Dedication of the Reiman Gardens on September 16 1995

good morning everyone my name is Mike Chaplin professor and head of the department of horticulture at Iowa State welcoming you to this dedication ceremony for the Ryman gardens and I'll be serving as your master of ceremonies this morning let me ask you a question do you like the Reiman gardens well I certainly agree with you it is truly a great day for Iowa State University for the Horticulture Department for the faculty to staff and the students for the Ames community and for gardeners throughout Iowa in the Midwest and for Iowa's growing horticultural industry and also if I could be partisan and just for a minute isn't this simply a great way to celebrate the Cyclones upcoming victory over the Hawks the Reiman gardens cultivate in grand fashion and great splendor really almost 130 years of public gardening in Iowa State University they are a fitting tribute to all of the gardens in the Iowa State horticulturalist that have gone before now the first garden at Iowa State University was actually established in 1866 in the general location of Ross Hall and consisted of an experimental orchard grapes potatoes root crops flowers and garden professor a s Welch proved who was professor of landscape gardening at the time formalized the planning of the campus to include the formal gardens during his tenure at which he became president of Iowa State College so we've had a horticulturist who's been present in president iski now I don't have any names on that though following his appointment he also arranged for the architect that designed Central Park in New York to develop the first campus plan which is essentially in effect today now the horticulture was moved to the area occupied by the Quadrangle north of old botany in the late 1800s after the construction of old botany which was completed in about 1893 and as you know is being redone today in the early 1900s then the garden was moved to the site of the present agronomy building and maintained in that location until the early 1950s professor volts came to Iowa State in 1914 as professor of flora culture and was responsible for this horticultural garden he initiated the for cultural breeding program and later as this was moved into the new site in the early 50s to the site of Bessie Hall and it remained in that location until the early 1960s now one of professor volts as students was a man named Griffith buck and he became that professor in charge of the garden when it was moved to its old location north of the power plant and he remained and the superintendent of the garden until his retirement professor buck of course was a famous rose breeder in many of the roses and a current run gardens from buck are there today now by the early 1960s or the 1990s I should say 1990s it was becoming obvious to the horticulture faculty that the horticultural garden would at some point in the future have to be moved because of this sort of less than desirable location the the ambience created by all that coal dust and the electrical power generating plant and so on and reports of expanding physical plant facilities however the 1990 plan to update the campus the long-range plan I don't think included moving the garden until perhaps the Year 2015 well folks I'm going to be retired long before then therefore it really seemed in spite of its long and distinguished history and to Iowa State University that the garden would sort of disappear into history disappear into oblivion now this is we're gonna have a sports event later and I suppose all of you are sports fan so I was lucky I'm a graduate of the University of Kentucky my dad was a professor there I saw 22 basketball all-americans foreign national championships then I went to Penn State and under Joe Paterno to national football titles but the greatest moment I can remember and each of you had this remembrance in sports was win the u.s. hockey team won the 1980 an 80 80 Winter Olympics and in part that was made made famous by Monday Night Football play-by-play announcer Al Michaels remember remember what he said it was so emotional do you believe in miracles the impossible dream come true well the impossible dream did come true and I do believe in miracles and that came in the form really of two couples who came to the University were the first about the same time I did in June 1991 dr. Martin C jiske and his wife Patti joined the University as president and first lady now the JISC e's were sensitive to the appearance of the campus and i think it soon became obvious to both of them that the location of the horticultural gardens next to the physical plant was a little less than ideal and secondly their relocation to the grounds of the iowa state center would benefit both the iowa state center and horticultural education within the university and then the second miracle happened Roy and Bobby Ryman two dedicated alumni of the University that had the vision to see to know and to understand what a facility of this quality and magnitude would have to the iowa state center to iowa state university and to the citizens of Iowa that was about two and a half years ago and now that vision has been translated into the reality that you see here today the transformation from a grassy football field parking lot really to what you see here today has been done with the generous gift of the Ryman's and many other additional contributions from donors that are present here this morning and in a literal army of faculty staff students design contractors and volunteers who designed and built the Roman gardens I can think of nothing in recent memory where the community and Iowa State University have been so intimately involved and it will be our purpose to recognize some of those individuals today before we begin the recognition part of the program I want you to gain a sense of the impact of the Reiman Gardens educational and outreach programs in the College of Agriculture and to do that I am pleased to introduce to you the Dean of the College of Agriculture dr. David Topol dr. Topol has been Dean of the college since 1988 and during that time has been a strong advocate for horticulture within the college and throughout the state so to speak on the impact of the Ryman gardens on the college's educational and outreach programs I introduced dr. David Tocqueville thank you dr. Chaplin it's a great pleasure to say that we welcome you on this wonderful day a little bit I was quite worried and then I saw our two famous fathers walk in and as soon as they walked in it stopped raining so we thank you gosh you come to made a better contribution for a special day it is a special day for the Horticulture Department their students and faculty and staff our College Iowa State University the Ames community and truly the entire state of Iowa this special education center is already having a significant impact on the quality of our teaching and the quality of advising in the horticulture department but also other colleges at Iowa State students are being taught in this garden this semester students from courses that are offered in Liberal Arts and Sciences the College of Design as well as a college of and as time moves on there'll be many many more students learning from this wonderful facility as we prepare for the 21st century this garden and teaching facility will take us to another level that will make this university even more recognized around the world as a great center for horticulture this tremendous tradition was started in the early 1900s when a professor named dr. beech started the American Society of horticultural science and what could be more fitting than to have this road to my right name for this outstanding professor they all named after professor beech that adjoins the Reiman gardens in continuing with this long term tradition we are here today also as part of the dedication of the Reiman gardens to recognize another outstanding horticulturist dr. John Maul stood 60 years after professor beech started the American Society of horticultural science dr. Milstead became president of that American Society the presidency of that Society reflected his contributions and respect by horticulturist throughout the world I don't know what could be more fitting than to recognize dr. mole stead for his tremendous contributions to horticulture and education the naming this outstanding education center in his honor I'd also like to recognize at this time an individual that played an instrumental role in fundraising for this Center the education center and that's Dwight Hughes we did a little background work Dwight and what stimulated him to work so hard to raise the funds for the mall State Education Center well I concluded it all boiled down to a feel a few Sunday evening meals when Dwight was a student here at Iowa State University it reflects doctor Moll Stead's interest in students also because when the cafeterias would close down Sunday evenings doctor Moll stead would invite a few of the students out to his home for Sunday evening meal and Dwight managed to be invited a lot that might be Dwight's initiative as well as dr. mole stance but through that mentoring and continuing mentorship of dr. mole Stidham and wide Hughes Dwight is now recognized as one of our outstanding horticulturist in our state in the commercial industries and through his help and leadership we were able to obtain funds to construct the mall stead Education Center the center means everything that John stood for and stands for it today more than just to hold a culturist John was an educator and a leader he represented this University as the Big Eight representative for athletics to the NCAA for 17 years and again what could be more fitting than to have this outstanding Education Center named this honor and have the Athletic Complex in his background somehow they just came together John so we thank you for your contributions dr. Milstead we thank each of you that are here today who have been helpful in making this project possible the mall stood center and the Reiman gardens your help and contributions are significantly appreciated thank you very much now growing horticultural crops was one of the major agricultural activities in Iowa in the early 1940s did you know we were actually number one Apple producing state one time really this until the early 1940s when the Apple industry was lost due to a winter freeze and the onset of World War two and then as the federal back commodity programs grew in Iowa the horticultural production really began to decline and it remained at a relatively low level until the 1980s in the mid 1980s however the industry began to expand as a rapid pace really from an 89 million dollar industry in nineteen eighty eight to a four hundred and seventy five million dollar industry in 1992 by a state department of AG statistics and this is an astounding three hundred and fifty percent increase now the Ryman gardens are ideally positioned to serve Iowa's growing horticultural industries now let me point out that this growth really mirrors the demographic trends in Iowa did you know that Iowa is rapidly urbanizing it's in the paper almost every night so that today almost two-thirds of Iowa's population is classified as urban concurrent with this shift is a dramatically increasing need for extension and public service related to urban agriculture so the Reiman gardens really form the basis of an urban horticultural Extension Center house within the mall stead building then is will be the Master Gardener program one of the most active and successful in the United States we have trained over 2,000 citizens who now then serve really the Extension Service by Manning telephones throughout the counties of Iowa the Reiman Gardens also housed the Hart line which is the toll-free answer line we answer about 17,000 calls this year from Iowans who called about horticultural questions so all of these purposes I think the Reiman Gardens will serve us quite well now one person was largely responsible for assembling that army of community volunteers now this person put in countless hours in garden related meetings ranging from publicity solicitation of plant materials meeting with potential donors giving tours developing nurturing and implementing the gardens auxilary group Reiman gardens cohorts she was instrumental in the selection of this site and moving the old horticultural gardens from its dreadful old location and she's one of the miracles that I spoke of earlier in addition to being just a very nice person she is a very knowledgeable horticulturalist and gardener and as a matter of fact she is the university's first gardener Patti jiske now Patty is going to speak to you today about the Reiman gardens cohorts and the relationship of the Ryman gardens to the Ames and Central Iowa communities but before we let her do that this is a surprise on the program before we let her do that the faculty and I would like to express our deep appreciation to her by bestowing on her this is the first and only time we've ever done this the title of honorary Master Gardener I'm a nest linden a statewide director of the Master Gardener program to present Patti so with that I introduce you Patty jiske thank you very much I'm tremendously surprised I've always aspired to be a Master Gardener but they meet in the evening so I have other things to do in anyway I wanted to speak about the Ryman garden cohorts they are a friends of the garden group a group of individuals who love gardens and gardening and who want to help these gardens succeed the word cohort as we learned from a Michael Gartner column is derived from the same root word as the word horticulture it seems that Roman soldiers used to be garrisoned in the walled gardens or hardik us of civilians and over time the soldiers became friends of the family or cohorts and I can think of no better word to describe garden friends we are cohorts of the and we are soldiers of this garden comrades and volunteer workers of these gardens for an organization that's only been in existence for less than three months the courts have had a phenomenal growth today we have about two hundred and fifty members and have raised nearly $20,000 our memberships range from a $10 student and Master Gardener level up to a very generous $1,000 level these monies are annual monies given every year to help meet the needs of the garden needs that the university can't or won't or maybe shouldn't even meet because of all the company competing needs and claims on the public monies but we who love the gardens and gardening and who are growing to love these Reiman gardens truly want to help make them a special place the cohorts do all sorts of things in support of the Reiman gardens the horticultural volunteers plant and water and weed and pinch and deadhead and we give tours to large and small groups we have brown bag lunches every Thursday at which experts speak on current gardening topics our first plant sale will be held in two weeks on Saturday the September the 30th we're also planning special events one soon for people with limited physical abilities another called sipping cider to introduce friends to the gardens and yet another workshop on decorating with evergreens week cohorts have all different energy and strength levels many different interests many different skills were a very varied group and let me say if you haven't had a chance to join the cohorts yet by all means please do you can give your money to our treasurer Debbie Gitchell who's way back there in the corner would you weigh wildly yay Debbie and let me say without Debbie Gitchell without her organizational skills we probably wouldn't have a cohorts yet she's wonderful and I really sincerely thank you and you can give me the money you can give Marie Blackwelder the money he will always take money and Linda a few so Linda and Nick how there are a lot of in fact any of these people with the wonderful green shirts will take that money though please join our cohorts and help us be the support group we would like to be I have watched with amazement the growth of the Reiman gardens there's been such a marvelous confluence of efforts from so very many people all working together so brilliantly I've been extremely proud of the part that the cohorts have played I've been proud of the enthusiastic help our cohorts have given our efforts have been significant and very necessary and I would like to thank each and every one of you cohorts and volunteer workers who've helped this has been really a very marvelous effort and thank you the Reiman gardens have great significance to our community they're comprised of places of beauty places for quiet reflection places to learn places to stroll with friends a place to celebrate important times in our lives such as weddings and reunions places to remember fragrances flowers and people of our pasts these wonderful Reiman gardens will become entwined in our lives threads of enduring beauty and speaking with the words of our beloved song bells of Iowa State Roy and Bobby of all of the green hills that comprise and enthroned our dear alma mater this lovely hillside must be the greenest of the green hills Martin often tells me universities are for the ages this lovely Reiman gardens this greenest of the green hills will endure throughout the ages and we cohorts of the Reiman gardens thank you well it is now my great pleasure to introduce to you a strong supporter of the Reiman gardens project the president of Iowa State University dr. Martin C jiske thank you certainly a pleasure for me to be here be a part of this official unveiling of Iowa state's newest landmark one that I'm sure will grow on all of us I knew I shouldn't have done that we are delighted that so many of you are here governor were delighted you're with us and this happy occasion members of the Board of Regents representative nussle it's good to have you with us here sir as you can see this Ryman garden a fair is really a family affair for the JISC EES patty is an avid gardener the very first thing she did when we came to Iowa State is start planting flowers over at the Knoll we still have some boxes we have an impact from the time we moved here and she has come to this project with the remarkable enthusiasm that those of you who have gotten to know her know she has for most things in life she's worked very hard on this project there were days this summer I felt like a bachelor she has done a remarkable job of recruiting literally hundreds of volunteers in the cohorts to do a variety of jobs at the garden and I couldn't be more proud of her although I must tell you I have been proud of her for a very long time I'm also very grateful that she didn't volunteer me in July when it was very hot and very humid the British poet Alfred Austin wrote show me your garden and I'll tell you what you are the Ryman gardens are now the new front door of Iowa State University and the message that this garden sends is very clear it is a very powerful message it is a message of a very proud institution it is a message of an institution with a remarkable history and remarkable traditions an institution that is incredibly proud of its role its pioneering role as a land-grant University Iowa's richness its history its culture its values in a very profound sense have their roots in the soil of this land and our gardens tell people who and what we are the Reiman gardens also sends a message that this is an institution that its alumni and Friends care deeply about so much that they are willing to give of themselves their resources very generously to ensure that these kinds of traditions are both established and carry on I think everyone will agree that it is exciting to be part of the renewal of a cherished Iowa State tradition horticulture many of us felt that excitement a year ago when we rededicated the Staunton Memorial carillon and the Campanile and we feel it yet again today in the dedication of these Reiman Gardens I believe as we renew and build these kinds of traditions we strengthened the University and we strengthened it and it's spirit like so many other building or refurbishing projects on the campus these gardens are made possible because of the generous support of Iowa State University alumni and Friends this has been particularly true of the Reiman gardens these gardens are truly a community project they have been funded by donations there were no state appropriations for this project literally hundreds of contributions have come from individuals from corporations from garden clubs from organizations they are really too numerous to mention here but I would encourage you to see the donor book located in the mall stead building it chronicles the remarkable number of people who have contributed to the establishment of these gardens the striking limestone and wood building at my back end in front of you here at the Ryman gardens is named as you have heard for a very special member of the Iowa State University family someone who is very well known at Iowa State and by horticulturalist all over this state may be all over this nation John Wall stead was a member of the horticulture faculty at Iowa State for 36 years including six years as department chair eight years as the Associate Director of the Experiment Station and 12 years as associate dean of the College of Agriculture his great many friends former students and associates have honored John by raising funds to name the horticultural Living Learning Center in his honor John would you please come up here I want to give you a little present we have a special gift for you now one of dr. Maltz dad's former students as you have heard is primarily responsible for organizing this tribute and raising the funds for this building I would first like bright Hughes and his family to stand first where Dwight where are you and your family come on all of them please please and I would like white to come up here for just a second Dwight as you have heard is a Cedar Rapids nurserymen a very active ISU alum and known literally around the country for his very progressive practices in the nursery business Dwight has been a remarkable fundraiser in this effort and I have at times wondered whether we could talk him out of the nursery business and perhaps joining us in our foundation I don't think that's possible but he has worked untiringly he has been dedicated to John and this project and it's only because of him that had succeeded he is so persuasive that your speaker is one of the donors to the mall stead building as you have seen the Reiman gardens have been made possible by a remarkable collection of people contributing resources time energy enthusiasm but no group is closer to this project than Roy and Bobby Ryman and their children and families and I would like the families to please stand when I read their names they're all here Davy and Joanie Ryman Bledsoe John and Julie Ellis and John's parents Dean and Judy Ellis Jeff and Cindy Lambert Scott Ryman Taran Ryman and Rick and Lorie Rosman and their children Ryan and Kristen I also want to recognize some special close friends family friends of the Ryman's who are also with us today Norbert and Dorothy Whittle and Mike and Sharon hip all of the members of the Reimann family all of the members have contributed to the gardens and their names are prominent on benches and artwork throughout the gardens I would encourage you to notice these special touches as you stroll through the gardens thank you to all of you and welcome it's now my pleasure to introduce the two people whose generosity whose love of this university whose vision for a beautiful horticultural garden have made today and this new campus edition possible the core diverse