Ed Hasselkus

Protecting a Lifetime of Work at Longenecker Horticultural Garden

It’s hard to believe that Emeritus Professor Edward Hasselkus is “retired.” Ed officially left the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1994, but he spends part of every day of the growing season at the Arboretum’s Longenecker Horticultural Gardens.

Ed has been curator of the woody plant collections at the Arboretum since 1966. In retirement, he also has devoted Friday afternoons to working with volunteers, primarily master gardeners, to help maintain the plant collections. Today, the collections are made up of more than 2,500 kinds of trees and shrubs, including one of the finest collections of lilacs in the U.S. and the most-up-to-date collection of ornamental crabapples in the world.

“I am deeply concerned about the future of the Longenecker Gardens,” said Ed. “The garden is the premier collection of woody plants in Wisconsin. I have conducted plant evaluations in the Longenecker for over 45 years; the gardens also are an important teaching resource and open to the public 365 days a year.

“It is highly unlikely that the University will have the funding to hire a curator when I am no longer able to continue.”



Edward Hasselkus takes notes amid the crab trees late in his "official" career as a curator of the Longenecker Horticultural Gardens at UW Arboretum.

Because of his concerns, Ed and his wife, Betty, established the Arboretum Endowment for Longenecker Gardens. “In my opinion, the curator position is the most vital component for continued development and support for the Gardens, but an existing master plan also is on hold because of funding concerns. We hope that our gifts will be beneficial to both priorities. We would like to encourage others who are willing and able to support this fund to help assure the future of this very special place.”

The master plan, which strives to improve access, aesthetics and interpretation of the rich horticultural collection in the Longenecker Horticultural Gardens, is ready for implementation. Recognition for gifts to architectural elements, trail markings, signage and plantings are available at a variety of levels.

“There are 3,000 former students of mine out there who, I hope, feel as strongly about the preservation of this beautiful garden as I do” said Ed, who was a professor of horticulture at the UW-Madison for 33 years.

In this family, it is not just Ed who values education. Like Ed, Betty received her bachelor’s, master’s and PhD degrees from UW-Madison. As a faculty member, she taught occupational therapy and conducted research on caregiving for elderly with dementia, while also serving as editor-in-chief of The American Journal of Occupational Therapy. Now a professor emerita in the department of kinesiology, she received the Eleanor Clarke Slagle Lectureship Award, the highest scholarly honor of the profession, from the American Occupational Therapy Association in May 2005.

The couple’s daughter, Jane (’85 BS L&S, ’89 MBA), is director of U.S. and Canada Business Management for Carestream Health, Inc., and their son, John (’89 BS ENG & COMP SCI), founded Visual Networks, a successful firm that designs, manufactures and sells wide-area-network service level management systems. Ed and Betty also enjoy spending time with their two granddaughters.

Over the years of being curator, Ed has received many national and international awards, including the UW-Madison Distinguished Teaching Award, the International Lilac Society President’s Award, the Chicago Horticultural Society Linnaeus Award, the Award of Merit/Distinguished Career Award from the American Association of Botanical Gardens & Arboreta, and the 2005 Liberty Hyde Bailey Award from the American Horticultural Society. Most recently, his “Gardening Life” was featured in Horticulture magazine.

When Ed is not pruning, weeding or giving educational mini-tours at Longenecker Gardens, he is active in the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society, at Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, and the Bickelhaupt Arboretum in Clinton, Iowa. He served for nine years as a board member of the Paine Art Center and Gardens in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

When growing season is over and winter sets in, Ed spends his days working on his family genealogy, a hobby that he has pursued for more than 50 years.