 Ed
Hasselkus willingly admits that the seed for his life’s work was
planted while growing up on a farm two miles south of Dousman. The
75-year-old Hasselkus, the son and grandson of avid gardeners, retired
in 1994 as curator of the Longenecker Horticultural Gardens. The
public gardens comprise 50 of the 1,260 acres at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum and represent the premier collection of
woody plants — trees and shrubs — certainly in Wisconsin and
likely in the upper Midwest. Part of the collection is the best in the
world.
Actually, "retired" is
misleading. This well-known and respected plant personality is busier
now than ever before, traveling internationally to plant meetings,
digging in his home garden, conducting genealogy and, of course,
spending part of every day during the growing season continuing his
research at the Longenecker Gardens.
His early years set the stage for his
future career, but Hasselkus actually enrolled at the University of
Wisconsin with thoughts of becoming a pharmacist. "My friends
said, ‘You’re so interested in plants, why not study horticulture?’"
he recalls. Earning his bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture,
he studied for his master’s and doctorate in horticulture and botany
and eventually joined the university as a faculty member. One of his
professors was G. William Longenecker, who planted the first specimen,
a lilac shrub on Good Friday in 1935, in the garden that would
eventually bear his name. Although Hasselkus taught in the
horticulture department, he had a joint appointment in landscape
architecture, understanding that his students, like himself, may like
plants but don’t always know what they want to do with them.
"Woodies" are his life’s
work. As a teaching resource, the Longenecker Horticultural Gardens
boast 2,500 different types of woody plants, 90 percent of which
Hasselkus has selected. Besides a significant collection of lilacs,
the gardens contain the most up-to-date collection of ornamental
crabapple trees in the world and the largest arborvitae collection in
the country. In the spring, some 65 magnolia trees burst forth with
luscious cup and saucer-shaped blossoms.
Constantly scanning nursery catalogs
for new varieties to test, Hasselkus evaluates plants based on their
adaptability to Wisconsin’s climate and for their aesthetic merit.
"I’m always striving to have the best," says Hasselkus,
"and looking at which ones are superior and which ones should be
discarded." He believes he has the best of the best in the 50
acres and that better would only come with the acquisition of more
land.
Nursery owners rely on Hasselkus’
intimate plant knowledge to plan for the growing season. Mike Yanny,
the plant propagator at Johnson’s Nursery in Menonomee Falls and a
former student, likens his former professor’s work to that of a
beauty contest judge. "Ed would get in all the cultivars (clone
or cultivated variety) of a particular genus and recommend which one
was the best for our particular area," he says. "If one was
the best cultivar of the group of plants, it carried a lot of
weight." Potentilla and spiraea shrubs and ornamental crabapple
trees have all undergone the Hasselkus scrutiny. He looks for
hardiness, good fall color or flower display and disease resistance
before pronouncing the winner. Hydrangeas are his current project.
There are nursery owners who owe their
business to Hasselkus’ work. When he introduced a Whitespire birch
to the landscape industry, he actually saved one nursery from
financial collapse. "The nursery then produced and sold 300,000
of the trees," he says.
In tribute to his accomplishments,
Hasselkus has had both a species of daylily and a chokeberry shrub
named for him. The "Gentle Ed" daylily has a red throat and
white ruffled edges. The black chokeberry’s moniker is
"Professor Ed."
Probably not surprisingly, it’s a
woody — the fern leaf European birch tree — which Hasselkus counts
as his favorite plant. "It’s gorgeous," he says. "I
love the texture and form of it. The bark is so interesting." His
home garden has few trees and shrubs; he concentrates on herbaceous
perennials in his yard on Madison’s west side.
Hasselkus met his wife, Betty, while
they were both students at UW-Madison. He admits that Betty, who
retired from teaching occupational therapy at the university, is
definitely not a plant person and prefers to spend her retirement
playing piano and Scrabble. Having seen their parents with their noses
in papers and books, the Hasselkus’ two children, John, a chief
software engineer and founder of Visual Networks, and Jane, who is
director of U.S. and Canada business management for Carestream Health,
went on to earn advanced degrees. But like their mother, neither
really shares their father’s passion.
The university has not yet named a
curator to succeed Hasselkus. To ensure there is money to support the
position, the couple has established the Arboretum Endowment for the
Longenecker Gardens to plan for their continued development. But even
though the gardens do not bear his name, Hasselkus’ legacy is
secure. He has 3,000 former students, all of whom he takes great pride
in, who carry the Hasselkus stamp of approval.
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