The photo below will help to visualize what I have been saying

The red line is the entrance road that in 2001 extends all the way to the end of the developed area. The blue line is the present-day entrance road that leads down to the parking lot.

The yellow line was a path that connected the Head House to Tower Hill, present day it is the trail along the Arrival Garden. The pink U-shape is about where the present parking lot is.

Notice the line of White Spruce along the North, behind the Head House, is becoming more established., notice also to the South closer to the road we can see a line of what are lilac bushes.

Looking East across the path from the Ethnic Garden on the South side we can see the Green Scene Gardens. Present day this is a grass field with some trees in it.

The major activity is still going on to the East of the Head House, we can see the Nursery and then what looks like tilled ground and in the middle of that the new Rose Garden. (see the white crescent and short path)

We can see the greenhouse for the Enabling Garden beyond that. Notice especially that there are no trees yet right next to the service road as it turns West from the entrance down towards the Head House.

Notice also the path South of the Head House where it turns East toward tower hill, this is where the Arrival Garden will be, in front of the Green Scene Gardens.

Again, this year I am without any photos or documents that talk about the annual retreat. That doesn’t mean no planning took place in the Winter, I am sure it did. I have one document that suggests that plans for the Children’s Garden are in full swing. This document is evidence of a huge fund-raising campaign.

In our news- letter called The View under the highlights section, we get a glimpse of what’s going on.

We had a class put on by Jean Durbin, an Ice cream social, and the Fall Festival 

We were in the Sturgis Falls parade this year

Looks like we pulled the trolley with our tractor

There was a Fall Harvest Festival

There were actually two rose gardens called out in the master plan: a formal rose garden and a shrub rose garden. Our rose garden started out as a vision from two of our volunteers, Arnold Webster and Craig Gibleon. Because of Arnold’s association with one of the most famous of rose hybridizers, Griffen Buck, our rose garden was to be a tribute to him and planted primarily with Buck Roses: see the quote from a document written by Arnold Webster;

“It should be no great surprise that one of the first formal collections at the Cedar Valley Arboretum would be those in the garden of Buck Roses. Every rose aficionado knows the story of Dr. Griffith Buck (1915-1991) and the eighty-plus roses that are attributed to his brilliant work as a hybridizer.”

Furthermore, Mr. Webster was a former roommate in college with Griffith Buck who become a professor of horticulture at Iowa State.

This garden began during the growing season of 2001 but sadly in December of that year Mr. Webster passed away. However; under the expertise of Craig Gibleon the Rose Garden continued to take shape. Early plant lists in our archive show 30 different cultivars of Buck Roses in this space.

Let’s take a look at what the Master Plan had to say on this topic

First, the Formal Rose Garden: “the rose, more than any other ornamental plant embodies a long and enduring history of ornamental horticulture in Western civilization” it goes on to say:

“The plan for the Formal Rose Garden represents traditional European design with a classically shaped fountain at the lowest grade in the garden. Around this central feature the proposed beds offer an opportunity to display hybrid tea roses by type, category, history, and color.” The red dot on the image below that says Formal Garden shows the location for the Formal Rose Garden.

I am going to speculate that this is not the type of garden Arnold and Craig had in mind.

The other mentioned rose garden was the Shrub Rose Garden, it is the green dot on the plan above. Quoting from the Master Plan: “shrub roses are gaining popularity owing to their long blooming periods and disease resistance.”

Let’s say that this is closer to what Arnold and Craig were looking at doing, although we know for sure from the documents that their idea was all about Buck Roses, which are shrub roses. In any event our Rose Garden started out as a show case for Buck Roses and was located much farther West, on tower hill between the Head House and the Community Gardens.

Here it is in the construction phase:.

And here are the two great volunteers that were the driving force behind the creation of the Rose Garden: Arnold Webster and Craig Gibleon.

The Arboretum has come so far since that cold and snowy day in 1996 when that first group of intrepid volunteers were planting trees. Here is what we look like in 2001.

This year 14 trees planted

4 Hackberry and 10 Techny Arborvitae

I must always stop and pay tribute to that most special group of people who make everything happen.

Every aspect of this place is touched by them and happens because of them. I want to remind you again that I include names with the pictures when I have them. This year some of the photos had captions so I am including what they said. Starting with

Bob Frenchick and Scott Dimburg.

Linda Shulte, Karen Acton, Sara Jansen, Maurine Crisp.

On the back of this photo it says Nancy, since we can't see her face not sure which Nancy this is, and even though I don't have names for the folks in the following photos they are all a part of who we are.

The Board this year

Kelly Conrad             Jan Guthrie

Denise Glenny           Dale Boeke

Dave Roberts             Dan Lichty

Dave Thompson         Larry Kurtz

Jane Buck                   Don Watson

Daryl Andersen          Lewis Racker

Mary Reidy                Carol Boyce

Tom Langlas              Norma Hoelscher

Vie Mossman             Tom Lawler

Twilight has descended on another season and we are so glad to have this place.