Flowers took second place at a special garden party, held June 5 on the Great Lawn of Arsht Hall on the University's Wilmington Campus.
The guest of honor for the evening was Helen Eliason, a volunteer who has worked tirelessly to restore the Goodstay Gardens and to join it by a connecting landscape design to Arsht Hall and its grounds. She serves as co-chair of the Friends of Goodstay Gardens.
The evening's festivities were hosted by David and Louise Roselle and the Friends of the Goodstay Gardens.
In remarks at the party, Roselle announced that more than $300,000 had been raised in support of the Friends of Goodstay Gardens.
"Special thanks for what has truly been a cooperative effort certainly go to the Friends Steering Committee, to the Academy of Lifelong Learning, to area garden clubsÐmost notably the Garden Club of Wilmington, and to numerous elected officials," Roselle said.
The Garden Club of Wilmington, Roselle said, took a leadership role in restoring the reflecting pool at the gardens, in honor of Ellen du Pont Wheelwright, one of the original creators of what are now the Goodstay Gardens.
Calling Eliason "one of the leading advocates of gardening in the city of Wilmington," Roselle said she was determined to raise the consciousness of the University and the community about the historic and cultural treasure it had in Goodstay Gardens, which was originally planted in the early 19th century.
He called Eliason an "amateur" in the word's original sense: "someone who pursues an activity or field of study purely for the love of it.É And, make no mistake about it, Helen Eliason is a lover of gardens," he said.
"There's an oft-quoted proverb that goes: 'A little fragrance always clings to the hand that gives you the rose,'" Roselle said. "In Helen's case, that fragrance also includes irises and magnolias and peonies and begonias and tulips and daffodilsÐto name only a few. She has given us all so much."
Eliason also was presented with a photographic collage, showing her at work in Goodstay Gardens. The collage was created by Barbara Broge, information technologies/media services, and the photographs were taken by Jack Buxbaum and Robert Cohen, public relations.
Attending the event were approximately 300 individuals, including members of the Friends of Goodstay Gardens and donors to its capital campaign.
The Friends of Goodstay Gardens was organized in 1992 to assist the University in restoring and maintaining the Goodstay Gardens, among the oldest gardens in Delaware. The gardens were planned in American Tudor style with boxwood hedges and gravel paths surrounding floral beds, a magnolia walk and a reflecting pool. The group provided a new water system, renovated the small, octagonal Apple House as a visitors center, helps maintain the plants and offers guided tours of the gardens, which are free and open to the public.