Daniel J. Hinkley

Member since: 2018

Proposed by: The Seattle Garden Club, Zone XII

Seconded by: Tacoma Garden Club, Zone XII

Dan Hinkley, born in the zone 4 highlands of North Central Michigan, has had a lifelong interest in plants, leading him to receive his B.S. in Ornamental Horticulture and Horticulture Education from Michigan State University in 1976, and his M.S. in Urban Horticulture from the University of Washington in 1985.

In 1987, while teaching horticulture at Edmonds Community College north of Seattle, he and his husband, Robert L. Jones, began Heronswood Nursery, near Kingston. Devoted to introducing rare and unusual plants to gardeners of North America, this endeavor has led Hinkley into the wilds of China, South and Central America, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Nepal, Vietnam, Taiwan, Sikkim, Bhutan, Tasmania and Canada numerous times a year for the past 16 years. Heronswood Nursery previously listed nearly 3000 plant species, and has shipped to 48 states as well as England, Europe and Asia. When W.A.Burpee closed the nursery in May of 2006, Dan has independently focused his attention on continued plant hunting, writing and speaking.

Hinkley has written for a number of periodicals, including Pacific Horticulture, The American Gardener, The Gardener, Gardens Illustrated,, and Martha Stewart Living, as wells as having a regular column for Northwest Garden News, Horticulture Magazine, Garden Design an occasional horticulture feature for the Seattle Times. He is a contributing editor to Horticulture Magazine and has appeared many times on Martha Stewart Living television as a gardening correspondent. His first book, Winter Ornamentals, was published in 1993 and his second, The Explorers Garden: Rare and Unusual Perennials, received the 1999 Book of the Year Award from the American Horticultural Society. On March 9, 2003, Hinkley was honored with the Scott Arboretum Gold Medal from Swarthmnore College in Pennsylvania for his lifetime achievements in horticulture. He has been awarded the Marcel Le Piniac Award from the American Rock Garden Society, The Medal of Honor from the Federated Garden Clubs of America, The Garden Communicator of the Year award from the American Nurserymen and Landscape Association and the White Gold Medal from the Greater Cleveland Horticultural Society, the Liberty Hyde Bailey Award from the American Horticultural Society for a lifetime of achievement in education, writing and plant exploration. In 2007, he received the George Robert White Gold Medal from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and, from HRH Princess Alexandra at Hampton Court Palace, the prestigious Veitch Memorial Medal from the Royal Horticultural Society in England

Dan Hinkley currently resides in Indianola, WA where he is in the process of realizing his latest endeavor, the Gardens of Windcliff, on a south facing bluff overlooking Puget Sound. He is Director Emeritus of Heronswood Garden owned and operated by the Port Gamble Sklallam Tribe, in addition to consulting for Monrovia Nursery as well as on design projects around the world. Dan continues to look at plants in their native environs, focusing on northern Vietnam.