美国 Old House Gardens – 密歇根 33 年家族拯救濒危球根苗圃

“美国老房子花园-传统球根公司” Old House Gardens – Heirloom Bulbs 是一家 1993 年成立于美国密歇根州 Ann Arbor 市的家族经营球根保护机构，由景观历史学家 Scott Kunst 创立，现任所有者 Vanessa Elms（前副总裁）于 2017 年从创始人手中接管，公司明确以”Save the Bulbs!”（拯救球根！）为核心使命，是美国唯一一家专门通过邮购目录和网站面向全美园艺爱好者销售古老 heirloom 球根品种的机构，也是国际范围内濒危球根保护领域的领跑者之一。

苗圃沿革与 1993 年密歇根 Ann Arbor 家族 heirloom 球根保护机构的创立历程

Old House Gardens 的故事起源于一颗名为”Prince of Austria”（奥地利亲王）的郁金香。这株可追溯至 1860 年的红橙色郁金香同时具备多年生习性与浓郁芳香，是创始人 Scott Kunst 在自家老房子花园里栽培多年的最爱；当北美洲最后一家供应该品种的苗圃将其下架时，Scott 决定不能让如此优秀的古老郁金香从此灭绝，于 1993 年在自家厨房餐桌上用 Kinko 复印店复印的三页纸做成了第一份目录，寄给 500 位潜在客户；让他至今惊叹的是，”素未谋面的陌生人寄来了成百上千美元的支票”，Old House Gardens 自此诞生。随着业务扩张，Scott 与妻子 Jane 位于 Ann Arbor 老城 Old West Side 历史街区的住宅空间变得局促，公司将楼上 barn 风格的车库改造成办公室与包装间（这一改造项目获得了当地的历史保护奖），并在邻里街区开发了五块城市微农场（micro-farms）用于球根繁育。2016 年 Scott 告知团队计划退休时，时任副总裁 Vanessa Elms 带领团队提出收购方案并于 2017 年 5 月完成接管，办公与繁育基地同步迁至 Ann Arbor 北郊的 Washtenaw Food Hub 一处历史农场院落，与 Tantre Farm 等密歇根最早的有机农场为邻；Scott 本人则继续以”荣誉专家与 heirloom 大使”（Expert Emeritus and Ambassador for Heirlooms）身份参与品种研究与公共推广。

品种体系与 18 前缀 905 SKU 大丽花郁金香水仙风信子鸢尾百合牡丹番红花单一品类合集目录

Old House Gardens 当前目录收录 905 个 SKU，按品种前缀共分 18 类，覆盖秋植与春植两个独立季节——具体数量为郁金香 173、大丽花 138、水仙 116、唐菖蒲 62、牡丹 52、风信子杂项 46、风信子 44、鸢尾 42、杂项春植 40、夏季鸢尾 31、百合 26、合集特殊 27、番红花 23、特殊风信子 22、春种植物 27、秋集合 20、春集合 13、特殊合集 3。秋植球根（10 月发货）涵盖郁金香（TU 前缀）、水仙（SD 前缀）、风信子（HY/HM/SH 前缀）、百合（LL 前缀）、牡丹（PE 前缀）、番红花（CR 前缀）、杂项秋植与秋集合（COF 前缀）；春植球根（4 月发货）涵盖大丽花（DA 前缀）、萱草、唐菖蒲（SGL 前缀）、鸢尾（IR/SI 前缀）、杂项春植（DI 前缀）与春集合（COS 前缀）；夏季专题为夏季萱草与夏季鸢尾。几乎所有 905 个 SKU 都是 heirloom 古老品种，最古老可追溯至 16 至 19 世纪欧洲郁金香狂热时期、清教徒登陆北美前的殖民花园、托马斯·杰斐逊的 Monticello 花园以及维多利亚时代与工艺美术运动时期的欧美家庭花园；许多品种在美国其他苗圃目录中已经绝迹，例如 1789 年首次在欧洲开花的早期大丽花（Aztec 带入）、1601 年 Clusius 名单中已记载的 Plenus 重瓣水仙、1955 年 vintage Fashion Monger 大丽花（被《园艺之门》杂志评为 2017 年最佳新植物）、1962 年白宫玫瑰园种植的郁金香、凡尔赛宫路易十四享用的晚香玉、密西西比作家 Eudora Welty 花园里的 Silver Bells 水仙；公司同时为 Smithsonian、赫斯特城堡、Old Sturbridge Village、Mepkin Abbey、Monticello、Filoli、芝加哥植物园、丹佛植物园、圣安东尼奥植物园等众多公共花园与历史遗址长期供应球根。

小农户网络与全美 10 州 14 小农场 Ann Arbor 微农场球茎本土化种植体系

Old House Gardens 与绝大多数其他美国球根邮购公司最显著的差异在于其”美国小农户主导”的本土化种植体系——其他美国苗圃目录中近 99% 的球根实际上进口自荷兰，而 Old House Gardens 则把绝大部分的牡丹、鸢尾、萱草、大丽花（约 50%），约一半的唐菖蒲和大丽花，三分之一以上的水仙和”杂项”球根，交给分布在全美 10 个州（伊利诺伊、爱荷华、缅因、密歇根、密苏里、新罕布什尔、俄勒冈、田纳西、佛蒙特、华盛顿）和加拿大 1 个省的 14 家小型家庭农场种植，剩余品种由荷兰与英格兰的传统供应商补足。在 Ann Arbor 总部，公司自有五块城市微农场用于繁育其他供应商难以提供的稀有或脆弱品种；公司搬至 Washtenaw Food Hub 后，又把这些微农场集中到办公室外的同一片地块，便于统一管理；公司公开承诺所有美国小农场均以传统小规模方式生产，区别于荷兰现代”盆栽根块”工业化生产方式，因此消费者收到的球根可能是整洁单根的”鸡腿”形（chicken legs）、也可能是成簇的块根，所有形态都能长出同等优质的植株；这种以”小而精”取代”大而廉”的供应链哲学，使得公司虽然需要更高运营成本，但能够坚守 heirloom 球根保护与稀有品种延续的核心使命。

球茎种植体系与首季质保 Zones 3a-8b 春秋双季邮购古老家谱与 10+ 园艺协会联盟

Old House Gardens 采用春秋双季独立邮购体系——秋植球根于每年 10 月发货、春植球根于 4 月发货，每份订单附有按品种定制的种植与养护说明，覆盖 USDA Zones 3a 至 8b 区间（西海岸可延伸至 10bWC），并明确标注 a 代表半区偏北、b 代表半区偏南以方便种植者精准匹配本地气候；公司提供”球根保真且按说明种植必开花”的首季成活质保，对秋植球根承诺至次年 Memorial Day 前通知、对春植球根承诺至当年 9 月底通知，对盆栽球根因变量过多不提供质保承诺，但承诺协助客户诊断失败原因；发货季节采用分别结算方式避免客户一次下错两个季节订单。公司公开承认其球根附属于一个由十余家专业园艺协会构成的联盟与知识网络——美国水仙协会（American Daffodil Society）、美国大丽花协会（American Dahlia Society）、美国萱草协会（American Hemerocallis Society）、美国牡丹协会（American Peony Society）、北美百合协会（North American Lily Society）、北美唐菖蒲协会（North American Gladiolus Council）、Historic Iris Preservation Society、Heritage Rose Foundation、Southern Garden History Society、The Cultural Landscape Foundation 等共同构成 heirloom 球根保护与历史景观研究的合作生态；同时与十余家公共花园长期合作，让 18 至 19 世纪欧美殖民花园、维多利亚花园与工艺美术运动花园的植物家谱得以在现代家庭花园中延续，真正实现”古老植物活体传承”的使命。

官网: https://oldhousegardens.com/

Old House Gardens – Heirloom Bulbs is a family-run heirloom bulb preservation nursery founded in 1993 in Ann Arbor, Michigan by landscape historian Scott Kunst. The company, now owned since 2017 by Vanessa Elms (formerly VP for Bulbs), operates under the explicit mission “Save the Bulbs!” and is the only mail-order source in the United States devoted entirely to heirloom flower bulbs, many of which are unavailable anywhere else, while serving as an international leader in preserving these living horticultural relics.

Founding Heritage and the 1993 Ann Arbor Michigan Family-Run Heirloom Bulb Preservation Nursery

The story of Old House Gardens began with a single tulip called “Prince of Austria.” Dating to 1860, this red-orange tulip is both impressively perennial and deliciously fragrant, and it became founder Scott Kunst’s favorite as he collected antique plants for years. When the last North American source dropped the variety, Scott was dismayed and motivated, believing that such a great tulip should not be allowed to go extinct. In 1993 he mailed his first catalog — three sheets of paper photocopied at a Kinko’s copy shop — to 500 people from his kitchen table. Strangers sent hundreds of dollars in the mail, and Old House Gardens was born. As the business expanded, the house that Scott and his wife Jane shared in Ann Arbor’s Old West Side historic district became too cramped, so the company renovated the upstairs of their barn-style garage into office and packing space (winning a local preservation award in the process), and developed five urban micro-farms within a few blocks for bulb propagation. In 2016 when Scott announced his plan to retire within a year, then-VP Vanessa Elms led a proposal to buy the business and complete the succession in May 2017, relocating offices and propagation to the historic farmstead at the Washtenaw Food Hub just north of town, neighboring Tantre Farm (one of Michigan’s oldest certified organic farms); Scott continues to participate as Expert Emeritus and Ambassador for Heirlooms.

Cultivar Catalog and the 18-Prefix 905-SKU Dahlia Tulip Daffodil Hyacinth Iris Lily Peony Crocus Single-Category and Collection Line

Old House Gardens’ current catalog holds 905 SKUs divided across 18 variety prefixes, covering two independent shipping seasons — fall-planted bulbs (October shipment) and spring-planted bulbs (April shipment). The exact SKU distribution is: tulip 173, dahlia 138, daffodil 116, gladiolus 62, peony 52, hyacinth-misc 46, hyacinth 44, iris 42, diverse-spring 40, summer-iris 31, lily 26, special-collection 27, crocus 23, special-hyacinth 22, spring-plant 27, fall-collection 20, spring-collection 13, unique-collection 3. Fall-planted categories include tulip (TU prefix), daffodil (SD prefix), hyacinth (HY/HM/SH prefix), lily (LL prefix), peony (PE prefix), crocus (CR prefix), diverse-fall, and fall-collection (COF prefix); spring-planted categories include dahlia (DA prefix), daylily, gladiolus (SGL prefix), iris (IR/SI prefix), diverse-spring (DI prefix), and spring-collection (COS prefix); summer themes include summer daylily and summer iris. Nearly all 905 SKUs are heirloom varieties, the oldest traceable to the 16th-19th century European Tulipomania era, pre-Pilgrim colonial gardens, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello gardens, and Victorian-era and Arts-and-Crafts era family gardens in Europe and America. Many varieties have vanished from every other American mail-order catalog — examples include the 1789 first-blooming dahlias brought to Europe by the Aztecs, the Plenus double pheasant’s-eye daffodil documented in Clusius’s 1601 list, the 1955 vintage Fashion Monger dahlia (named a 2017 top new plant by Garden Gate magazine), tulips planted in the 1962 White House Rose Garden, tuberoses enjoyed by Louis XIV at Versailles, and Silver Bells daffodils tended by Mississippi author Eudora Welty. The company supplies bulbs long-term to public gardens and historic sites including the Smithsonian, Hearst Castle, Old Sturbridge Village, Mepkin Abbey, Monticello, Filoli, Chicago Botanic Garden, Denver Botanic Garden, and San Antonio Botanic Garden.

Small-Farmer Network and the 10-State 14-Small-Farm Ann Arbor Micro-Farm American-Grown Bulb Production System

The most striking difference between Old House Gardens and virtually every other American bulb mail-order company is its American-small-farmer-led domestic growing system. While nearly 99% of bulbs from most other US bulb catalogs are imported from the Netherlands, Old House Gardens sources virtually all of its peonies, iris, daylilies, and dahlias (about 50%), roughly half of its gladiolus and dahlias, and a third or more of its daffodils and “diverse” line, from 14 small family farms distributed across 10 American states (Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oregon, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington) and 1 Canadian province, with the remainder supplemented by traditional suppliers in the Netherlands and England. At the Ann Arbor headquarters, the company operates five urban micro-farms for propagating rare or fragile varieties that other suppliers cannot provide; the move to the Washtenaw Food Hub allowed consolidation of these micro-farms onto one parcel outside the office door for unified management. The company openly commits that all American partner farms use traditional small-scale production, distinct from the Dutch modern “pot-root” industrial method, so customers may receive bulbs shaped as neat single “chicken legs” or as scruffy clusters of tubers — both forms produce plants of equal quality; this “small-and-careful over big-and-cheap” supply philosophy raises operating costs but allows the company to preserve heirloom bulbs and rare-variety continuity as its core mission.

Bulb Planting System and the First-Season Grow Guarantee Plus USDA Zones 3a-8b Spring Fall Mail-Order and 10+ Horticultural Society Alliance

Old House Gardens operates two independent mail-order seasons — fall-planted bulbs ship in October and spring-planted bulbs ship in April, with each order accompanied by variety-specific planting and care instructions covering USDA Zones 3a through 8b (extending to 10bWC on the West Coast), explicitly noting that “a” refers to the cooler northern half of each zone while “b” refers to the warmer southern half so gardeners can precisely match local climate. The company provides a first-season grow guarantee promising that bulbs are true to name and will grow when planted following instructions, requiring notification by Memorial Day of the following year for fall-planted bulbs and by the end of September of the same growing season for spring-planted bulbs; bulbs in pots are not guaranteed due to the many variables involved, though the company commits to helping customers diagnose failures. Orders are settled separately by season to prevent customers from mistakenly combining two shipping windows in a single transaction. The company openly acknowledges that its bulbs belong to an alliance and knowledge network of more than ten specialty horticultural societies — the American Daffodil Society, American Dahlia Society, American Hemerocallis Society, American Peony Society, North American Lily Society, North American Gladiolus Council, Historic Iris Preservation Society, Heritage Rose Foundation, Southern Garden History Society, The Cultural Landscape Foundation, and others jointly form a cooperative ecosystem for heirloom bulb preservation and historic landscape research. Partnerships with more than ten public gardens allow the plant genealogies of 18th-19th century colonial gardens, Victorian gardens, and Arts-and-Crafts gardens to be carried forward into modern home gardens, truly realizing the mission of preserving living historic plants.