Rosendale revives garden and maybe the Peony Queen

Sweet summer display, festival once attracted busloads

Posted: April 21, 2007

Dennis McCann E-MAIL

Rosendale - I had a midmorning meeting, so I left home early to allow time to poke slowly past the squad car lurking near the edge of town. When you are entering one of Wisconsin's most notorious speed traps (they actually sell T-shirts here that read "Rosendale - Just the Ticket") a few miles under the limit is plenty fast enough.

Once upon a time, though, Rosendale was known for more than police officers prone to carpal tunnel syndrome. And, if all goes as some village residents hope, maybe one day it will be again.

Sisson's Peony Gardens are back in bloom. The Peony Festival, even the crowning of a new Peony Queen, can't be far behind.

There is Earth Day, big picture, and Earth Day, small picture. This is the latter, because unlike the acres of glorious gardens that once drew thousands of visitors to Rosendale during those short, sweet June weeks that were the peony season, there is but a half-acre patch of plants now. When they bloom later this spring they will not match in color or spectacle the gardens that once delighted out-of-towners by the busload, gardens so significant they were recently added to both the state and national registers of historic places.

Isn't that something? Historic peonies? It's no wonder some were so determined to make them grow again.

Sisson's Peony Garden Photo/Rosendale Historical Society A refreshed windmill once again greets visitors to what's left of Sisson's Peony Garden in Rosendale. Wilbur Sisson planted the first of his peonies in Rosendale after he moved there in 1918.

Part of the past

I first noticed the gardens in the early 1970s while traveling from Madison to Door County and remember being faintly amused by the sign for Sisson's Peony Gardens. It's a lovely flower, yes, but a vaguely naughty word, even before you name some sweet young thing the Peony Queen.

"Well," Emajean Westphal said with a laugh when I confessed the point, "yeah. Kind of like the Pork Princess. Peony Queen."

But the gardens were a big part of Rosendale's past, and of Westphal's as well. She grew up in Rosendale and remembers playing among the peony plants as a girl.

"I knew nothing but the peony gardens because they were always here. It was like someone's backyard," she said. "It was just there."

According to a story by Lee Somerville in the latest Wisconsin Magazine of History, it was there because of Wilbur Sisson, who moved to Rosendale in 1918 to live with his sister after retiring from the telegraph office in Ripon. Wilbur brought along his peony, iris and gladiolus bulbs and planted them in his sister's lawn. Although all of those were popular plants at the time, Somerville wrote, the easy-to-grow peony "emerged as a favorite in American gardens," and many varieties were bred and sold by horticulturalists across the country.

More than a hobby

Sisson's hobby quickly grew into a thriving business. His nephew, Wilbur Lawson, and his wife, Lura, became involved as well, and the partners established nursery beds just outside of town. They presented papers at horticultural meetings, published articles in horticultural journals and began to advertise their plant varieties, all of which led to more business.

In 1928 Wilbur bought two lots adjacent to his sister's house and the gardens were expanded. A year later he took on a new assistant (and later partner and future owner), Jesse Phillips, who gave the gardens their signature piece, a stone windmill that greeted visitors at the garden gate.

And visitors there were, thousands every June, said Westphal, as Rosendale's fame spread far and wide. In 1968, Gov. Warren Knowles issued a proclamation honoring the gardens for enhancing Rosendale and the state, and even named the second week of June "Peony Week" in Wisconsin. For 15 years the community hosted the popular Peony Festival, and "there literally were thousands of people who toured the gardens," Westphal said. "Busloads came through."

But all flowers fade, even Sisson's famous peonies. After Phillips retired in 1979, the business fell into decline; the last festival was in 1982, and in 1988 the gardens closed and apartment buildings were put up on much of the land. Even the original garden was reduced to a dog run.

"It was sad," Westphal said.

And that could have been the end of the story.

First step

A few years ago, someone inquired about building a house on the site of the original garden, and while it was a narrow lot, a house could have been squeezed onto the site. That got Westphal, who is president of the local historical society, thinking.

"Oh my," was what she thought. "This is not something that should go by the wayside. So my husband and I bought it."

It was the first step in what is the ongoing saga of the rebirth of Sisson's Peony Gardens. In 2005 the surviving garden was purchased by the historical society and the restoration of the beds - with original plants that go back to Sisson's day - began. Community support proved strong, and workdays drew a small army of volunteers in response to an ad in the local paper.

"It was just amazing," said Westphal, who especially credits friends Dick and Betty Dahlke for leading the effort. "We had 24 to 25 people show up . . . some of the ex-Peony Queens showed up."

From there, she said, "it snowballed." The windmill was still there, so it was fixed up and flowers were planted at its base. To raise money for a fence around the garden, the society sold naming rights to 72 eight-foot sections, and all but 10 have been sold at $150 each.

A former resident whose father had always had the honor of crowning the Peony Queen decided to donate a gazebo in honor of her parents. It will be used in June when the village formally marks the addition of the gardens to the state and national historic registers.

"It was so rewarding," Westphal said of the effort. "People say, yeah, this is part of our history. We can't let it go."

The new garden, even in a few years when plants have had time to grow bigger and showier, won't compare to the original Sisson's Peony Gardens. Westphal worries that some who come back now will be disappointed at not finding what they remember. But give them time and the plants will be pleasing again. In three or four years, Westphal said, the village might even start hosting festivals again.

And wouldn't that be just the ticket?

Sisson's Peony Garden is on the west side of Highway 26, just north of Highway 23 in Rosendale. The dedication will take place at 2 p.m. Sunday, June 10. If you go, just watch your speed.