An Evening with Roy

On a recent speaking engagement in Illinois, I was very fortunate to reconnect with one of my early and most important horticultural mentors, plantsman Roy Klehm. Roy, 83, came from a well-known nursery family, and for most of his life, operated Klehm Nursery, Song Sparrow Farms, and later Beaver Creek Nursery in Illinois and Wisconsin. Their operations included a several hundred acre woody plant farm, as well as being one of the countries top producers of peonies, hemerocallis, and hosta.

Roy is a pioneer on so many horticultural fronts, from his breeding work to the production side of the business. Klehm Nurseries was one of the first nurseries in the country to successfully tissue culture hosta, taking them from expensive rarities to affordable plants for gardeners country wide. He worked with plant breeders to help select and introduce their creations, and when those plant breeders passed away, he would carry on their breeding projects to completion. Through his career, Roy has named and introduced a staggering, 450+ peony cultivars. Roy is also past president of the American Peony Society, and without his leadership during difficult times, the organization might not have survived.

Roy’s first visit to JLBG, was back in the early 1990s, when he showed up after dark, with one of our local plant friends, the late Jim Cooper. We spent hours that night, traversing the garden by flashlight, while talking plants. Through the years, I have had the pleasure to visit Roy and Sarah several times, always benefiting from their amazing hospitality. I’ll never forget a January visit, in the 1990s, when Roy took me on my first snowmobile ride across the nursery, in sub-zero temperatures, as we checked the nursery perimeter fences for damage. During the growing season, Roy was always up before daylight, making plant crosses on both peonies and daylilies. I’ll never forget walking the nursery in the 1980s, and stumbling on a game-changing hosta sport, that we would eventually name, Hosta ‘Tattoo’. I offered the plant to Roy, but he refused, saying that it would have been sold off to a box store, had I not spotted it.

Roy has traveled the world, and is respected by all those fortunate enough to have met him. He’s worked with Martha Stewart, and appeared on her televions show, as well as consulted with Muhammed Ali, at his home garden. He’s traversed England, with the late gardening guru, Graham Stewart Thomas, to mention but a few. Roy remains, however, one of those most humble people I’ve had the pleasure of knowing. During an amazing dinner of story telling and lifetime recollections, we were unexpectedly joined by Dutch Nursery Owner, Jack DeVroomen, who was dining in the same restaurent. Jack also had a long history with Roy, each having visited and stayed with the other. Roy shared that Jack’s 97 year old mom, still sends him Christmas cards every year. Although the Klehm Nurseries closed in 2019, Roy, and his wife of 61 years, Sarah, still live on the family farm near Chicago, where Roy still works with plants. These days, seed from his peony breeding is all donated to other breeders, or is shared with the American Peony Society.

Through the years, Roy was instrumental in helping us determine which peony cultivars were best for gardeners in hot climates, donating boxes of plants for our trials. When early spring garden visitors to JLBG, admire the nearly 40 year old giant magnolia selections throughout the garden, those were all gifts from Roy, during a time we would never have had the funds to purchase them. The Klehm Arboretum in Rockford, Illinois, which bears the family name, is just one of many testaments to the generosity of the Klehm family. It’s industy giants like Roy, who allowed us, and future generations, to continue to build on their legacy, and continue to innovate and share. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for all you’ve done.