Alumni Memories

Kimberly Louise Davis

Horticulture, B.S., 1979

There are many wonderful memories of Iowa State in my mind. Thoughts of Iowa State attendance were planted there by my grandfather who studied architecture when it was Ames College (1912) and then both my parents attended when it was Iowa State College (1950), my dad in engineering and my mom in home economics. My father's job was for the airlines and I lived a lot of places when I was growing up, but when it came time for college, I was going to attend Iowa State to be close to my grandparents who all lived in Ottumwa, Iowa. My freshman year was interesting when I was hit by hay fever that I had never experienced before and walking across campus on freezing, -20 degree F days when I was sure that classes should be canceled!

Some of my favorite memories revolved around being in the Horticulture Club. At the time, we met in the upstairs of Old Botany. We could pull the trap door down and climb up the stairs to the attic. One of our jobs was to pack and sort what was in the attic before renovations started on the building. There were hundreds of old glass beakers, test tubes, etc that had to be packed. It was like going back one hundred years, being surrounded by the old laboratory equipment. We used to study up there and I remember even being able to walk out on the roof of Old Botany on a nice day and admiring the beautiful campus laid out before me.

One of my best experiences was being the Veishea chairperson for the Horticulture Club in 1978-1979. During Veishea, the Horticulture Club would have a huge plant sale of bedding plants and hanging plants. We would start planning a year before with seed catalogs and deciding what would be sold for the next year, Homecoming (mums), Valentine's Day (tulips and hyacinths) and Veishea (bedding plants, geraniums and hanging fuchsias). The spring of 1978, we ordered all the seeds, bulbs and cuttings that we would need for the next school year. When it was time for school in the fall of 1978, the seeds and cuttings were delivered. There was an entire greenhouse that was dedicated to the Horticulture Club for the purpose of getting hands-on experience in raising plants from seed to sold. So, we got to work getting the greenhouse and plants ready for the 1978-1979 school year. Mums were sold in October and bulb plants in February in the rotunda area of Beardshear Hall.

When January 1979 came, it was my job to be in charge of the greenhouse. All the seeds were planted for the bedding plants and the cuttings started in their pots and hanging baskets. Every day of the week from January until Veishea in May, I would be at the greenhouse, monitoring the watering, fertilizing and growth of all the plants. During the frigid cold months, it was a nice warm place to hang out. I would always enter the greenhouses through the tropical plant greenhouse at the front where you could wind through all the display plants. The smell of the earth and the feel of the humidity in the greenhouses were reassuring and I knew that I had arrived.

Over the days and weeks as the plants all grew, it became a riot of color in the greenhouse. It was like a jungle. I would often have beautiful bouquets of geraniums that I had pinched off to encourage more bud growth on the plants. I will never forget the peace of working in the greenhouse surrounded by all the color and wonderful scents of the flowers. Many fun times were spent working with other members of the Horticulture Club helping to get the plants ready for sale. The weekend of Veishea dawned and we worked very hard setting up a tent by the greenhouses and getting organized to sell all the plants that would give the club funds for another year.

The weather was beautiful and our customers (who waited for the Veishea plant sale every year) enjoyed the great variety of plants available for sale. The bedding plants were gone in no time. We had some unusual types of geraniums and those were grabbed up quickly, too. As a whole, the members of the club had a great weekend working in our tent booth and it was also successful financially. All that was left to do was clean up the greenhouse and type up the notes on what had been accomplished. A great end to a great year and a great college experience!

I have often thought about Iowa State since graduating in 1979. My friends that I have made for life, dorm life, sorority life, Dog Town, the professors, my exciting biochemistry and botany classes and enjoying the beautiful campus. In August 1979, my husband and I were married on campus and had our fairytale wedding reception at the Memorial Union, so Iowa State is immortalized in many of my important pictures. It was a wonderful place to learn and grow and make memories. Hopefully, the tradition of Iowa State will go on for another 150 years!