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INSIDE ARCHIVE


Marketing and
University Communication
UW-Green Bay, CL 815
2420 Nicolet Drive
Green Bay, WI 54311-7001
(920) 465-2214

E-mail: matzken@uwgb.edu

Rev. May 13, 2008

 

Business blooms for Eco U era grad

When winter’s white has gardeners dreaming of the rainbow colors still to come, Marty Schaefer, Class of 1972, has them looking to Siberians.

Siberian irises, that is. The showy perennials are the specialty of Joe Pye Weed’s Garden, the mail-order plant nursery Schaefer runs with partner Jan Sacks in Carlisle, Mass.

The couple has won national awards for hybridizing Siberians, the slender, elegant and, arguably, easier-to-grow cousins to the bearded iris.

Schaefer made his first cross in 1985 and was soon contributing to his field’s “how-to” literature. Breeding for attractive new color combinations and ruffling, he and Sacks won the top Siberian iris prize in 1999 for Roaring Jelly, a bloom of purple and mauve with yellow veins. Other winners — Careless Sally, Riverdance and Ships are Sailing — soon followed.

At UW-Green Bay, Schaefer’s home was the communication-action concentration. His major research project — establishing and promoting an organic garden near campus (left) — was in keeping with the new University’s environmental mission.

That garden also foreshadowed his eventual career choice. Joe Pye Weed’s Garden (named for the widely known wildflower) also involves wholesale and flowershop sales in addition to the catalog business. Their website is www.jpwflowers.com/.

Click here to download a PDF file of the entire May 2008 issue of Inside magazine.