Dave Patsche is the quiet one, an introvert who switched from majoring in math to studying horticulture because of the beauty, and solitude, of working with flowers.
Margaret Yeakel-Twum is the talker, an extrovert who was drawn to "easy" horticulture only to be confronted with required courses in biochemistry, genetics and plant biology. "Boy, was I mistaken," she laughed.
Both are retiring after decades as gardeners at the Como Park Conservatory. Patsche, who nurtured flowering plants in the lush Sunken Garden, ended 35 years with a quiet lunch among friends in a backroom Wednesday. Yeakel-Twum, who cared for the North Garden and would sometimes step out front to chat with visitors, ended two decades at Como on April 28.
Both, Como officials say, will be sorely missed.
"They really know what the plants need," said Paul Knuth, horticulture supervisor. "How do you replace two old-school horticulturists? You don't."
Patsche, Knuth said, was the first horticulturist at Como with a four-year degree. Yeakel-Twum was only the third woman gardener to work there. "Most of the horticulturists now are women," Knuth said.
Over the decades, they forged expertise in glass-enclosed backrooms. Patsche, who grew up in St. Paul, has designed more than 200 shows since 1983. He started loving flowers watching his mom create flower designs, and his work in the Sunken Garden is alive with color and scent.
"I liked it because I prefer the low-key," Patsche said. "It was a working with plants, not necessarily working with people, job."
Fittingly, the gregarious Yeakel-Twum, originally from Texas, wound up in the North Garden where plants that have a use for people — food, medicine, spices — are grown. Over the years, she also cared for orchids and the infamous "corpse flower" — and admitted often slipping "out front" to chat up Conservatory visitors.
"I wanted to do unique and individual plants," she said. She retired to care for her adult daughter, who has brain cancer.
As parked school buses surrounded the Conservatory Wednesday and children with parents in tow scrambled through and around the grounds, the longtime gardeners said they felt a keen responsibility to maintain the beauty of Minnesota's garden, the state's greenhouse. Even if they were seldom seen.
Home to weddings and special events and a sanctuary of warmth in dark Minnesota winters, the Conservatory was a special place to work, they said, even if the often demanding job left their 62-year-old bodies feeling more aches than they used to.
"We tried to keep it looking as good as we could," Patsche said.
And now? He has things to get done around his and his parents' houses. And Yeakel-Twum? For the first time, she said, she's gardening at home.
"I kind of like it," she said. "It's kind of fun."
James Walsh • 651-925-5041
