September 19, 2003

 

NDSU to Dedicate new Horticulture Demonstration and Research Garden

North Dakota State University will dedicate a new Horticulture Demonstration and Research Garden on campus in Fargo Saturday, Oct. 11.

The public is invited to a groundbreaking at 8:30 a.m. on the site on the corner of 12th Avenue North and 18th Street. Brief remarks at the ceremony will be given by John Shotwell of Shotwell Floral, NDSU President Joseph Chapman, Vice President and Dean of the College of Agriculture Food Systems and Natural Resources Pat Jensen, and Jim Venette, Associate Dean for Academic Programs in the college. Extension horticulturist and turfgrass specialist Ron Smith will serve as Master of Ceremonies.

Also present at the ceremony will be Barb Laschkewitsch, a horticultural technician who has organized and managed the present herbaceous plantings and will do so at the new site, Bryce Farnsworth, also a horticultural technician and a daylily expert, and Andrea Carlson, a horticulture student and president of the NDSU Horticulture Club. She designed the gardens that will be dedicated.

Others who will attend include Jill Taylor and Kay Ornberg, who donated the iris collection of their late father, Art Jensen, to NDSU; Phil Lowe, owner of Lowe's Garden Center, and president of the NDSU Plant Sciences Advisory Committee; Mary Baker, who is the regional vice president of the Daylily Society. Her organization donated $600 to help establish a sign for the new garden. According to Baker, the daylily collection at NDSU will be the largest daylily planting at any land-grant university in the nation. Janice Dehod, the President of the Canadian Prairie Daylily Society, may also be in attendance.

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Source: Ron Smith, (701) 231-8161, ronsmith@ndsuext.nodak.edu
Editor: Tom Jirik, (701) 231-9692, tjirik@ndsuext.nodak.edu