August 2007

Dear Friends:

Welcome to the PORTERHOWSE Farms Website.

It is with sadness that I must report that my life partner, Lloyd Porter and co-owner of Porterhowse Farms passed away on August 10, 2007, after living with pancreatic cancer for the past 6 months. Lloyd has been an integral part of Porterhowse Farms over the 30 years that we have shared.

The mail-order portion of Porterhowse Farms is now closed. Visitors are welcome at the Porterhowse Arboretum and Gardens. We do have plants for sale on site, but no longer will be shipping plants across the country.

This website reflects our 30+ years of collecting plants for the gardens and arboretum, and primarily my pleasure. I am a self-confessed "Plant Addict", and I have fed my habit by searching and adding new plants to the collection. It is the bounty from what I propagate from the Porterhowse Collection that I offer to you. My collection is primarily composed of rare and unusual conifers, but not entirely. I also collect many other woody and herbaceous plants.

As you peruse the pages of the new website you will find a descriptive page for each item. The conifers are listed under the tab with the title: Conifer List. Each conifer in the list is given a separate description page, where I will be writing the description and commentary of the plant as to the best of my knowledge, and also uploading a photograph of the item. The website is still under development. I have more than 2400 conifers alone in the collection. I am attempting to be accurate with the descriptions and botanical nomenclature. It is my intention that this site be an informational resource.

The data pages for the individual plants are reached by first clicking on the "Conifer List" tab. You can then select the appropriate genus and species, and from the list of varieties you can then enter the individual page. A full description and photo will eventually be available for each item.

As a "Plant Addict" I try to grow a wide assortment of plants. "Conifers" is one of my collections and is the major focus of my nursery production. I also have many other collections of plants both woody and herbaceous. They are represented in my gardens and also in containers on the display benches near my home. You are always welcome to come visit PORTERHOWSE Farms and see what I have growing. I enjoy showing it to anyone who will take the time to visit. I enjoy meeting people, especially people who admire plants.

With warmest regards, I am sincerely yours,

Don Howse