The
2000 Tri-State MG Conference began Wednesday
night (for those who arrived the night before) with a Kickoff Celebration
Barbecue in beautiful Reiman Gardens, on the Iowa State University campus, in
the shadow of Cyclone Stadium. It
was unusually cool for Iowa this time of year, and the skies were threatening,
so everyone chose to enjoy the barbequed pork, beef, or turkey indoors in the
Mahlstede Horticulture Learning Center.
The "prairie-style" design of
the building beautifully blends native Iowa limestone, cedar, and glass. The
Learning Center houses the extension home horticulture resource center,
where gardeners can have their questions answered or plant problems diagnosed.
After
dinner there was time to wander around the Garden grounds (when the weather
finally cooperated, with the sun finally peeking through the clouds).
Established through a gift by Roy and Bobbi Reiman, this 14-acre garden creates
a striking entrance to the University and the city of Ames. The gardens,
constructed in 1995 (and still being added to), celebrate the natural and
botanic diversity of Iowa, as well as the historic traditions of gardening and
horticulture at Iowa State University. Two bronze
sculptures on limestone piers at the entrance represent the "natural"
and "man-implemented" aspects of gardening.
Native Iowa limestone is featured in the Helen Latch Jones Memorial Rose Garden. The channel of shallow, fast moving water coming from the fountain suggests the many streams that meander throughout the Iowa countryside. This formal rose garden includes hundreds of commercially available roses as well as former and recent All America Rose Selections winners. An arbor along the north side of the rose garden will be covered with twining grape vines, while a series of large poles covered with annual vines and clematis at the south end of the rose garden balances the symmetry.
On the sides of the formal rose garden are the Griffith Buck Rose collection and an antique and shrub rose display.
Penkhus Campanile Garden is a large lawn expanse surrounded by a showy annual flower display (over 20,000 annual garden flowers are planted in the Reiman gardens every year). You can't miss the 50-foot Garden Campanile, which is an interpretation of the landmark campanile (bell tower) on the ISU campus. It clearly identifies the Reiman Gardens as part of ISU, and also chimes the hours.
The Children's Garden includes an Alphabet Garden, topiary animal sculptures, a Scarecrow Garden, Butterfly Garden, wooden bridge and stream garden, a meadow maze, and stock tank with pump-operated squirting frogs.
Thursday morning dawned bright and clear – exactly the weather we needed for a day of tours. Six all-day and one half-day tours were offered.
The Prairie City Tour first visited the 5,000 acres of a re-created tallgrass prairie ecosystem at the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge east of Des Moines. After viewing the award-winning movie describing the efforts of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in prairie restoration at this site, we moved out of the Prairie Learning Center with Pauline Drabney, Refuge Biologist, for a special introduction to some of the prairie plants and restoration techniques. The small herd of buffalo were just visible in the distance.
We also were treated to a behind-the-scenes look in the greenhouses and seed storage facilities, and then had time to explore the educational exhibits in the Prairie Learning Center.
Next stop was the Iowa State Fairgrounds for a box lunch and the Discovery Gardens planted and maintained by MGs from Polk Co., Iowa. The mesh tunnel leading from the little red barn will be covered with pumpkin vines by fair time, creating a secret, green tunnel for kids to scamper through. Other displays highlighted color scheme plantings of annuals and perennials.
Kirk Brill's hosta collection on his one-acre Des Moines city lot was amazing. Hundreds of varieties in every size and color of green to yellow to white to variegated were planted beneath stately old sycamores in his front yard and other trees in the backyard.
The Johnston Tour visited the Iowa Arboretum, the Iowa orchard, the demonstration garden at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, MG Carol Magnami's "fairy" garden, and Heard Gardens.
The
Madison
Co. Tour stopped at two of the bridges made famous in the
"Bridges of Madison County", but also went to Cumming Orchard; the
Howell Greenhouse, Floral and Christmas Tree Farm; Florence Thomas' garden; and
Harvey Floral.
On the Indianola Tour the first stop was at a very nice 2 year old perennial bed that was put together by the Warren Co. MGs after their new building was built. Instead of the scheduled visit to Doyle and Cloreta Woods' garden with over 750 varieties of hostas (their collection was ruined by hail two days earlier), they went to see the hosta collection of Fred and Audra Wilson instead. The 1600+ varieties were arranged in oval beds – tall in the middle and smaller varieties toward the edges, attractively planted with complementing shade perennials, ferns, and garden statuary under very large trees. One plant– not registered yet – was worth $4,100!
Next was the Marywood Orchard and Strawberry Farm for box lunches outside and an introduction to strawberry- growing in Iowa. Then it was on to MGs Alan and Helene Magruder's garden and bonsai collection. They have gardens for herbs, shade, perennials, and a huge Japanese-style garden. The pond has three levels and a step-stone bridge through the middle. Their bonsai collection includes 28 specimens, one of which is 200+ years old.
The next stop was Lucille Henry's country garden. You name it, she had it somewhere. Her collection has 1250+ varieties of daylilies alone. There are endless roses, lilies, hostas, clematis, peonies, perennials, and the most orderly vegetable garden ever. The final stop before dinner was Carol Hanson's Garden Barn, offering dried florals, herbs, and folk art, plus a display garden and gazebo. [from accounts by Door Co. MGs Larry Maas and Carol Berglund]
The Ankeny Tour began with a visit to the Iowa Arboretum, followed by stops at Linda Grieve's nursery; Earl May Nusery and Garden Center (with time for shopping); Angela Tedesco's CSA Turtle Farm, and the Discovery Garden at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. After dinner the group returned to Linda Grieve's garden (which they were supposed to have gone to originally, not her nursery!) which made for a very long day with a return to Ames at 9:30 p.m.
Locally, the Ames Tour, went to the Beyer garden, the Kenney garden, the ISU Horticulture Station, USDA Plant Introduction Station, and the Iowa Arboretum.
All of the tours ended at the Des Moines Botanical Garden for a lovely dinner in their conference room overlooking the herb garden. We had the opportunity to look at the conservatory...
and the outdoor plantings, including the herb garden.
Friday
and Saturday morning were spent at the Iowa
State University Scheman Building participating in various workshops. Topics
included dwarf conifers, ornamental grasses, organic gardening, fruit tree pest
control, landscaping with stone, shade gardens, garden journals, strawberries,
Buck roses, spices of the world, dahlias, edible flowers, biological control,
bonsai, composting, and many, many more. The speakers were all enthusiastic,
informative, most had wonderful photos to share, and some even had displays to
illustrate their subjects.
Friday evening's banquet showcased many of Iowa's locally produced foods including roast pork, accompanied by sugar snap peas, broccoli, mixed spring greens salad and strawberry shortcake. Speakers Peggy Petrzelka and Tom Bruegger gave a very interesting talk on the Loess Hills of western Iowa.
The final session on Saturday morning included presentations by all three finalists for the Search for Excellence Award, announcement of the next Tri-State in Green Bay, and the excitement of awarding some great door prizes (Portage Co. MG Michelle Deer won the big prize of a Toro Leaf Blower!).
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