A new and exciting event unfolding at Iowa State University is the construction of the new Reiman Gardens. The project began early in 1993 when publisher and alum Roy Reiman and his wife Bobbi gave a $1.3 million gift to Iowa State University to move the Horticulture Gardens from its current 3/4 acre site to a nine acre location south of ISU Cyclone Stadium. Construction of the first phase of the Reiman Gardens began late last summer and will be completed by May of this year. The first phase will include an educational facility that will be the new home of the Home Horticulture Resource Center (Hortline and Master Gardener staff). The building will have a multi-purpose room for educational events and workshops. It has been named the "John P. Mahlstede Horticulture Learning Center." Dr. Mahlstede, professor emeritus of horticulture who lives in Ames, served the horticulture industry of Iowa for 40 years as Head of the Department of Horticulture at Iowa State University and Associate Dean of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station. The naming of the building is credited to the fund-raising efforts of Cedar Rapids nurseryman Dwight Hughes, Jr. The Mahlstede Building, to completed in March, will also be the state headquarters of the Iowa Master Gardener Program.
Garden design specialists, CLR Design of Philadelphia, and several local landscape architects and ISU staff have developed an exciting plan for the Gardens. The initial planting phase of the Reiman Gardens project will cover four acres and include a rose garden, Griffith Buck rose collection, herb garden, campanile garden, dwarf conifer collection, perennials, tree and shrub plantings, and about 40,000 annual bedding plants. Roy and Bobbi Reiman have also donated a 50-foot campanile that will be a focal point of the Gardens.
This summer, include the Reiman Gardens at Iowa State University on one of your vacations or excursions. It is located just north of Highway 30 on the Elwood Drive exit into Ames. For more information on the Gardens, contact Linda Naeve at Iowa State University.
This article originally appeared in the February 10, 1995 issue, p. 12.
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