The vibrant orange, yellow and red daylilies outside of the MSU Main Library represent more than just an addition to the Beal Botanical Garden.
The Jean and Alfred Goldner Hybrid Daylily Collection is a small token of thanks for the $1 million-1.5 million endowment for the gardens.
The final amount of the endowment depends on the sale of a plot of land from the Goldner family, said Frank Telewski, professor of plant biology and curator of the garden.
Alfred Goldner, a 1941 MSU graduate, passed away in the fall of 2003, leaving one of his farms for the university to sell so that an endowment for the garden could be set up as he and his wife, Jean Goldner, had planned to do.
Alfred Goldner's personal work has left a mark on horticulture, with the creation of more than 50 hybrid plants and the introduction of exotic plants to the landscape architecture field, Telewski said.
Alfred Goldner took a special pleasure with the daylilies. In his work with hybrids, he took two different species of plants and genetically altered them to produce a new hybrid, Telewski said.
The daylilies along the north end of the library are all Alred Goldner's hybrids or his personal favorite plants, Telewski said.
"He was such a plant man that when he would get his 25 cents for the week (during the depression), he would spend it on bulbs," Jean Goldner said. "So he never was wondering 'What am I going to do when I grow up?' It was just there."
It was at MSU that Alfred Goldner met Jean. She said she was the only one in her dorm who always had fresh flowers.
Two weeks after they were married, Pearl Harbor was bombed, and because Alfred Goldner had a minor in chemistry, he got a job at a plant dealing with explosives, she said.
"He came home for dinner every night, so you can't complain," Jean Goldner said.
In 1953 the couple opened the Goldner Walsh Nursery — Walsh was Jean Goldner's maiden name. Jean, who was very interested in textiles and color, ran the visual part of the business while Alfred Goldner worked with the plants, she said.
Because of the work Alfred Goldner did with hybridization, the part of the gardens dedicated to him will have informational plaques about the definition and process of hybridization.
The endowment has brought great excitement to the growth of the gardens, Telewski said.
"It ensures we can continue to develop and grow the Beal Botanical Gardens," he said.
Karen Wenk, director of special gifts in University Development, has been working with the Goldners since they first began to talk to the development office about the donation.
"(Alfred) Goldner loved Beal Botanical Gardens and was supportive in a lot of ways that were not only financial," Wenk said. "Probably one of the best things about meeting someone like Al Goldner is that his passion became his profession. We don't always live so that we are doing things that give us great joy, and I really believe him being a plantsman is something he loved doing."
The dedication ceremony of the Jean and Alfred Goldner Hybrid Daylily Collection is open to the public and will be held at 9:30 a.m. today on the north side of the Main Library.
