About

Though we’ve lived in a handful of midwestern states over the years, we’re Nebraskans through and through.

Nathan grew up on a dairy farm in Northeast Nebraska. He’s a professional agronomist and certified crop adviser who works with row crops (corn, soybean, and wheat) grown by farmers. Working with plants has always been a hobby of his. He definitely knows a thing or two about growing things.

Ashley grew up in a one-stoplight town in South Central Nebraska. She’s a social scientist with a background in agricultural education and leadership, and she’s a grants program officer for a federal agency. She’s always had an affinity for nostalgic plants like lilacs, peonies, clematis, and iris. For her, it’s the stories and memories behind plants draw her in.

After a move to Lincoln in early 2020 and spending a lot of time in our new home during the pandemic with our two sons, we undertook a huge landscaping project. Our love for lilacs was born. In 2023 we decided to make it official: We became dues-paying members of the International Lilac Society (ILS) and upon the invitation, we joined the ILS Preservation Committee. Prior to joining ILS, we had casually enjoyed the Arbor Lodge State Historical Park (SHP) lilac collection, even collecting our own informal data on it in 2022. The International Lilac Society’s co-chair of the Preservation Committee crowd-sourced for assistance with this collection through the ILS Facebook page in January 2023, and we answered the call. The rest, you could say, is history.

Since 2023, we’ve proudly served as the volunteer curators of the Arbor Lodge SHP lilac collection, Nebraska’s largest public lilac collection. Over the past few years, we’ve worked with the Arbor Day Farm team to restore the lilac collection. We give public tours of the collection during bloom time. And when the lilacs aren’t in bloom, you’ll likely find us out there pruning and planting lilacs, doing our best to keep the lilac specimens free of weeds, and catching up with our four-legged friends and their favorite humans.

Creating and maintaining beautiful spaces is our passion. In addition to being ILS members, we are also Lincoln Iris Society members. Our private garden features over 30 lilacs and numerous iris and peonies, many of which are from the Sass family, well-known Nebraska horticultural plant breeders.