Who Is Hummingbird Roses?

I fell in love with roses close to 30 years ago. It was a fluke really. I enjoyed planting and growing flowers, but my yard was shady due to all the trees. Flatline winds one year took many of the huge trees out in my yard. After the cleanup, I found I had a lot more sun! That revelation sparked a brilliant idea. I went back to the nursery to buy something sun-loving that I’d not been able to grow before. Walking back and forth in front of this beautiful pink rose, I decided I just had to have it, so it came home with me. I planted it and it kept blooming and giving me the most beautiful flowers. I had to have more! I went back and proceeded to buy 7-8 other varieties. That’s how it all began.

As my obsession grew, and the years went by, I discovered a second nursery(Great Lakes Roses) specializing in roses in Michigan. All own roots only. They did not ship, but I made the trip a couple of times a year to load up my car, take workshop classes, learn about roses, and spend all my fun money. I learned how to propagate from a class I took from Nancy and Roger Lindley, the owners. In the back of my mind, I desired to develop my own nursery, but I didn’t have the yard space or room to start a nursery for many years.

By the time I had the room, the Lindley’s had long since closed their nursery and retired, outside of the country. There was nowhere else around I could find Own Root cold hardy roses for colder climates. Great Lakes Roses had done a very good business, so I knew there was a call for it. Maybe, just maybe, I could take up where they left off and create a nursery where people could buy cold-climate roses! I’d always thought about it. I was definitely passionate enough about roses, and by then I had about 400 different varieties in my own garden to work with. How could I fail? (LOL)

Fail I did for the first couple of years. Badly. There is no instruction manual that comes on how to do this in the state of Michigan with our short season. Propagating in different climates is vastly different as far as what works and what doesn’t. I am ‘still’ tweaking my methods today. I lose a lot of cuttings. More than I’d like. Way more. Yet gratefully, I finally started having some success. Each year it gets a bit better. Learning from my mistakes, of which I have made a lot, I celebrate the successes and give thanks to those in abundance.

When you deal with Hummingbird Roses (two of my favorite things. That’s how I came up with the name) you are dealing with just me. I am a small, one-woman operation. I’ve been single and independent for over 20 years now. My lovely parents drove up to help me last summer pot up the rooted babies, which they enjoyed, but I have no staff or assistant. My plan is to keep the nursery small enough that it is manageable by just myself, but who knows what the future holds, as we have no crystal ball.

My wish is to share my love of roses with all you enthusiasts out there, of which I know there are many! Roses are growing in popularity, more so than I ever imagined! And while I grow many varieties, I aim to specialize in the older hard-to-find English roses, along with roses that do especially well in cold northern climates. I am also collecting Paul Barden’s creations, and I have received his blessing to offer them through my nursery. They are some of my favorites!

~Bringing Joy to Others, One Bloom at a Time~

Mindy