October 2023
By Esther Jordan, Horticulture Director and Communications Specialist
We need to have a hard conversation about our garden.
For many years, the WCROC Horticulture Display Garden has been a crown jewel in west central Minnesota. Nearly every day, it enhanced our lives: shaded areas for lunch breaks; meandering paths that offered a peaceful oasis; garden areas were transformed into dynamic labs for visiting school children; and our garden made for the perfect backdrop for family photo sessions, anniversaries and weddings.
Less visible but equally important is the garden’s service to the horticulture industry. Our research provides valuable data within the horticulture industry. Plants are evaluated for our hardiness zone, their disease resistance characteristics, and we evaluate various methods of season extension for fruits and vegetables.
I value the Horticulture Display Garden. And I’m sure you do too.
If you visited this summer, you perhaps assessed that the garden was not in its best form. Some of that was due to challenging growing conditions and time spent rebuilding from the 2022 wind storm. Most of it, though, stems from significantly diminished financial resources and fewer staff. We are no longer able to do more with less.
A decade ago, we used to be a team of four (horticulturist, researcher, landscape gardener, and communications). We began the 2023 season with only two (researcher and communications). Nate Dalman served in the horticulture researcher role for four years but in April 2023, he moved on to another career opportunity outside of the U of MN, leaving me the lone horticulture staff member. And during that time, I was juggling two roles – Horticulture Director and Communications Specialist for the WCROC.
While I and the summer crew did our best to attend to each garden bed and landscaped area, and still fulfill our commitments to our numerous horticulture research project areas, it was a struggle this past growing season to adequately sustain all that is here.
The workload was not manageable and the Garden suffered. Our list of tasks was overwhelmingly long for the small team we had.
Why am I sharing this with you?
We have been committed to pursuing a master plan for the garden – a vision that many of you helped to create. Unfortunately, our vision has outpaced our financial resources. Our team is not growing; nor is our budget growing. The garden and workload have been growing. Without increased support, we are faced with difficult decisions.
The Garden’s beauty – next year and in the coming years – will be determined by your generosity.
Please consider restoring our garden by:
- Volunteering to adopt a bed and provide garden care during the growing season. Come about once per week (on your own schedule) and weed, deadhead, stake, etc. We supply the necessary tools.
- Providing a financial gift to support immediate staffing needs.
- Give to our Garden Endowed Fund to ensure that our Garden will be here long into the future.
- If you have the Garden in your will and/or estate plan, please let us know so that we can record and celebrate your thoughtful gift toward our efforts to sustain the Garden.
Financial gifts can be made online by mail to:
U of MN WCROC
Attn: Esther Jordan
46352 State Hwy 329
Morris, MN 56267
I can also be reached at [email protected] or 320-589-1711 ext. 2152.
I do have some good news to share. In August, Ella VanKempen began a full-time 10-month position to support horticulture research and the display garden. We are also very excited to begin planning and preparation for the 2024 growing season in which we hope to fulfill our (and your) expectations for our garden.
In closing, I want to sincerely thank the many donors and volunteers for all the generous hours and dollars given to our garden through the years. YOU made it the community treasure we have all enjoyed. Please consider extending your investment of time and treasure so that we preserve and enhance our garden for generations to come.