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.

Thirty-eight NWHS members were treated to a wonderful luncheon on March 1st at Cowboy Jacks before our 2026 Planning Meeting. What a great turnout and productive meeting to establish this year’s upcoming events! We elected Tami Gillis as Vice President and look forward the additional ideas and activities she is planning. We talked extensively about our annual plant sale – we need lots of member plant donations! We were given the opportunity to purchase at club prices some of the newer varieties of hostas that John ordered. Any hostas not purchased will be sold at the plant sale.

There were many ideas and dates tossed around for this year’s bus trip. John will try to set up a trip to the Minnesota Hosta Society plant sale and Savory’s Gardens on June 6th. We also set up three member gardens to tour and determined the date for the annual auction. More information on these events can be found on this site’s calendar. Finally, as at all our events, we enjoyed the conversations and comradery that hostas, the “Friendship Plant,” brings.