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Acceptance Speech
Olga
Petryszyn, Valparaiso, IN
(Appearing
as presented at the AHS Convention Banquet June 2013)
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everyone. I AM
JUMPING FOR JOY. Thank
you, The American
Hosta Society and those
on the nominating committee. This
honor
should really go out to all of you who continue to support the genus
hosta.
We all have a
passion inside of us. Over
the last 27 years I have been blessed to
live, to honor, and express myself through hybridizing.
Here you’ll see some of my
creations:
Hosta ‘All That Jazz’,
‘Coal Miner’, ‘Dawn’s
Early Light’, ‘Golden Gate’, ‘Gone With the Wind’, ‘Great Plains’, ‘Key
West’,
‘Manhattan’, ‘Old Faithful’, ‘Mardi Gras’, ‘Mount Baldy’, ‘Tobacco
Road’, &
‘Yosemite Valley’.
Sparks created by
events and people in
our lives grab our attention at a very early age. Events
that we never forget. My
plant passion started as a child. If
I may, I’d like to share some of my past,
so you can get to know me a little better. My
mother, Anna, and father, John, were hard
working immigrants from the Ukraine. They
were captured as prisoners of war and forced into slave labor camps in
Germany.
They
lost their first child, Irene, and
had a second child, Stefan, at the war's end. My
family of three was sponsored by a Mennonite
couple to be brought to the United States and given work on their farm
in
Illinois. The
Albrecht’s loved to say ‘everything is a
discovery’. I
was born
soon after. Here I
learned a lot about
growing and nature.
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Olga's
Plants
‘All
that
Jazz’
‘Blue
Hawaii'
‘Brother
Stefan’
‘Champaign
Taste’
‘Chesapeake
Bay’
‘Coal
Miner’
‘Continental
Divide’
‘Dawn's
Early Light’
‘Dune
Boy’
‘Gitchigumi’
‘Golden
Gate’
‘Gone
with the Wind’
‘Gotham’
‘Grand
Canyon’
‘Great
Plains’
‘Hoosier
Dome’
‘Key
West’
‘Manhattan’
‘Mardi
Gras’
‘Mississippi
Delta’
‘Niagara
Falls’
‘Old
Faithful’
‘Tobacco
Road’
‘Viva
Las
Vegas’
‘Yosemite
Valley’
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It did not take long
for father to move
us to the big city of Chicago and live the
American Dream. Father
was a shoemaker and
Mother a
seamstress.
My brother was soon
charged with extra
responsibility when father died at the young age of
thirty-four. Mother
barely spoke English
and carried two
jobs, keeping up with a mortgage on a two flat they had just purchased.
Yet
mom and I spent time in the vegetable
garden. Soon I
graduated to tend the
flower garden, learning about weeds first. My
real excitement was the seeds. It
was the seeds that held the promise for the
flowers that I loved to share. I
did
neighborhood chores for the ladies on our block to earn seed money. Seeds were planted
everywhere I could find
space. Does that
sound familiar? Careful
attention was paid to the earthworm,
the pollinating bees and butterflies, the colors, the scents, the
sounds of the
frogs and even the death. These
were my
sparks. Mother’s
teachings added to my
passion for growing things and sharing.
My brother was
always there to keep my
out of harms way and be with me to celebrate special
occasions. He’d give
up a chance to
play ball with his
friends to sit with me through yet another game of Cootie or Monopoly
when I
was sick. He never
complained. When I
was old enough, I played softball with
his buddies and none of them dared to make fun of me. After
church we were made to pose for yucky
photographs. Mom
was proud of us in our
good clothes that she made. More
occasions passed … Holy Communion, graduation, prom and we even double
dated
with his boyfriends. My
son John has an
influential Uncle to look up to.
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Stef went on to the
East Coast becoming a
successful aeronautical engineer and did amazing things to protect our
country.
He
volunteers to teach under privileged
children about engineering, supports special needs groups and is on
educational
boards. My parents,
brother and family
sponsors, the Albrechts, were my early mentors, honoring the U.S. of A.
This
is the reason for my Americana Series of
Hosta.
Mom passed away at
the age of fifty. My
darling son John was four. Then
my first Hosta mentors came into my life,
Bill Brincka and Basil Cross. I
had
known Bill as one of my instructors at the School of the Art Institute
of
Chicago. After
spending time working and
playing in their Indiana garden, I was convinced to move to Indiana as
well. When I fell
in love with the hosta plants,
Bill taught me how to hybridize them. I
used their plants to hybridize and even planted seeds that were on
hostas that
Mildred Seaver sent to them. I
dreamt of
crosses and collected seeds that were planted in my basement over
winters. My heart
burst with excitement when they came
to life. My fond
childhood feelings were
back. My patience
taught me to wait many
years before the final cull and choice. |
| Olga & Stefan Petryszyn |
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Just last weekend my
friend, Hans Hansen,
emailed this picture. A
2000 cross of a
Herbaceous Peony with a Tree Peony. Patience
of 12 years rewarded him with this beautiful flower. Patience
is key, a tough thing to teach in
today’s world.
In 1990, Bill and
Basil came to my garden
and gaped when standing in front of 'Niagara Falls'. Bill
said, ‘THAT HOSTA IS GOING TO PUT YOU ON
THE MAP’. He was
clairvoyant that way. Basil
named it.
Life with
them was always a party, and I
really miss them. Again
my sparks flew
to fuel my underlying passion to grow beauty in honor of my family and
the
United States of America.
2004
brought a
wonderful change. The
love of my life, Lew Myers, and I were
married. Basil
created a beautiful
garden wedding for us. Lew
was pretty
surprised when he saw my sea of hostas. I
will never forget when he first saw all the raised beds and asked, ‘Are
all
these yours?’ There
was momentary panic.
He
helps with all the heavy work. Strength
is good. If I need
a hole dug for a monster-sized
hosta, I have to stop him before he digs to China. I
could never thank him enough for his
unwavering love.
Hosta lovers are so
willing and kind. They
absorb information and have a passion to
share and give in the name of Friendship first and the Hosta second. There are so many jewels of
tips and ideas,
even cupcake recipes you go home with.
I love seeing
hybridizers blossom. When
judging shows, I see how a hybridizers
line of work is taking shape like the Stegeman’s. It’s
wonderful to see a friend win at the head
table like the Schroeder’s. I
just saw
on Facebook a picture posted by Mike Groothuis. I
was privileged to be one of his mentors. It
was a seedling he got from me 21 years ago
that he uses in his breeding program. How
about that. Someone
said it looked like
thunderheads. Mike
is creating some
amazing hostas.
Hybridizing
has
taken a quantum leap, so far
ahead from when I started. If
you wanted
a new hosta you had to see what letter came in the mail, probably from
Hatfield
Gardens. It was
Xerox copy, no pictures and
you paid a great deal for them. This
was
before tissue culture.
Laughter is
infectious among gardeners. It
must be something about all the green that
makes you feel good. Let’s
see if you
recognize some great gardeners and mentors. (I’ll
continue the pictures as I go on.) |
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Mother,
Olga, Stefan |
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Best
Friends - Lew and Olga |
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Last year at a real
estate open house my
cell phone rang. Ducking
around the
corner I hear Jeff Miller at the other end. ‘I
just had to call you and thank you for the
hostas you are giving us.’ Facebook
pages are filled with statements to me like ‘You are a good friend and
mentor
who truly steered me in the right direction over the years, pushing me
to
fulfill my interest in hybridizing’. Another
was ‘You gave me the tools and know how to do it right and I ran with
it, even
though you may not realize you did’. Or,
‘We are all benefactors of your hard work as is the entire plant
world’. Wow.
I say no, it’s YOU
WHO ARE DOING AMAZING
THINGS. Tears fill
my eyes to think that
you see me as a muse and mentor. I
challenge and encourage all hybridizers and gardeners to reach out and
see who
shows signs of the spark. Embrace
them
and share. Start
them early. That is
your responsibility in the
perpetuation of the lowly Funkia who became the beautiful Hosta Swan.
Tonight
I’m asked to name my favorite hosta. Even
though as hybridizers we know how
difficult this is, I did not hesitate to think of who I carry in my
heart. The one who
is named for my favorite mentor,
my all American Hero and brother. I
name
and honor H. ‘Brother Stefan’. |
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| H. 'Brother Stefan' |
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