletter, “The Friends of Old Bulbs Gazette” with tips, news, history, & special offers, send us an email with “subscribe” in the subject line to newsletter@oldhousegardens.com. |
| © 1993-2008, Old House Gardens. All rights reserved. | ||