KINGSTON, Wash. (AP) — The famous Heronswood Gardens at Kingston in Kitsap County is being sold at auction.
The 15-acres of gardens contain 10,000 plants collected from around the world.
The Kitsap Sun reports (http://is.gd/PJzWrH ) the minimum bid is $749,000, down substantially from the $11 million owner W. Atlee Burpee Co. was asking in 2006, before the recession.
A unit of the New York investment firm Racebrook will take sealed bids until June 15. It’s selling the property with the help of national real estate auctioneer Sheldon Good & Co.
Horticulturalist Dan Hinkley and partner Robert Jones founded the garden in 1987. Burpee bought Heronswood in 2000. It has been closed most of the time since 2006 when Burpee moved the nursery to the company’s headquarters in Pennsylvania.
