Foster Gallager, the company that owns Breck Bulbs, New Holland Bulbs, Michigan Bulb Co, Gurneys, Henry Field, Stark Brothers and American Wildflower nursery and Springhill Nursery has filed for bankructy. All assets will be liquidated. What a sad day!!

-- Martha Mattews (marthafromwa@webtv.com), July 06, 2001

Answers

This makes me stop and wonder. Why did they go bankrupt? Was it due to management or was it due to a lack of interest in the public or just competition. I have to say that it seems very few people garden anymore. I think they see it as too much work and they are too busy working to pay for all of the "things" they buy. I'm sure that one factor for their failure is the need for labor to have a nursery and certainly labor is not cheap nowadays. But it certainly does not bode well for us in general if too many seed producers go out of business. I wouldn't want to see the seed producing limited to only a very few who would have a monopoly. Then we would all have to take what they give us. Makes me definitely convinced that we need to be involved with seed savers exchange and others who are interested in protecting our seed heritage. This is really a sad event.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), July 06, 2001.

Oh MY! That is sad news. I ordered lots of bulbs and roses from those companies.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), July 06, 2001.

Hi Guys.

Please keep in mind it's just the main company, Foster Gallagher, that has filed bankruptcy, not the subsidiaries. The chances are fairly good that each of the companies will be bought buy independant owners who will continue thier operations. Let's wiat a bit before becoming too concerned.

Randle

-- Randle Gay (rangay@hotmail.com), July 06, 2001.

Here is the link for the newspaper article on this published on 7/3/01. Note that they are in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy -- being reorganization-- not liquidation of the company (Chapter 7). In the article it states that there are offers to buy the argicultural part of the business. Keeping my fingers crossed..I would hate to see them go out! http://www.pjstar.com/news/topnews/cop736a.html

-- Karen (db0421@yahoo.com), July 06, 2001.

The St. Louis Post Dispatch reported that unless someone buys Stark Brothers through court proceedings," Pike County will lose its biggest employer, 300 jobs and 185 years of history hang in the balance." My thoughts and prayers are with all those wonderful people who have always answered questions with a smile and been so very helpful. Virginia talked of the trees as if they were being adopted instead of bought. Best of luck to these people and all of us who depend on the services they provide so well.

-- Lynn (lynnannmb@hotmail.com), July 06, 2001.

Lynn, the same thing goes for the employees of Spring Hill Nurseries here in Ohio. Spring Hill itself was not losing money, it was the parent company that was in the Red. Makes you wonder where the money was going since each of the nurseries and seedsman you name have logged decades of success when they were privately owned (before they were bought up by a corporation).

Several Spring Hill employees are continuing to try to care for the plants in the hopes that if the assets are protected (the nursery stock) someone may save (buy) the company.

-- Sojourner (notime4@summer.spam), July 06, 2001.

Guess I REALLY need to get serious on starting those baby trees. I have 5 baby elms doing well now!! DW

-- DW (djwallace@ctos.com), July 07, 2001.