A private security guard watches over the valuable plants and equipment still left at the site of Heronswood Nursery near Kingston, which was abruptly closed on May 30.

Citing financial reasons, Burpee president George Ball arrived at the nursery on May 30 to announce the immediate closure of the facility.

“We were given the notice about five minutes before,” Ball told nursery employees, said a dispirited Daniel J. Hinkley, who founded Heronswood nursery with partner Robert Jones nearly two decades ago.

Immediately following Ball’s announcement, Heronswood employees, known fondly as “Heronistas,” were escorted off the property, the nursery’s gates were closed and locked and security guards were put in place on the property round-the-clock.

“I haven’t gone back to look, but they’re still there,” Hinkley said.

Heronswood put the Pacific Northwest on the map for many serious horticulturists and was renowned for the diversity of its collection, which boasted somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 types of plants. Much of the collection was grown from seeds collected by Hinkley, an avid plant explorer and former horticulture instructor at Edmonds Community College.

Hinkley and other Heronistas traveled to many exotic regions around the world to collect plants that had rarely been seen by horticulturists in this country. The Kingston nursery had legions of loyal customers, including Martha Stewart, who visited the nursery regularly and featured Heronswood on her television show and in her magazine.

Ball contends that the regional quality of the nursery’s plants was one of the reasons why the nursery did not do well under Burpee ownership. Business was flat after six years, and Ball reported that Heronswood was never profitable.

Burpee plans to take samples of the thousands of plants in Heronswood’s extensive gardens and take them back to Pennsylvania, where the company’s research staff will work to adapt them to other climates, with the intention of selling plants to other parts of the country. Burpee is keeping the Heronswood name and the nursery’s online shopping site remains open.

A handful of Heronswood employees have been asked to work through the summer to get the plants ready for transport to the east coast. The rest of the nursery’s 20 or so employees are now facing unemployment.

It is still up in the air as to what will happen to the lush, garden property that was the home of Heronswood. Ball has been quoted as saying Burpee intends to sell the property to someone who will “honor” it, but further details have not been revealed.

“It’s a huge question for me,” said Hinkley, “but I have no clue.” Even the employees that were asked to stay on to wrap things up are in the dark as to Burpee’s future plans for the property, he said.

There was no discussion about alternatives to closing the facility, said Hinkley. Asked if he would consider taking the nursery back, if given the option, Hinkley said, “If there was a proposal that was amenable, I would be interested in taking it back again.” But, he continued, since Burpee has decided to retain ownership of the Heronswood name, “it could possibly be the same place, but it’s never going to be Heronswood again.”.