The NWHS planted and continues to maintain the Dahl-Roeder Memorial Garden located in Wilson Park, Menomonie. The park was established in honor of Janice Dahl and Darrel Roeder. Janice was a NWHS founder member and our first editor-in-chief of the Northern Star newsletter. Darrel was a past NWHS president and also served on the board of directors. Each spring members meet at the garden for our annual cleanup and maintenance event. Individual members perform general care throughout the growing season, with a special thank you going to Jan Harvey who is especially active in keeping the garden attractive.

Darrel’s wife Ann, dad Don, and granddaughter Kaya were all there working when the garden was first planted. Besides planting hostas that Darrel loved, he also had a passion for dwarf conifers, peonies, clematis and martagon lilies – all of which are part of this memorial garden.

This year, Gary Meyers hosted the annual NWHS garden tour / auction and put on a scrumptious fish fry for members. Besides catching all the fish for the fish fry, Gary had to contend with cleaning up three enormous trees that came down in his garden during an early July storm. You can see the size of those trees in some of the photos below. Members enjoyed seeing Gary’s wide variety of hostas which includes some of his own introductions and new seedlings. And members couldn’t pass up the opportunity to scarf up some of the many plants he offers for sale. Finally, the auction was a huge success with many good deals to be had on some nice plants, but also some fierce bidding for the most desirable; a fun time for all!